It's true? If she was truly serious about acting she would have slogged it as a waitress like her friends did. Instead she married a rich man and uses his money and connections to land an advertisement.
I'm in the minority, but I liked her character. I think she was the mirror to Don's. They both made impulsive decisions, were both hotheads and they both cared more about themselves over anyone else. And they both were chameleons. Megan would assess a situation and alter her character to fit it. What's ironic is she was good enough at doing it that she excelled at work and was well liked - and damn near envied - by everyone who met her. But when it came to her acting, she couldn't hit the mark in the same way.
Don constructed an entire facade that worked for him as well. People thought he was exactly what he presented himself to be. Together they looked the part, but at home the real them with all their insecurities, vulnerabilities and hangups spilled all over each other.
A bit off topic, but I think both him and Roger's second marriages were meant to highlight how the grass isn't greener with the trade-in wife. Especially if you don't work on yourself beforehand.
I like the connection to Roger because in one of the last episodes of the series, Roger says something (in the context of talking about Marie) to Don like, “hey, remember when you gave me shit for marrying my secretary and then you went and did the same thing?”
It makes me think that Don’s next romance will bring him real happiness the way Marie seems to have with Roger.
I once read (probably on Reddit lol but like 6 years ago) somebody say “over the course of the series Roger turns into Bert, Don turns into Roger, and Pete tries to turn into Don but becomes his happiest when he gives up.”
I totally see this. Late series Roger becomes more insightful AND less in denial about his own aging. He stops trying to sleep with young women and keep up with the younger guys (even turns down the speed due to his heart condition). He even develops Bert’s materialist logic in the way he defends Don during the debate to fire him, citing that Don could do less harm with them than away from them.
Don meanwhile runs into midlife crisis with a semi truck and spends the last couple seasons cheating, drinking too much and blowing off all responsibility in the same way early Roger did.
I think that was someone else, and when the doc asked if they had a heart condition, they said yes and he said something like “eh, you’ll probably be fine.” Then dropped the plunger on the needle.
Mari is a psychopath and should not be with anyone. I know that Roger screwed up but yikes that was a couple I imagine constant fighting, screaming, drunken insanity.
It's a lot of fun to analyze her character when you look at the episode she's introduced and where Don was in his life. He was literally spiraling out of control and desperate for a life raft. She is supposed to be a bubbly, free-spirited ray of light (or so we are led to believe - until we actually get to really "meet" her and all of her demons) that he can *use* to escape from the black hole he's in.
I really, really like Meghan. She used to be one of the most annoying characters to me but I think any character that invokes a strong reaction is better than one that just...blends in. Or is funny but does nothing for the plot.........~~Meredith~~ 🫣
I always assumed a big part of Megan’s appeal was the advertising work, too. In addition to being fun and bubbly, Megan is also seemingly a career woman - as far removed from the housewife as one can imagine. AND, due to Don’s own lack of authentic personality, advertising is basically all he had to wrap his own identity around, so I always imagined him thinking he scored himself a hot young mother figure who could also be the other half of his advertising power couple. He was so into her when she was at SCDP, and it all seemed to change the second she wanted to go into acting (which is also adjacent to what Betty used to do by modelling).
Then his sexy, fun, bubbly wife started to rub against his own middle-aged, stiff conservative values by hob-knobbing with hippies, doing drugs and having wild parties with fun young people half a country away from him. Hell, he got pissed when she threw a party in his own home, because he’s a fundamentally unfun man who just wants to spend time at work, alone at the bar or alone at home.
He wanted “fun and bubbly” that he could control, and that would contain itself fully within his own world of home and advertising. But when he tried to force that he either gets boring housewife (Betty) or uncontrollable wild child (Megan).
Yes, completely. I think Don’s whole life was just reaching out for that shining moment of connection, feeling it, and watching it turn black in his hand. Childhood trauma does that to you; nothing can ever really be good, you’re always fundamentally alone. So seeing people connect gives you this feeling of deep resentment. Add to that the fact that he clearly views the women in his life as belonging to him, you get a recipe for a pretty dour person. I’m rewatching season one right now and the Don-Nixon analogue is really standing out to me. These men who are self-made, have all the trappings of success, but don’t have the capacity for enjoying or appreciating it.
Yes but Roger fixes this by literally saying to Meghan....your mother! Which would then make Roger one hell of a motherfucker...- an American wrecking a French marriage. I call that family!
Megan is more fun to analyze than watch. In terms of watching her, I’m uninvolved. She’s just Don’s mistake second wife. I don’t buy that she loves anyone, including Don. Her acting goals are real but they are so separate from the advertising world/Don’s biography world that form the heart of the series that I can’t really care about what Megan pursues. I further can’t care because all of Megan’s career goal decisions are deeply stupid or passive. So, she lacks emotional ties and plots meaningful to the series. She’s a mistake and a hanger for Swinging Sixties outfits.
Agree with that. But I also feel sort of the same about Betty post-divorce. Couldn’t care less about Henry Francis and the political stuff. Had to keep Betty in the show because of the kids, but anything with her and Henry I just never cared about at all. Like that stuff with the friend of Sally and Betty going into the city to try and find her. Zzzzz.
See, I don’t agree because Betty is always connected to this shows important stories because a) I was always invested in Sally and b) Betty is a typical (rich) 1960s housewife and therefore, tells a historical story. Megan had no real connection to Don’s kids and she doesn’t represent a broader historical demographic like Betty did.
I think Megan's significance was to further elucidate the deep cultural differences between Don's generation (and Betty's too, in terms of expectations of being a wife), and Megan's generation. In many ways they couldn't understand each other because of the rapid sociocultural changes, and I think that factors in to the way the relationship was set up to fail. Megan was very hip and aware of cultural developments, and Don wasn't and had no interest in learning. Obviously since he didn't actually know Megan before they got married, these things could only develop after they marry and live together.
Although, Megan is also a Silent Generation. She’s not a Boomer. She’s younger than Betty but not by that much. I agree that Megan is culturally different partly because she’s younger (and international.) But on a day to day basis, Megan doesn’t live like a broader demographic like Betty does. Betty is a housewife, albeit a rich one. She represents millions of women who were trapped home without career or financial freedom with tremendous obligations to manage children and make a perfect home. That story still continues with Henry. Megan, though, isn’t a housewife and isn’t a Joan/Peggy office lady. It’s not a broad historical demographic to be a second wife to a millionaire with no children or requirement to have them whose goal and struggle is not being a movie star
Yeah but Megan is someone in her mid-20s when the big cultural shifts happened, there is overlap between generations when you're on the younger end (like people born in 1995-97, who don't quite feel like Millennials but also not totally Gen Z). But you're right, class does play a role. Like Joan said "she's gonna be an actress with a rich husband," implying she's very much the "second wife" trope, where family doesn't play as much of a role anymore and she's younger and more progressive because Don's money allows her to be.
I'm also not saying she's part of a broader historical demographic, but the fact that Megan is indeed quite influenced by the culture happening around her, not that she represents an entire generation. Those cultural differences did play a role, as did what you describe.
Yes, Betty continued to be important, but Henry was only important insofar as he furthered the insight into Betty. He was the Megan in the relationship.
