Pic related - her and Pete Campbell are VERY similar (born into wealth and completely embittered by their lives not reaching the expectations promised by status, then meeting a graceful end) yet one is praised as based and the other vilified.
Surely it's no coincidence that Pete and Betty storylines would often both be prominent in the same episodes
Betty is based, only betas don't like her
>I'm not STUPID, I speak ITALIAN
pete starts out pretty hated. but he earns his praise throughout the course of the show. he shows growth as a person.
betty just becomes a bigger (lol), crazier bitch throughout the show. then she gets cancer. ehh
>>62894103
Huh. Good point. Maybe it has to do with one is a superior actor than the other.
>>62894281
By the last two seasons I'd say both of them show growth and become pretty likeable; see Pete learning his lesson from Don by refusing to expose Bob Benson and vouching for Don/Joan/MLK in the office.
Meanwhile, you've got Betty sleeping with Don with a new-found sense of realism, actually beginning to build a bond with Sally and attending classes to try and better herself, even on her way to the grave
The problem with Betty is that the showrunners hated the character and basically gave the storylines people wanted for the character (IE Betty discovering women's lib and reinventing herself) to Joan. Not because they liked Joan better, but because they wanted to keep Betty an unlikeable cunt.
The only reason they ended up having to tone it down is the backlash they got with Betty in full on monster mom mode and the Megan shilling failing.
Betty is awful.
Pete is closer parallel to Don. They both were trying to be something they were not, and when they accepted themselves, they became better men.
>>62894798
I disagree, I think Betty was always destined to find her empowerment through Phyllis Schlafly-style "Republican Motherhood" rather than the going the women's lib movement.
Betty and Trudy were all about the "power behind the throne" strategy while Joan and Peggy went the much more direct route.
Both strategies ended up creating more politically active and influential women, just through different means.
>>62894798
Source on this?
I always figured that Betty stuck around after splitting with Don because Weiner liked the character so much. In fact, I'm sure he wrote her with Jan Jones in mind after she initially auditioned for Peggy.
Good job as well because her range was perfect for Betty but would've been AWFUL compared to Moss
>>62894103
Jon Hamm fucked her after he won the emmy
>>62894923
Pete was literally born with a silver spoon and thinks he gained anything at all by his own virtue/effort.
The only difference between pete season 1 and pete season 7 is pete season 7 wasn't making 60 bucks a week.
You cant compare betty to pete.
Weiner said that as soon as she heard that Don was a country bumpkin, she would never love him again the same way. Shes materialistic and is judgemental to all hell. She doeant really change as a character like pete either. In the end she doesnt get chemo becuase she doesnt want to look ugly.
>>62894956
I think Betty stuck around initially to remind Don that he cannot escape his past, try as he might.
She ended up becoming a good counter point to Peggy, though.
>>62894966
Wouldn't you?
The king ordered it!
>>62895055
I would fuck Jon Hamm.
>>62894281
You are not a gentleman.
>>62894103
Since this has basically turned into a Mad Men general, I'll add some additional thoughts:
The Rome episode in my OP is highly underrated.
Nice theme of how futile escapism can be (Far Away Places is still the GOAT though), Betty/Pete parallels and reverses the Draper dynamic when they get to Italy; Betty all charisma and sexuality, back in her model looks, flirting with strangers in fluent Italian whilst Don watches on, out of place and outdated.
>>62895021
She has always known Don "was born into poverty and was ashamed of it" (her exact words, don't remember the ep).
What she didn't know was the whole identity theft and cheating, because, she was that naive before.
The double identity is just the revelation that Don will never ever change and will always continue to be selfish and unfaithful
>>62894103
Its the patriarchs way of telling people to shove t up their arses
>>62895518
She also makes a comment that he 'doesn't understand money', perhaps in the same episode, which I thought was quite revealing.
>>62894103
>born into wealth
Since when is Betty's family well-off?
>>62895566
Betty is a very nice character: be the archetypal perfect wife of the '50, marry your male successful counterpart.
Discovers that this life gives her husband pretty much the right to shit on her all time. Divorces him, which takes some courage at the time. Marries a successful, nice, loving and faithful man.
Be happy while Don goes from depression to depression
>Then gets cancer because no justice in this world
>>62895571
It's never spelled out directly but you can piece it together; see Betty's perspective on Don's stance to money (>>62895518 >>62895566), how comfortable she is at the country club just like Pete, Trudy and Roger and her father's 'You're a housecat' comment
I watched the whole Mad Men series like 2 months ago, but i was watching like 1 season a day. Didnt payed as much attention as Mad Men deserve, should i watch it again?
>>62895840
She was trained by her mother to be a perfect housewife for a rich husband, anon. Her brother his strapped and even after grandpa Gene's death, him and his wife are short on cash and depend on Don's money.
Betty's family are just typical middle-class
>>62895840
Don doesn't understand money because he doesn't care, he has enough of it to build his Don Draper role. He wants to be able to appear well-off, and not from a poor background. He is the only one who cares about that, Betty doesn't care that he was poor.
Betty understands money because, contrary to Don, she has to shop for groceries and take care of the household, even when Don was a copywriter and didn't make much.
