The addiction-centric archetypes associated with “Mad Men”’s Don Draper (Jon Hamm) have been consistent over the series’ seven-season run. In the pilot, viewers learned that Don drank, smoked and was unfaithful. Over several dozen episodes, they realized those habits – booze, cigarettes and sex – were embedded in the man’s sinews. And that these activities […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’ (2015): ‘The Archetypal Significance of Betty Draper’s Death’
May 11, 2015 by
‘Mad Men’’s penultimate episode was titled “The Milk and Honey Route,” evoking a place or time where the sweetness of creation coalesces into a destination of fragrant bounty. Instead, the x-ray of Betty Draper’s (January Jones) aggressive, terminal lung cancer only suggested piles of gray, foul-smelling cigarette ashes contaminating the notion of paradise. Archetypally, though, […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’: Peggy Takes Back Her Projections
May 4, 2015 by
Last night’s episode of “Mad Men” was aptly titled “Lost Horizon.” Visually conjuring up an inability to pinpoint where the sky ends and the sea begins, the image is about fuzziness which, when applied to the lives of this series’ characters, amounts to an existential blur. But from what just transpired in this episode, that’s […]
Archetypes: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’ (2015): Jung’s Unlived Life of the Parent
April 6, 2015 by
“Severance,” the first of “Mad Men”’s final episodes, refers to the financial exit package for Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton), newly fired from SC&P. The timing is eerie, because just the other day Ken had seriously addressed both his disenchantment with his industry and his lack of time to pursue his literary talent. Because he has […]
Astrology: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’ Season 7 Mid-Finale: Lunar Mentoring
May 26, 2014 by
Much has been written about CEOs who simply don’t want to leave their perch atop the corporate ladder. Professionally speaking, they’ve captured the Moon and damn if they’ll release the prize to someone else. Which explains why mentoring is so tricky. If a CEO mentors someone, it’s a tacit admission that someone is in line […]
Astrology: Television: Review: ‘Mad Men’: Motherhood and the Battered Moon
May 12, 2014 by
In a sly move, “Mad Men” broadcast its “Runaways” episode on Mother’s Day, a holiday which, as far back as the 1960s, began to give women pause. Turns out, “Runaways” was full of mother references, evoking the archetypal Moon – Luna – and its derived word, “lunacy.” It’s no coincidence that 1970 was the release […]
Astrology: Fashion: Pocket Squares on ‘Mad Men’
April 28, 2014 by
Don Draper has always prided himself on running the show, even when his baser drives have been the instruments steering his car. So the final moments of last night’s episode of “Mad Men,” as SC&P’s partners deliver to Don the terms of employment he must accept to be re-absorbed into the fold of his agency, […]
Astrology: Fashion: Peggy Olson’s Beret in ‘Mad Men’
April 14, 2014 by
Just about anyone who’s ever worn a beret – okay, berét for you purists – has all but marked their foreheads with the words “I Am An Artist.” It’s head gear quirkily worn at an angle, as if proclaiming that one’s thought processes and self-expression are delightfully skewed off center. Which makes Peggy Olson’s (Elisabeth […]
Astrology: Television: ‘Mad Men’: Don Plays Pluto and Takes Sylvia to Hades
May 13, 2013 by
Could Don Draper’s hostage-taking of Sylvia, his mistress, have been an unconscious plan to get her to end their affair? Given his warped sexual appetite and taste for Pluto control, yes, it was. At the beginning of the episode, “Man with a Plan,” Don (Jon Hamm), in his apartment building’s elevator, has overheard Sylvia (Linda […]
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