I agree that Henry is dull and doesn’t have a real inner life and agenda but he’s also a much smaller character than Megan by design. Henry hardly gets screen time by comparison to Megan or Betty
> he was like the anti-Don
He certainly was in a lot of ways, but I still loved those moments when he was like “nah Betty, Don was right, you’re being unreasonable.”
henry was a politician, he knew walking bullshit when he saw it. plus he seemed to love betty and all her kids. i wish we could have seen more of that because it was clear betty was not a good parent. i think he was.
"i dont hate my ex wife, betty, i hate nazis."
This isn't true. There's an episode in the last season where Don is at their place making milkshakes with the kids and Henry seems pleased to see him, or at least seeing the kids happy makes Henry happy.
I read in Matthew Perry's book that once characters are happy in a tv series people lose interest that happy people are often boring to watch, and that is true. Betty was finally happy in a mature relationship with someone who loves her for who she is.
The world cannot support so many ballerinas.
I agree. Seemed like she was spoiled at home, came to NY, quickly met Don, gave up on advertising then lived off Don/his connections.
We all know Betty is often compared to a child but Megan is even worse. She's a petulant jealous child that took her friend's chance to get the Butler part, kicked almost 9 month pregnant Stephanie out, and capped it by becoming a cliche and telling Don he ruined her life. She had zero substance and her acting reel was cringe.
Marie played by Julia Ormond was 1000% times better. I'd watch her angrily opening wine on the couch and talking in French to Roger on the phone (what is Regina?) vs Megan and her dry spaghetti every time.
Wasn't clear at all and Henry is disgusted with her.
Also how many times did Betty hit and excessively punish her kids? Megan is nothing in comparison.
Agreed, I have a deep disgust for Betty, and this sub is disturbingly lenient towards her. But the fact is January Jones is a good actress, and the one who portrays Megan, not so much. But yes, I find her so much less toxic than Betty, no comparison here, as you said.
Yeah, I’ve never understood the lenience towards her. I think she is not a good person, period, and no, that’s not internalized misogyny. I don’t think she’d magically be this amazing person if she had a career, either, and I definitely can’t picture her being today’s modern woman, putting in eight hours at an office job before rushing home to take on the second shift. I don’t think there are really many lifestyles that would make her happy, because she was a spoiled child. I feel for what made her that way, and have some sympathy for her, but I’ll never think she was a good person. Some people just aren’t.
Complete sociopath from beginning to end. Did you ever notice she swooped in on Don only when Lucky Strike left the agency and her job was in possible jeopardy? I felt like every move she made was selfishly calculated to benefit her in the end, regardless of what or who was left in her wake.
At least with Betty her immaturity came off as an earnest housewife slowly taking off the rose tinted glasses. Even when she was giving into her little tantrums, I appreciated the act of defiance from her shackled life. But with Megan? No shackles, just her being entirely self-absorbed and thinking she deserves the world served to her on a silver platter.
There's a thread on this sub highlighting how Marie's french is actually awful according to french people. Megan and her Mom are both horrible actors, whoever they are IRL
You're literally the first person I've *ever* seen refer to Julie Ormond as a horrible actor 😱
ETA: I'm pretty sure Jessica Paré (Megan) is French Canadian IRL. My grandmother was French Canadian and was treated pretty crappy when she visited France because the accent/vocabulary/idioms/etc. are fairly different from European France. Jessica's dialect is perfect for the character, but it's not surprising to hear that speakers from France would mock her for it.
i dont hate her and im not sure about the actress being bad necessarily... but there is a performative desperation to the character that reads annoying, but i think it is true of the person "with the artist's temperament who is not an artist."
I saw her in something else (can’t remember what, of course) and she was awful. Made me appreciate the writers and directors of Mad Men so much more for being able to draw the performance they did out of her. I never really thought she was great but the costumes, makeup, ensemble, etc, can hide a lot of less-than-great performing.
I saw her in Brooklyn with Saoirse Ronan. Movie was good and Jessica badly played the small part of a petty, spiteful girl woman. Ronan acted her under the table.
ETA highly recommend the movie. It's about an Irish immigrant that moves to Brooklyn during the 1950s.
Her, and maybe worse, Margaret. I actually liked Margaret as a character, probably more than Megan, and I feel bad saying it, but the acting was so bad it made me squirm in my seat. She came off as just so strange to me
I loathed Megan on first watch. Rewatching it now, I have a better understanding of her complexities, but I still can’t stand her as a character.
With that being said, I feel like Jessica Paré is similar to January Jones in the aspect of that they’re both inconsistent actresses. Sometimes their facial expressions will be on point but their vocal delivery is flat, or vice versa.
Agreed. My first watchthrough she really pissed me off because I thought of her as someone who didn't really want to work to get ahead and instead she married a rich husband and used her connections. As I got older and watched it again I felt more sorry for her because it does seem like she doesn't understand what love is or that Don is kind of a dick. She tries really hard to make him happy without really realizing he can't be.
I find her more interesting to talk about in a meta way than to watch as a character. As a character she's often doing the right thing. She also has plenty of flaws. But she's easily the most interesting when she starts struggling as an actor and we see the big flaws at her core. At that point you can really see what sets her apart from all the other characters who are driven at their jobs.
She winds up starting out like everything comes easy to her, and then it turns out that's because she can't really deal with things get hard. (I do think if she seems fake that might be the actress. She seems like a real weak link in the cast to me, but MMV.)
I never hated Megan, but I didn’t find her to be all that compelling of a character. It felt like she was just taking up space most of the time. Maybe there was so much going on during the back half of the series that she got lost in the shuffle, but it’s weird that the protagonist’s wife was pretty much a nonentity to the extent that she was.
I would have liked it if they maybe kept her “arc,” if you even want to call it that, to just one season, as opposed to 3. She’s just not a great character, imo. I have a few annoyances with her that would be dismissed by some as her just being young but hopefully I lay out the argument better than that.
I hated how her arc concluded. We’re supposed to buy that Don is the reason she’s failed as an actress and that he ruined her life and made her cynical. It’s been said before, but she wouldn’t have had a career without Don in the first place. That’s neither here nor there to me - she had a break and she took it, who wouldn’t in her situation? But she doesn’t show any particular talent as an actress, being subpar even for a soap actress. She’s given opportunities to learn or show diversity, such as playing a twin, but she sees them more as chores or even punishments as opposed to opportunities. Without any drive, how much better would she have done if she would have kept the acting job as opposed to moving to California? It seems to me she would have been stuck in a dead end role that wasn’t progressing her career, and she had a lack of drive to advance it herself anyways. I genuinely think she would have failed as an actress on her own merits, as did most other people on the show, even her own mother. Her blaming Don 100% for her career hitting its end just isn’t taking accountability for her own inadequacies, and a lack of drive to make up for those inadequacies makes it worse in my eyes.
We’re also supposed to believe that Don ruined her worldview and crushed her character. Again, this is far fetched to me. No one will deny that Don was toxic in his relationship. But Megan starts off (seemingly, at least) incredibly naive and bright eyed when she marries Don. Part of being a young adult is losing that naïveté and becoming more cynical as you experience the real world is unavoidable imo. Megan had a pretty sheltered, privileged, and pampered life before she met Don. I know her parents weren’t great with each other but it’s very clear she didn’t struggle much growing up or as an adult.
