Ugh! Why is it so hard to just enjoy things!?!?!?
And there you have the underlying theme of just about every character on the show. Why can’t Don Draper learn to enjoy his Norman-Rockwellian home life and picture perfect family? Why is Joan so obviously unhappy about being engaged? Roger Sterling certainly isn’t happy for her? Pete Campbell? Not much happiness in his camp, either. Salvatore should be able to happily enjoy his lifestyle, right? ‘Duck’ doesn’t like working for this small advertising agency, anymore. Peggy isn’t happy by any stretch of the imagination. Betty Draper thinks she’s happy every now and then, and then Don spends the night in the city or rolls his car into a ditch …ya know …things-wives-don’t-like. You see? Everyone finds it very hard to ‘just enjoy things.’ Its heartbreaking and sad, but there’s a small part of all of us that identifies with this internal struggle. Not many of us have soul crushing heartache like these characters, but we all come and go, every day, saying ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you doing’ to people we live with, work with, and pass on the streets, but most of us don’t really care. We have our own battles to fight. There’s never enough money at the end of the month. We live in cities that are, by all accounts, quite boring and typical. We discuss the weather and stuff we saw on TV, but deep down there’s this yearning to live a life like Don Draper – wealth, glamour, and power in Manhattan. But, even those who seemingly live ‘perfect lives’ don’t necessarily have it perfect.
Mad Men never ends quietly, either. It punches you in the gut. Sunday was no exception as Don came home to a beautiful family and a hot dinner, arm in a sling, black eye serving as a souvenir to bad choices, and Betty serves him a meal with no salt. “Why can’t Daddy have salt,” his daughter asks? Betty replies, “Because we love him.” The look on Don Draper’s face says it all. Punch …in …the gut.
Why is it so hard to just enjoy things.
