Was she? She was enjoying being part of this new world and being pretty good at it, but happy? She barely got anything out of the success of her beans ad. I don't see how one could go from being "very happy" to depressed just because someone tells you to follow your old dream, even if it's your father. To me, the quitting and career change were an inevitability. Her father merely accelerated the process so that she doesn't try to jump back into it 10 years too late like Betty with modeling.
It wasn't that she was happy. She wasn't trying to be happy. And remember what Don said about happiness.
Initially Megan gave up on the acting dream given her lack of success and worked at the ad firm. She actually was happy and joyfully trotting to the office with Don everyday. She was accomplishing things at work too. Only when her Father suggested she was a sell out and that she choose a bourgeois lifestyle did she do an about face to please her Father. I truly wonder how much she was committed to the idea of being an actress when she gave up on it and settled for working in an office. Don gave her a chance to be a creative person. That's rare in the business world and she seemed to be enjoying it. Another important consideration is that sometimes one needs to be a realist. It's good to be persistent, but if your efforts continually end in failure, perhaps it's time to rethink your goals.
Her depression comes about from the constant rejections at casting calls. I think it's realistic. Clearly she's been at it for several months. If you have a parent or a loved one that believes what you are doing is a disappointment or a sell out of your ideals and you value that person's opinions or seek to please them, that disapproval could well be quite devastating.
Saw this in the NY Times (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/mad-men-watch-at-seasons-end-alone-again/?ref=arts) and noticed that I had missed the correlation to Megan in what Don said to Peggy: There's also an interview with Weiner on that site as well.
I think this is especially poignant considering Megan clearly has some daddy issues. She married her boss, after all!
Getting her first gig through Don has its obvious issues, but I kinda appreciated Megan pulled a dick move and hijacked her friend's request.
I liked this season more than last yr's, and quite possibly it is one of my favorites of the entire series.
So: 1. Was the reel bad? 2. Was the reel good? 3. Did Don like it? 4. Did Don hate it? Made no sense to me.
I don't think good or bad was the issue - I think it commoditized her in Don's mind. She was now just another girl auditioning for him...........and, of course, that's the same way he met Betty.
Exactly -- it was pretty ambiguous. And I think other comments about her being a bad actress are unfounded as well. We've clearly been given no reliable indication of her talent, other than her not getting a job--which I'm not going to take as proof one way or another. But the reel was lovely. And as Nice mentioned, it took her out of the day-to-day for Don and placed her in the realm of make believe -- cut to Megan in a fairy tale costume. Don sells feelings and ideals. And this episode seemed to say, that's what he's most comfortable with at home.
I don't get it. Why did Don get her the part? Because he thought she'd be good at it? Because he wanted to make her happy? Because he thought she had been fooling him? Clearly "the reel" was meant to change his mind. For a season that spent so much time being overly transparent, I find it a bit disingenuous to have such a pivotal moment be completely opaque.
I don't think it's as problematic as you think it is. However you interpret the scene, what's clear is that their relationship has changed over the course of the season. From Slate's roundtable: Her pursuit of happiness and independence has made her less happy and more dependent.
This seems like a lose-lose for Megan's character. Whenever she's shown independence, it has pissed off Don. He whisked her away to the Howard Johnson's trip on a whim, and she was angry because she had work to do and he didn't ask her. He wanted her to try the sherbert and she didn't want to try the sherbert and he left her there. She planned to go out of town for an acting job, and he flipped out. Yet she loses her independence by having him get her a job, and this completely diminishes her in his eyes. Although I have to say, when she saved the Heinz account out of her own noggin--I believe she came up with the ad campaign and figured out they were about to be fired--he was over the moon with her. I guess that's why he's been so pissed off at her turning her back on SCDP, because he had this one perfect moment and then it was gone.
Also, Don lost Peggy. So the two most important women in Don's life left the business side of his life. I truly believe that Don will sleep with other women. Megan can thank her stupid father for putting ideas into her head. Megan could have had a very creative and successful life at the firm. Don does not see her as being special. That illusion is lost forever now. That sense of working as teammates and partners is over. It's slowly been stripped and removed starting with the conversaton at the award party. Once Megan decided to persue her Dad's dream, her marriage to Don was doomed. As the distance grows between them, I have no doubt Don will have no use for her in the coming months. First Megan left the firm, then Peggy.
Yes - I actually meant "creative force" as in Ginsberg specifically. With Peggy gone, he's the brightest creative mind on SCDP's staff, but he'll never have the relationship that Don and Peggy had. They're not going to bond over an all-night concepting session for Samsonite, you know?
That client meeting with Ginsberg was odd--because I totally agreed with the client's opinion that "Never Cheap" was a terrible phrase to include in a tagline. From a branding perspective, you don't define yourself in the negative and you don't put in words that will create a bad association, even if it's prefaced with 'never' or 'not.' I also didn't think Ginsberg had the credibility so soon to go off on a client like that. Don and Ginsberg however both seemed pretty adamant that it was a good campaign. But I can't tell if that's supposed to be indicative of Don still not on his A-game, or maybe I'm just flat wrong.
John Lewis - "Never knowingly undersold". I don't like the line, but they've been a pretty successful UK retailer for many decades with it. http://www.johnlewis.com/Magazine/Feature.aspx?Id=517