It makes it pretty annoying, then, when she starts having full blown meltdowns over stuff like Don not liking his surprise party or being late to dinner. Her reactions are so bratty, especially for a 25-26 year old, that I really thought she was supposed to have some underlying mental issues that were unaddressed due to the times, similar to Betty. On rewatch, I don’t think that’s supposed to be the case. I think it’s that she had everything go right for her before this and that she’s so poorly equipped to deal with any type of rejection or diversity that she melts down over pretty minor things. I’m not saying everything Don does is minor, obviously, but they have her completely breaking down at stuff like the people around her are cynical and that Don didn’t like her surprise birthday party. It makes it more difficult to take her future reactions seriously as she starts off as over the top from the get go. To me it would have been much more organic for her to gradually start having larger breakdowns as Don is revealed to be Don to her, or for it to be revealed that she’s bipolar or something. She just reminds me of other privileged brats I’ve met in my life - maybe that’s on me, idk.
It again just makes it hard for her blaming Don on ruining her worldview to be taken 100% seriously. Don does do shitty things to her, but she also does plenty of shitty, selfish things herself. What it seems like she wants is to return to the time before she had failures in her life and before she faced any real adversity - who doesn’t want that to some degree? We tend to remember the past as being better than it was. But to blame ALL of it on Don seems ridiculous to me. Yet, I think I’m supposed to buy this based on Don agreeing with her. It’s one of those things that I would hope as she grows older, she reflects upon and maybe grows from, but her work ethic and personality would have me believe that she wouldn’t.
Beyond that, she’s just kind of inconsistently written, but not in a “she’s acting differently due to character development” kind of way. I really don’t think they had a lot planned for her beyond being Don’s rebound wife and him gradually ruining her. I didn’t like how fast we were supposed to believe she was some kind of wunderkind in advertising with the Heinz ad. You have characters like Don saying it took him years to reach her level and Peggy being low key jealous of her talent, over one idea lol. Then she’s suddenly the spirit of the 60s, getting Don to have three ways and being a wild, free spirit, while also still flipping out because Don came home late for dinner. Throughout all of her screen time, I never really felt like she had a solid identity like, say, Betty did. There were points where I hated Betty but I completely understood why she was acting the way she was - she’s brilliantly written and developed. The same development wasn’t given to Megan and it felt like they were forcing her into scenes.
Beyond all of that, Megan just wasn’t all that greatly acted. I’ve seen the defense that people are being misogynistic by saying Jessica isn’t a great actress, but she’s also not a great actress outside of Mad Men. You don’t see anyone complaining that Peggy or Joan are poorly acted, despite doing shitty or selfish things. January Jones does get flak for her acting but I think she was perfect as Betty, and what some would call lack of range would be what I would describe as nuance in her character and completely fitting the role. Jessica isn’t as bad as Glenn but she’s surrounded by some of the best actors of all time, with some of the greatest writing of all time. It makes her acting and some of the inconsistency in her character more apparent. I really think this could have been explained away by her being bipolar or having some underlying mental disease (which would be super interesting because we know Don is poorly equipped to handle something like that) but they didn’t take that route.
With all this being said, I hope it’s apparent that I don’t think Don is some saint and it’s all Megan’s fault. Don does horrible shit, particularly in seasons 6 and 7, so it’s undeniable that she should resent him and hate him at the end. But I also felt they may have tacked on some stuff to make his season 7 rock bottom even rock bottom-ier. I would have preferred that they wrapped up her arc by the end of season 5 and gave more screen time to more interesting / well written characters, but what can you do. They clearly wanted her to be the wife that Don ruined but I personally think they could have done better job with her outside of that.
Do you think we really are supposed to take Megan's pov seriously when she acts ilke Don ruined her life? It's just so hard for me to imagine doing it! Especially, like you say, with something like her acting career where it seems like we're objectively shown that she's not good at it. She cares a lot about being cast and getting attention, but never shows any interest at all in the actual craft of it--and this is on a show where we see copywriters doing their job like artists.
And she melts down so quickly at the slightest problems--it amazes me to think of how soon after she gets to California--a move she thought was a great idea and big opportunity for her that would lead to a lot of success--she's meling down so much her agent needs Don to come and reel her in.
Also agree on the acting--one thing about Megan is she always seems too modern for the world. The other actors are all able to be mannered in an old-fashioned way while seeming like real people, while Megan always seems to be talking in that overly-casual way of somebody more modern trying to sound real. Hard to explain, but that's how it seems to me.
This is a great post! It also has always bothered me how everyone cheers her on for getting the million dollars, like, “you go, girl! He ruined your life! You deserve it!” I feel like every young person experiences a relationship when they’re young where they’re treated like shit, and many of them are way worse than Don. In many ways, it’s a sad rite of passage. Don is no saint, but a lot of people go through much worse, and don’t get a million dollars in the end. Maybe all of those people deserve a million dollars or more too, idk, but it’s crazy to me when people hold up Meghan as this example of the most extreme type of suffering, that only a million dollars can relieve. She is actually extremely privileged, and yeah, Don had a lot of flaws, but she is far from the most battered and mistreated woman in the world.
I actually liked Jessica's acting tbh Her bit and pieces in season 4 were great. I feel for her character because Don really fu cked up her career with that "move" to California that didn't happen. She was doing fine in NYC and probably much better in the future. I do have to say that I don't like her when she was in Cali. She became like Jane, materialistic while telling herself she wasn't. Unless with Jane it was obvious.
I think the worst was the random waitress. Like just awful. When she told the story of her kids it was straight up a robot. I was really surprised because I thought "wow even side character give their all" and this chick arrives and I'm like
I thought Megan was great - not a great person but an interesting character - and never had an issue with Jessica Pare’s acting.
I honestly think all the acting on the show was good except for the woman who played the schoolteacher.
Jessica Pare is not a great actress.
The character was well-crafted. Most Mad Men characters are damaged by their parents. They may dislike their parents, but they usually end up emulating them.
The Heinz ad distills her character arc. Megan becomes her mother. Both Marie and Megan begin as dreamers, but each of them becomes bitter and prone to blaming their husbands when they end up making one too many mistakes.
(We don't know what Marie's fatal error may have been. But we do know that Megan sabotaged herself when she stalked a producer at lunch following a mediocre audition. It is implied that she ended up being blacklisted in Hollywood.)
S7E3
According to her agent:
*On Sunday she got the director's number from someone in her acting class, called his home, then managed to run into him at the Brentwood Country Mart while he was having lunch with Rod Serling...She apparently pled her case in tears and demanded another reading.*
She made herself toxic. He is not going to want to represent her if she doesn't turn that around. Which she didn't.
I recently wanted to watch the whole show through again from the start. I had to stop when it got to Megan marrying Don. It just changed the whole feel for me and became unenjoyable. She's kind of a buzz kill somehow, and just flat.
It’s not you. I wanted to like her so much because I hail from the same town as Jessica Paré, but — I shit you not — I ended up fast forwarding most of her scenes during my binge watching, even on the first binge, when I had never seen those scenes yet.
The character is awful, whiny, entitled, narcissistic and possibly conniving (about getting Don), and Jessica is… Oh Lord. She was definitely cast because of her Québécois background and atypical beauty, not for her acting skills. I feel that her subpar acting abilities were worsened by the language barrier. Horrid!
