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Monday, April 2, 2012

Whoa Fat Betty... : Mad Men Writers Address January Jones' Real Life Pregnancy in 'Tea Leaves'





Well folks, it’s BACK. After 17 months of complaining (and binge drinking to fill the void that Roger Sterling and Don Draper left us with) Mad Men has finally returned to our screens! I decided to not write anything about the first episode because I wanted time to get back in the saddle and merely observe the awesomeness that is Don Draper’s world. But now that I’ve had some time to sober up…and now that Betty has made quite the appearance…well I just couldn’t keep a lid on it!

After the first episode I was perplexed as to why we hadn’t seen Betty yet. Even though Betty Draper- ahem, Francis - is a (and I’m sure we can all agree on this) dreadful human being, she is still someone I absolutely love to watch. I find Betty fascinating, and I admit I kind of revel in her misery at times (okay maybe I’m the dreadful human being, but seriously, a woman who’s best parenting technique is “go watch TV” kind of deserves some harsh treatment).  Because of my love/hate relationship with her character, I was kind of sad to see that she didn’t even make an appearance in the season premier. And as if that wasn’t enough, Betty wasn’t even in the PREVIEW for the next episode! That didn’t sit well with me…and it didn’t sit well with my friends either…so we tried to figure out what in the hell was going on.


One of my best friends theorized that perhaps they weren’t showing Betty because of a physical change. At the time we thought it might have been because Betty had dyed her hair brown to look like Megan…and I mean that makes sense right? What woman in her right mind (or even in her crazy Betty Draper mind) wouldn’t want to win Don Draper back? But boy, what ended up happening I did not see coming at all…which is pretty remarkable considering the size of the situation (sorry I had to).  Betty was physically different, but not because of a bad dye job. No, instead Betty appeared different because…well frankly the woman looked like she had eaten a cow.  


I totally understand why the writers chose to have Betty gain an insane amount of weight - January Jones was pregnant during the time of filming, and clearly they did not want to write another child into the show. So rather than having her hide her baby bump (which many television shows do with pregnant actresses), the writers instead created a huge storyline involving Betty and the possibility of thyroid cancer. I definitely think this was an interesting twist, but I’m not completely sure how I feel about it. I’m all for having Betty understand that beauty isn’t everything…but to turn this into a huge storyline focused on Betty’s newfound weight gain and the possibility of cancer? I feel like they already have enough mental issues with that woman, but I don’t know, maybe that’s just me. I’d like to hear what you think. Do you think this was an extremely creative way for the writers to accommodate Jones’ real life pregnancy…or do you think this storyline is a bit…bigger than it needs to be (yes, okay I’ll try to stop with the ridiculous puns)? Chime in below.


Oh and on a side note- who is surprised that Megan is still around?? I for one thought she’d be gone by the start of this season…but it’s not looking like she’ll be exiting stage left anytime soon…


3 comments:

  1. Yeah it was weird how much they focused on Betty's weight. I liked that they used January Jones' pregnancy as part of the show rather than just trying to hide it with clothes and props like other shows.

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  2. Na its good storyline, she will have to deal with issues from her childhood (being fat) and her modelling career (self worth based on being skinny) so hopefully see some character development or breakdown or something. I think good potential

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