A good TV Guide interview with Elisabeth Moss (hat tip to Basketcase Peter G.):

TVGuide.com: Previously, you had said that Peggy was in love with Pete, so why not use the child as leverage…?
Moss: I don’t know what episode we were at when I said that, but she definitely was not in love with him by the end of the first season. He broke her heart when he said, “I don’t like you this way.” That was the beginning of the end for her. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of feeling there — I mean, she had his child — but is she in love with him? No.

TVGuide.com: Does Peggy still have the same relationship with Joan?
Moss: Things with all the characters changed in a way, but Joan is still Joan and Peggy is still Peggy, and they’re never really going to be friends.

TVGuide.com: Now that Peggy is no longer suspiciously “large,” do you hope her wardrobe gets more stylish?
Moss: It definitely has gotten more stylish. She still tries to dress professionally — not like Joan — and she still doesn’t want to catch too much attention, but she gets a bit more stylish. She stops making her own clothes! And she shows a bit of “pins.”

Huh. I hadn’t realized those horrible clothes were homemade.

And Basketcase Oaktown Girl let us know about Tim Goodman’s SF Gate article:

“Mad Men” doesn’t actually start its Season Two until I get back, but I got the first episode yesterday. It came in a black, unmarked box (seriously) about the size of a shoe box. Inside was, well, another shoe box, and the contents were: One press release saying please, please, please don’t give away what happens in the first episode (or any episode) which is standard mailing fare these days. One DVD copy of the first episode. And – swag alert – one old school “Mad Men” 3D viewfinder with three well-packaged picture discs to click through (one alone was the guy falling from the building in the opening credits). Click, click, click. Then the iconic logo of the back of Don Draper’s head as he sits in his chair.

I certainly don’t intend to link to every DVD review, but this one, at DVD Verdict, is exceptionally thoughtful and well-written.

Yet it is Don Draper, with his love for the underdog and identification with the self-made, who recognizes the talent of his secretary Peggy… The contrast between Draper’s casual chauvinism toward his own wife and principled championing of Peggy exemplify the magic at the heart of Mad Men: Instead of playing the anachronisms of the show’s period setting for camp laughs or using them to preach political correctness, the writers make them the slave of character and plot.

This DVD review at NPR is unique for mentioning all of AMC’s past original shows, including Remember WENN and On the Lot, and it includes a couple of season 2 promo shots (a portrait of Don and of Joan—no spoilers).

The Museum of Moving Image website, Moving Image Source, has a lavish and insightful article on Mad Men. This is their first ever article on a TV show (thanks to Basketcase Kate for the tip!). And is the author a lurking Basketcase? I couldn’t help but notice this line:

Riotously handsome and successful, Draper is a psychological basket case.

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