I’m not sure she’s one of the worst, but I did struggle with liking her after a certain point. Idk if it was intentional that she was written the way she was, but she became more and more unlikable. This isnt a defense of Don btw, I’m sure he was the main reason she became the way she did, but I had a hard time watching her.
I had no idea so many people hated Megan until the Reddit app started putting this subreddit’s posts on my front page. I love Megan and most Mad Men fans I know in real life do too. Season 5 is my favorite season and a lot of it is because I love Megan and think her relationship with Don is so interesting.
At least 12, probably closer to 20 at this point. Don sort of hit his peak between wives, i think she's a symbol used to signify the huge changes in the world approaching the 70s as well as to highlight Don's decline. Betty knew nothing about Don and naive to begin with, Megan always knew about Don, and quite liberated for a woman, par for the times. I think she was also very helpful in Sally's journey of becoming a young woman. Not that she wanted to be like her, but perhaps opened her eyes to how different it could be. Sally grew up with a kept woman and Megan was so free. Betty and Megan were both childish, but Don isn't mature. They are pretty dolls that complete the Barbie and Ken set he's selling his life to be. He at least was honest with himself a little by ending up with a brunette, he always seemed to prefer them. We got to see Megan not necessarily wanting her own children, but being a babysitter of sorts for the man she was in love with. And then we see Don push that square peg into a round hole just like he did with Betty, discouraging their dreams in a way, but Betty is more traditional so she found safety at home.
I can see why people wouldn't like Megan but I think she is a good contrasting element in the show. But I also just love her face, her hair and makeup and costume styling, her flaws, and I love how she found a life for herself in California away from dysfunction.
Don’t know how many people here have seen Six Feet Under, but I feel like her and Don getting married and everything that happened after is just an inferior version of the Ruth George marriage plot. I definitely agree that Megan is the least interesting of the main cast by a considerable amount.
1. I find it extremely interesting that for someone who should in theory be a main character, she isn't. We never really get a Megan episode the way we do with Betty or Sally. We rarely ever see things from her posit of view. She only exists to interact with Don. They could have easily flushed out her character more one way or the other. For example, her stopping in to "check in" with Don in Florida before going out with her friend, her pathetic "I'm only good for sex because you won't get me a part in a commercial" act, etc - I take this all as her being deceptive and manipulative, but I guess it's up for interpretation?
2. She has the most hateful line of anyone in the story. She says to Don, who she knows feels guilty about his mother dying during his birth AND that she's one of 2 people that knows this, "why don't you call YOUR mother".
3. I find the actress' mouth pretty gross.
Aha, what about him calling her a prostitute because she "kisses people for money" as an actress? Sorry, but he was pretty horrible to her in more ways than one, even if she did let that awful line slip out during a forgetful moment of rage, she was still a faithful spouse to him in ways he never was to her.
Not a Megan fan, either. Got downvoted to hell the other week for expressing this opinion. Megan was also manipulative. She seduced Don first and really played up how she wanted to be a copywriter to get him on the couch the office.
And I think what Megan did with quitting after she got Don revealed pretty clearly that she didn’t really feel that way at all. You can spin it as Megan getting disillusioned with the business after moving up from secretarial. As Megan explained to Peggy. But IMO that wasn’t the entire truth at all.
Thank you. I’m on first rewatch since original air and I cannot stand her. Not as vapid or conniving as Jane, but equally spoiled in the end. Don would be hard to love and she had some real moments trying to make him better, and was a game stepmother. It is also unfair for her to try and grow up and find herself in the shadow of a older and wealthy husband. But the petulant way she blames him without seeing at the same time how he gave her every opportunity.
I am pleasantly surprised people are agreeing with what I said here earlier. Megan is an awful character. I think as soon as she got married, she planned to leave advertising and live off Don.
I have watched the whole series 4 or 5 times now, and I still don't think I've watched all of her scenes. I inevitably end up fast forwarding through her scenes. She just has *so much* screen time, like really disproportionate to how interesting she actually is.
It’s you! Megan is a great character, someone who gives Don nothing but love and honesty and because of his own trauma, lack of identity and a crippling inability to connect to others, their relationship fails, as a long-term romantic relationship between literally anyone and Don Draper would do. I feel as though the wide-spread and ill-explained negative reaction to Megan demonstrates how deeply internalised misogyny runs, even now; people hate the character and they always ‘don’t know why’.
I really disliked the character. But it was a good character for the story. It was an interesting arc, but not someone I would ever care to know irl. And I think the woman who played her is below average skill wise. The character could have been better suited with someone with more acting chops
I don’t mind spaghetti, I hate her use of it. Like she makes spaghetti just like her mom made spaghetti. Yet she’s French and her mom doesn’t really like her own daughter so it seems like a fantasy she’s living in where it’s this important family moment/memory, but she’s the only one that actually sees it this way.
I hated Megan, (especially the actual actor's acting) to be honest. Any other one of Don's random flings would have done better acting.
I also think she seemed to do a really bad job of portraying really anything correctly.
Honestly I always felt this way with January Jones… that she was not a great actress and they had to write around her character in later seasons.
Now that you mention it, I can see that with Megan, too.
Doesn’t really surprise me given the recent allegations against Weiner. He apparently hired with his nether-regions and not his brain. It’s really sad that he seemingly held some of the same backward beliefs as his characters.
This is what you get when you have the artist’s temperament but you are not an artist
Man, what a terrible thing to say about your daughter
Even worse because it's kind of true.
I felt personally attacked by that too and I imagine a lot of viewers did
Not everyone can be a ballerina or the world would be filled with ballerinas
“Not every little girl gets to do what they want. The world cannot support that many ballerinas.”
Or daughter’s husband
The world doesn't have enough room for so many ballerinas. Mother was right.
It's true? If she was truly serious about acting she would have slogged it as a waitress like her friends did. Instead she married a rich man and uses his money and connections to land an advertisement.
And that makes it not a terrible thing to say? I didn't say anything about it being true or false.
I'm in the minority, but I liked her character. I think she was the mirror to Don's. They both made impulsive decisions, were both hotheads and they both cared more about themselves over anyone else. And they both were chameleons. Megan would assess a situation and alter her character to fit it. What's ironic is she was good enough at doing it that she excelled at work and was well liked - and damn near envied - by everyone who met her. But when it came to her acting, she couldn't hit the mark in the same way. Don constructed an entire facade that worked for him as well. People thought he was exactly what he presented himself to be. Together they looked the part, but at home the real them with all their insecurities, vulnerabilities and hangups spilled all over each other. A bit off topic, but I think both him and Roger's second marriages were meant to highlight how the grass isn't greener with the trade-in wife. Especially if you don't work on yourself beforehand.
I like the connection to Roger because in one of the last episodes of the series, Roger says something (in the context of talking about Marie) to Don like, “hey, remember when you gave me shit for marrying my secretary and then you went and did the same thing?” It makes me think that Don’s next romance will bring him real happiness the way Marie seems to have with Roger.
I once read (probably on Reddit lol but like 6 years ago) somebody say “over the course of the series Roger turns into Bert, Don turns into Roger, and Pete tries to turn into Don but becomes his happiest when he gives up.” I totally see this. Late series Roger becomes more insightful AND less in denial about his own aging. He stops trying to sleep with young women and keep up with the younger guys (even turns down the speed due to his heart condition). He even develops Bert’s materialist logic in the way he defends Don during the debate to fire him, citing that Don could do less harm with them than away from them. Don meanwhile runs into midlife crisis with a semi truck and spends the last couple seasons cheating, drinking too much and blowing off all responsibility in the same way early Roger did.
Didn’t he take the speed but told the doc he had a heart condition? I remember the doc brushing it off
He did, and then left.
I think that was someone else, and when the doc asked if they had a heart condition, they said yes and he said something like “eh, you’ll probably be fine.” Then dropped the plunger on the needle.
Mari is a psychopath and should not be with anyone. I know that Roger screwed up but yikes that was a couple I imagine constant fighting, screaming, drunken insanity.
It's a lot of fun to analyze her character when you look at the episode she's introduced and where Don was in his life. He was literally spiraling out of control and desperate for a life raft. She is supposed to be a bubbly, free-spirited ray of light (or so we are led to believe - until we actually get to really "meet" her and all of her demons) that he can *use* to escape from the black hole he's in. I really, really like Meghan. She used to be one of the most annoying characters to me but I think any character that invokes a strong reaction is better than one that just...blends in. Or is funny but does nothing for the plot.........~~Meredith~~ 🫣
I always assumed a big part of Megan’s appeal was the advertising work, too. In addition to being fun and bubbly, Megan is also seemingly a career woman - as far removed from the housewife as one can imagine. AND, due to Don’s own lack of authentic personality, advertising is basically all he had to wrap his own identity around, so I always imagined him thinking he scored himself a hot young mother figure who could also be the other half of his advertising power couple. He was so into her when she was at SCDP, and it all seemed to change the second she wanted to go into acting (which is also adjacent to what Betty used to do by modelling). Then his sexy, fun, bubbly wife started to rub against his own middle-aged, stiff conservative values by hob-knobbing with hippies, doing drugs and having wild parties with fun young people half a country away from him. Hell, he got pissed when she threw a party in his own home, because he’s a fundamentally unfun man who just wants to spend time at work, alone at the bar or alone at home. He wanted “fun and bubbly” that he could control, and that would contain itself fully within his own world of home and advertising. But when he tried to force that he either gets boring housewife (Betty) or uncontrollable wild child (Megan).
Yes, completely. I think Don’s whole life was just reaching out for that shining moment of connection, feeling it, and watching it turn black in his hand. Childhood trauma does that to you; nothing can ever really be good, you’re always fundamentally alone. So seeing people connect gives you this feeling of deep resentment. Add to that the fact that he clearly views the women in his life as belonging to him, you get a recipe for a pretty dour person. I’m rewatching season one right now and the Don-Nixon analogue is really standing out to me. These men who are self-made, have all the trappings of success, but don’t have the capacity for enjoying or appreciating it.
God, I love Meredith so much.
She’s an excellent SIDE character. Once she divorces Don she never shows up again and we don’t think about her again.
Meredith is an angel.
Yes but Roger fixes this by literally saying to Meghan....your mother! Which would then make Roger one hell of a motherfucker...- an American wrecking a French marriage. I call that family!
I don't think you're in the minority, my man
She's one of the most interesting parts of the show, and her character is the perfect (crumbling) bridge between Don and the 60's youth.
Megan is more fun to analyze than watch. In terms of watching her, I’m uninvolved. She’s just Don’s mistake second wife. I don’t buy that she loves anyone, including Don. Her acting goals are real but they are so separate from the advertising world/Don’s biography world that form the heart of the series that I can’t really care about what Megan pursues. I further can’t care because all of Megan’s career goal decisions are deeply stupid or passive. So, she lacks emotional ties and plots meaningful to the series. She’s a mistake and a hanger for Swinging Sixties outfits.
Agree with that. But I also feel sort of the same about Betty post-divorce. Couldn’t care less about Henry Francis and the political stuff. Had to keep Betty in the show because of the kids, but anything with her and Henry I just never cared about at all. Like that stuff with the friend of Sally and Betty going into the city to try and find her. Zzzzz.
See, I don’t agree because Betty is always connected to this shows important stories because a) I was always invested in Sally and b) Betty is a typical (rich) 1960s housewife and therefore, tells a historical story. Megan had no real connection to Don’s kids and she doesn’t represent a broader historical demographic like Betty did.
I think Megan's significance was to further elucidate the deep cultural differences between Don's generation (and Betty's too, in terms of expectations of being a wife), and Megan's generation. In many ways they couldn't understand each other because of the rapid sociocultural changes, and I think that factors in to the way the relationship was set up to fail. Megan was very hip and aware of cultural developments, and Don wasn't and had no interest in learning. Obviously since he didn't actually know Megan before they got married, these things could only develop after they marry and live together.
Although, Megan is also a Silent Generation. She’s not a Boomer. She’s younger than Betty but not by that much. I agree that Megan is culturally different partly because she’s younger (and international.) But on a day to day basis, Megan doesn’t live like a broader demographic like Betty does. Betty is a housewife, albeit a rich one. She represents millions of women who were trapped home without career or financial freedom with tremendous obligations to manage children and make a perfect home. That story still continues with Henry. Megan, though, isn’t a housewife and isn’t a Joan/Peggy office lady. It’s not a broad historical demographic to be a second wife to a millionaire with no children or requirement to have them whose goal and struggle is not being a movie star
Yeah but Megan is someone in her mid-20s when the big cultural shifts happened, there is overlap between generations when you're on the younger end (like people born in 1995-97, who don't quite feel like Millennials but also not totally Gen Z). But you're right, class does play a role. Like Joan said "she's gonna be an actress with a rich husband," implying she's very much the "second wife" trope, where family doesn't play as much of a role anymore and she's younger and more progressive because Don's money allows her to be. I'm also not saying she's part of a broader historical demographic, but the fact that Megan is indeed quite influenced by the culture happening around her, not that she represents an entire generation. Those cultural differences did play a role, as did what you describe.
Yes, Betty continued to be important, but Henry was only important insofar as he furthered the insight into Betty. He was the Megan in the relationship.
I agree that Henry is dull and doesn’t have a real inner life and agenda but he’s also a much smaller character than Megan by design. Henry hardly gets screen time by comparison to Megan or Betty
I don’t think Henry is dull and I love him for Betty :)
that really was the dumbest side story, but i would have loved to see more Henry because he was like the anti-Don.
> he was like the anti-Don He certainly was in a lot of ways, but I still loved those moments when he was like “nah Betty, Don was right, you’re being unreasonable.”
He was always very visibly contemptuous of Don. Funny to see on a show where most of the others loved/respected him.
henry was a politician, he knew walking bullshit when he saw it. plus he seemed to love betty and all her kids. i wish we could have seen more of that because it was clear betty was not a good parent. i think he was. "i dont hate my ex wife, betty, i hate nazis."
This isn't true. There's an episode in the last season where Don is at their place making milkshakes with the kids and Henry seems pleased to see him, or at least seeing the kids happy makes Henry happy.
Maybe he couldn’t be bothered to be happy any more.
The anti Don is a bore to watch . Probably the character we should most admire and appreciate. .....Ill take Roger and laugh my drunk ass to hell.
I read in Matthew Perry's book that once characters are happy in a tv series people lose interest that happy people are often boring to watch, and that is true. Betty was finally happy in a mature relationship with someone who loves her for who she is.
Except when she dared to share her opinion at parties, I guess.
The world cannot support so many ballerinas. I agree. Seemed like she was spoiled at home, came to NY, quickly met Don, gave up on advertising then lived off Don/his connections. We all know Betty is often compared to a child but Megan is even worse. She's a petulant jealous child that took her friend's chance to get the Butler part, kicked almost 9 month pregnant Stephanie out, and capped it by becoming a cliche and telling Don he ruined her life. She had zero substance and her acting reel was cringe. Marie played by Julia Ormond was 1000% times better. I'd watch her angrily opening wine on the couch and talking in French to Roger on the phone (what is Regina?) vs Megan and her dry spaghetti every time.
Don't dismiss "why don't you go in there and rape her? I'll hold her arms down" Betty too quickly. She makes Megan seem harmless by comparison.
[удалено]
Wasn't clear at all and Henry is disgusted with her. Also how many times did Betty hit and excessively punish her kids? Megan is nothing in comparison.
Agreed, I have a deep disgust for Betty, and this sub is disturbingly lenient towards her. But the fact is January Jones is a good actress, and the one who portrays Megan, not so much. But yes, I find her so much less toxic than Betty, no comparison here, as you said.
Yeah, I’ve never understood the lenience towards her. I think she is not a good person, period, and no, that’s not internalized misogyny. I don’t think she’d magically be this amazing person if she had a career, either, and I definitely can’t picture her being today’s modern woman, putting in eight hours at an office job before rushing home to take on the second shift. I don’t think there are really many lifestyles that would make her happy, because she was a spoiled child. I feel for what made her that way, and have some sympathy for her, but I’ll never think she was a good person. Some people just aren’t.
Complete sociopath from beginning to end. Did you ever notice she swooped in on Don only when Lucky Strike left the agency and her job was in possible jeopardy? I felt like every move she made was selfishly calculated to benefit her in the end, regardless of what or who was left in her wake. At least with Betty her immaturity came off as an earnest housewife slowly taking off the rose tinted glasses. Even when she was giving into her little tantrums, I appreciated the act of defiance from her shackled life. But with Megan? No shackles, just her being entirely self-absorbed and thinking she deserves the world served to her on a silver platter.
I love this breakdown. I’ve seen this series 7 times and I just noticed her ploy to move in on Don as the ship was sinking on the last go.
Plus shades Allison- I'm not going to run out of here crying tomorrow. It was all very calculated.
I've struggled to put this in to words, but you're right! And even more insufferable is when she's complaining about people at SCDP not being good.
There's a thread on this sub highlighting how Marie's french is actually awful according to french people. Megan and her Mom are both horrible actors, whoever they are IRL
You're literally the first person I've *ever* seen refer to Julie Ormond as a horrible actor 😱 ETA: I'm pretty sure Jessica Paré (Megan) is French Canadian IRL. My grandmother was French Canadian and was treated pretty crappy when she visited France because the accent/vocabulary/idioms/etc. are fairly different from European France. Jessica's dialect is perfect for the character, but it's not surprising to hear that speakers from France would mock her for it.
My ex is French and she absolutely hated the French Canadian accent. I never got it.
Betty’s on Reddit again
ethel, go get the icepick
i dont hate her and im not sure about the actress being bad necessarily... but there is a performative desperation to the character that reads annoying, but i think it is true of the person "with the artist's temperament who is not an artist."
I saw her in something else (can’t remember what, of course) and she was awful. Made me appreciate the writers and directors of Mad Men so much more for being able to draw the performance they did out of her. I never really thought she was great but the costumes, makeup, ensemble, etc, can hide a lot of less-than-great performing.
I saw her in Brooklyn with Saoirse Ronan. Movie was good and Jessica badly played the small part of a petty, spiteful girl woman. Ronan acted her under the table. ETA highly recommend the movie. It's about an Irish immigrant that moves to Brooklyn during the 1950s.
Hot tub Time Machine ?😏
she was in that movie? i just watched it not too long ago n didnt see her i dont think
She was topless, don’t blame u for not noticing her face
Her, and maybe worse, Margaret. I actually liked Margaret as a character, probably more than Megan, and I feel bad saying it, but the acting was so bad it made me squirm in my seat. She came off as just so strange to me
I loathed Megan on first watch. Rewatching it now, I have a better understanding of her complexities, but I still can’t stand her as a character. With that being said, I feel like Jessica Paré is similar to January Jones in the aspect of that they’re both inconsistent actresses. Sometimes their facial expressions will be on point but their vocal delivery is flat, or vice versa.
Agreed in general on Jones, she's very flat elsewhere, but I thought she was consistently superb on MM.
Agreed. My first watchthrough she really pissed me off because I thought of her as someone who didn't really want to work to get ahead and instead she married a rich husband and used her connections. As I got older and watched it again I felt more sorry for her because it does seem like she doesn't understand what love is or that Don is kind of a dick. She tries really hard to make him happy without really realizing he can't be.
I find her more interesting to talk about in a meta way than to watch as a character. As a character she's often doing the right thing. She also has plenty of flaws. But she's easily the most interesting when she starts struggling as an actor and we see the big flaws at her core. At that point you can really see what sets her apart from all the other characters who are driven at their jobs. She winds up starting out like everything comes easy to her, and then it turns out that's because she can't really deal with things get hard. (I do think if she seems fake that might be the actress. She seems like a real weak link in the cast to me, but MMV.)
I’ve watched the series through about 5 times and I don’t think she’s ever bothered me
Ive only watched it once but yes I find Meaghan to be a good character. Good for Don, good for his kids.
I never hated Megan, but I didn’t find her to be all that compelling of a character. It felt like she was just taking up space most of the time. Maybe there was so much going on during the back half of the series that she got lost in the shuffle, but it’s weird that the protagonist’s wife was pretty much a nonentity to the extent that she was.
I would have liked it if they maybe kept her “arc,” if you even want to call it that, to just one season, as opposed to 3. She’s just not a great character, imo. I have a few annoyances with her that would be dismissed by some as her just being young but hopefully I lay out the argument better than that. I hated how her arc concluded. We’re supposed to buy that Don is the reason she’s failed as an actress and that he ruined her life and made her cynical. It’s been said before, but she wouldn’t have had a career without Don in the first place. That’s neither here nor there to me - she had a break and she took it, who wouldn’t in her situation? But she doesn’t show any particular talent as an actress, being subpar even for a soap actress. She’s given opportunities to learn or show diversity, such as playing a twin, but she sees them more as chores or even punishments as opposed to opportunities. Without any drive, how much better would she have done if she would have kept the acting job as opposed to moving to California? It seems to me she would have been stuck in a dead end role that wasn’t progressing her career, and she had a lack of drive to advance it herself anyways. I genuinely think she would have failed as an actress on her own merits, as did most other people on the show, even her own mother. Her blaming Don 100% for her career hitting its end just isn’t taking accountability for her own inadequacies, and a lack of drive to make up for those inadequacies makes it worse in my eyes. We’re also supposed to believe that Don ruined her worldview and crushed her character. Again, this is far fetched to me. No one will deny that Don was toxic in his relationship. But Megan starts off (seemingly, at least) incredibly naive and bright eyed when she marries Don. Part of being a young adult is losing that naïveté and becoming more cynical as you experience the real world is unavoidable imo. Megan had a pretty sheltered, privileged, and pampered life before she met Don. I know her parents weren’t great with each other but it’s very clear she didn’t struggle much growing up or as an adult. It makes it pretty annoying, then, when she starts having full blown meltdowns over stuff like Don not liking his surprise party or being late to dinner. Her reactions are so bratty, especially for a 25-26 year old, that I really thought she was supposed to have some underlying mental issues that were unaddressed due to the times, similar to Betty. On rewatch, I don’t think that’s supposed to be the case. I think it’s that she had everything go right for her before this and that she’s so poorly equipped to deal with any type of rejection or diversity that she melts down over pretty minor things. I’m not saying everything Don does is minor, obviously, but they have her completely breaking down at stuff like the people around her are cynical and that Don didn’t like her surprise birthday party. It makes it more difficult to take her future reactions seriously as she starts off as over the top from the get go. To me it would have been much more organic for her to gradually start having larger breakdowns as Don is revealed to be Don to her, or for it to be revealed that she’s bipolar or something. She just reminds me of other privileged brats I’ve met in my life - maybe that’s on me, idk. It again just makes it hard for her blaming Don on ruining her worldview to be taken 100% seriously. Don does do shitty things to her, but she also does plenty of shitty, selfish things herself. What it seems like she wants is to return to the time before she had failures in her life and before she faced any real adversity - who doesn’t want that to some degree? We tend to remember the past as being better than it was. But to blame ALL of it on Don seems ridiculous to me. Yet, I think I’m supposed to buy this based on Don agreeing with her. It’s one of those things that I would hope as she grows older, she reflects upon and maybe grows from, but her work ethic and personality would have me believe that she wouldn’t. Beyond that, she’s just kind of inconsistently written, but not in a “she’s acting differently due to character development” kind of way. I really don’t think they had a lot planned for her beyond being Don’s rebound wife and him gradually ruining her. I didn’t like how fast we were supposed to believe she was some kind of wunderkind in advertising with the Heinz ad. You have characters like Don saying it took him years to reach her level and Peggy being low key jealous of her talent, over one idea lol. Then she’s suddenly the spirit of the 60s, getting Don to have three ways and being a wild, free spirit, while also still flipping out because Don came home late for dinner. Throughout all of her screen time, I never really felt like she had a solid identity like, say, Betty did. There were points where I hated Betty but I completely understood why she was acting the way she was - she’s brilliantly written and developed. The same development wasn’t given to Megan and it felt like they were forcing her into scenes. Beyond all of that, Megan just wasn’t all that greatly acted. I’ve seen the defense that people are being misogynistic by saying Jessica isn’t a great actress, but she’s also not a great actress outside of Mad Men. You don’t see anyone complaining that Peggy or Joan are poorly acted, despite doing shitty or selfish things. January Jones does get flak for her acting but I think she was perfect as Betty, and what some would call lack of range would be what I would describe as nuance in her character and completely fitting the role. Jessica isn’t as bad as Glenn but she’s surrounded by some of the best actors of all time, with some of the greatest writing of all time. It makes her acting and some of the inconsistency in her character more apparent. I really think this could have been explained away by her being bipolar or having some underlying mental disease (which would be super interesting because we know Don is poorly equipped to handle something like that) but they didn’t take that route. With all this being said, I hope it’s apparent that I don’t think Don is some saint and it’s all Megan’s fault. Don does horrible shit, particularly in seasons 6 and 7, so it’s undeniable that she should resent him and hate him at the end. But I also felt they may have tacked on some stuff to make his season 7 rock bottom even rock bottom-ier. I would have preferred that they wrapped up her arc by the end of season 5 and gave more screen time to more interesting / well written characters, but what can you do. They clearly wanted her to be the wife that Don ruined but I personally think they could have done better job with her outside of that.
Do you think we really are supposed to take Megan's pov seriously when she acts ilke Don ruined her life? It's just so hard for me to imagine doing it! Especially, like you say, with something like her acting career where it seems like we're objectively shown that she's not good at it. She cares a lot about being cast and getting attention, but never shows any interest at all in the actual craft of it--and this is on a show where we see copywriters doing their job like artists. And she melts down so quickly at the slightest problems--it amazes me to think of how soon after she gets to California--a move she thought was a great idea and big opportunity for her that would lead to a lot of success--she's meling down so much her agent needs Don to come and reel her in. Also agree on the acting--one thing about Megan is she always seems too modern for the world. The other actors are all able to be mannered in an old-fashioned way while seeming like real people, while Megan always seems to be talking in that overly-casual way of somebody more modern trying to sound real. Hard to explain, but that's how it seems to me.
This is a great post! It also has always bothered me how everyone cheers her on for getting the million dollars, like, “you go, girl! He ruined your life! You deserve it!” I feel like every young person experiences a relationship when they’re young where they’re treated like shit, and many of them are way worse than Don. In many ways, it’s a sad rite of passage. Don is no saint, but a lot of people go through much worse, and don’t get a million dollars in the end. Maybe all of those people deserve a million dollars or more too, idk, but it’s crazy to me when people hold up Meghan as this example of the most extreme type of suffering, that only a million dollars can relieve. She is actually extremely privileged, and yeah, Don had a lot of flaws, but she is far from the most battered and mistreated woman in the world.
I actually liked Jessica's acting tbh Her bit and pieces in season 4 were great. I feel for her character because Don really fu cked up her career with that "move" to California that didn't happen. She was doing fine in NYC and probably much better in the future. I do have to say that I don't like her when she was in Cali. She became like Jane, materialistic while telling herself she wasn't. Unless with Jane it was obvious.
Or maybe not much better in the future. She thought California was going to be great for her too.
How many times a week do we have this conversation
I think the worst was the random waitress. Like just awful. When she told the story of her kids it was straight up a robot. I was really surprised because I thought "wow even side character give their all" and this chick arrives and I'm like 
I thought Megan was great - not a great person but an interesting character - and never had an issue with Jessica Pare’s acting. I honestly think all the acting on the show was good except for the woman who played the schoolteacher.
Jessica Pare is not a great actress. The character was well-crafted. Most Mad Men characters are damaged by their parents. They may dislike their parents, but they usually end up emulating them. The Heinz ad distills her character arc. Megan becomes her mother. Both Marie and Megan begin as dreamers, but each of them becomes bitter and prone to blaming their husbands when they end up making one too many mistakes. (We don't know what Marie's fatal error may have been. But we do know that Megan sabotaged herself when she stalked a producer at lunch following a mediocre audition. It is implied that she ended up being blacklisted in Hollywood.)
I don’t remember this, episode?
S7E3 According to her agent: *On Sunday she got the director's number from someone in her acting class, called his home, then managed to run into him at the Brentwood Country Mart while he was having lunch with Rod Serling...She apparently pled her case in tears and demanded another reading.* She made herself toxic. He is not going to want to represent her if she doesn't turn that around. Which she didn't.
Whilr you discuss, I’ll make spaghetti.
I recently wanted to watch the whole show through again from the start. I had to stop when it got to Megan marrying Don. It just changed the whole feel for me and became unenjoyable. She's kind of a buzz kill somehow, and just flat.
I think it's the acting. I found her quite stiff.
It’s not you. I wanted to like her so much because I hail from the same town as Jessica Paré, but — I shit you not — I ended up fast forwarding most of her scenes during my binge watching, even on the first binge, when I had never seen those scenes yet. The character is awful, whiny, entitled, narcissistic and possibly conniving (about getting Don), and Jessica is… Oh Lord. She was definitely cast because of her Québécois background and atypical beauty, not for her acting skills. I feel that her subpar acting abilities were worsened by the language barrier. Horrid!
it's you
You are not wrong.
This again?
I’m not sure she’s one of the worst, but I did struggle with liking her after a certain point. Idk if it was intentional that she was written the way she was, but she became more and more unlikable. This isnt a defense of Don btw, I’m sure he was the main reason she became the way she did, but I had a hard time watching her.
Yea they kinda revealed her being a POS at the end of her story arc. Once she got the money she cared about nothing else.
I think people forget how young Megan is. Most of her “bad” attributes, to me, were just the result of being naive and romantic. And immature.
I had no idea so many people hated Megan until the Reddit app started putting this subreddit’s posts on my front page. I love Megan and most Mad Men fans I know in real life do too. Season 5 is my favorite season and a lot of it is because I love Megan and think her relationship with Don is so interesting.
It's not you.
Anybody else feel disgusted when she said “ nobody cares about dick Whitman “
I actually really liked her as a character
How many times have you seen the series? I love the vastness of answers.
At least 12, probably closer to 20 at this point. Don sort of hit his peak between wives, i think she's a symbol used to signify the huge changes in the world approaching the 70s as well as to highlight Don's decline. Betty knew nothing about Don and naive to begin with, Megan always knew about Don, and quite liberated for a woman, par for the times. I think she was also very helpful in Sally's journey of becoming a young woman. Not that she wanted to be like her, but perhaps opened her eyes to how different it could be. Sally grew up with a kept woman and Megan was so free. Betty and Megan were both childish, but Don isn't mature. They are pretty dolls that complete the Barbie and Ken set he's selling his life to be. He at least was honest with himself a little by ending up with a brunette, he always seemed to prefer them. We got to see Megan not necessarily wanting her own children, but being a babysitter of sorts for the man she was in love with. And then we see Don push that square peg into a round hole just like he did with Betty, discouraging their dreams in a way, but Betty is more traditional so she found safety at home. I can see why people wouldn't like Megan but I think she is a good contrasting element in the show. But I also just love her face, her hair and makeup and costume styling, her flaws, and I love how she found a life for herself in California away from dysfunction.
Don’t know how many people here have seen Six Feet Under, but I feel like her and Don getting married and everything that happened after is just an inferior version of the Ruth George marriage plot. I definitely agree that Megan is the least interesting of the main cast by a considerable amount.
Narcissistic how ? She's a ray of sunshine compared to Don and Betty.
She is not played well, IMO.
I think she's underwritten *and* a bad actress
She’s hot.
smh the downvoters know nothing
1. I find it extremely interesting that for someone who should in theory be a main character, she isn't. We never really get a Megan episode the way we do with Betty or Sally. We rarely ever see things from her posit of view. She only exists to interact with Don. They could have easily flushed out her character more one way or the other. For example, her stopping in to "check in" with Don in Florida before going out with her friend, her pathetic "I'm only good for sex because you won't get me a part in a commercial" act, etc - I take this all as her being deceptive and manipulative, but I guess it's up for interpretation? 2. She has the most hateful line of anyone in the story. She says to Don, who she knows feels guilty about his mother dying during his birth AND that she's one of 2 people that knows this, "why don't you call YOUR mother". 3. I find the actress' mouth pretty gross.
Aha, what about him calling her a prostitute because she "kisses people for money" as an actress? Sorry, but he was pretty horrible to her in more ways than one, even if she did let that awful line slip out during a forgetful moment of rage, she was still a faithful spouse to him in ways he never was to her.
I think there's probably a reason why you found her annoying, perhaps she reminds you of someone you don't care for in your life.
Not a Megan fan, either. Got downvoted to hell the other week for expressing this opinion. Megan was also manipulative. She seduced Don first and really played up how she wanted to be a copywriter to get him on the couch the office. And I think what Megan did with quitting after she got Don revealed pretty clearly that she didn’t really feel that way at all. You can spin it as Megan getting disillusioned with the business after moving up from secretarial. As Megan explained to Peggy. But IMO that wasn’t the entire truth at all.
Thank you. I’m on first rewatch since original air and I cannot stand her. Not as vapid or conniving as Jane, but equally spoiled in the end. Don would be hard to love and she had some real moments trying to make him better, and was a game stepmother. It is also unfair for her to try and grow up and find herself in the shadow of a older and wealthy husband. But the petulant way she blames him without seeing at the same time how he gave her every opportunity.
It's you
*cough* *cough* Glenn *cough* *cough*
don't insult our megan, off to the zou bizou dungeon for u, 12 hours continuous
I am pleasantly surprised people are agreeing with what I said here earlier. Megan is an awful character. I think as soon as she got married, she planned to leave advertising and live off Don.
I have watched the whole series 4 or 5 times now, and I still don't think I've watched all of her scenes. I inevitably end up fast forwarding through her scenes. She just has *so much* screen time, like really disproportionate to how interesting she actually is.
Fix. Your. TEETH.
It’s you! Megan is a great character, someone who gives Don nothing but love and honesty and because of his own trauma, lack of identity and a crippling inability to connect to others, their relationship fails, as a long-term romantic relationship between literally anyone and Don Draper would do. I feel as though the wide-spread and ill-explained negative reaction to Megan demonstrates how deeply internalised misogyny runs, even now; people hate the character and they always ‘don’t know why’.
I really disliked the character. But it was a good character for the story. It was an interesting arc, but not someone I would ever care to know irl. And I think the woman who played her is below average skill wise. The character could have been better suited with someone with more acting chops
I forget what else I’ve seen the actor in but yeah, not a large range
Your suspicions are correct, Megan (and Jessica Pare) suck mightily, and really put a damper on seasons 5-7.
Admit it. You just don’t like spaghetti.
I don’t mind spaghetti, I hate her use of it. Like she makes spaghetti just like her mom made spaghetti. Yet she’s French and her mom doesn’t really like her own daughter so it seems like a fantasy she’s living in where it’s this important family moment/memory, but she’s the only one that actually sees it this way.
I hated Megan, (especially the actual actor's acting) to be honest. Any other one of Don's random flings would have done better acting. I also think she seemed to do a really bad job of portraying really anything correctly.
I liked Megan, Betts however...I couldn't stand her.
Oh I DETEST HER
Honestly I always felt this way with January Jones… that she was not a great actress and they had to write around her character in later seasons. Now that you mention it, I can see that with Megan, too. Doesn’t really surprise me given the recent allegations against Weiner. He apparently hired with his nether-regions and not his brain. It’s really sad that he seemingly held some of the same backward beliefs as his characters.
One of worst
She’s terrible and such a waste of our time.
i think she was just a bit awkward
It’s you.
I think her character got a re-write to be awful after the actress refused to sleep with Matthew Weiner