[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Meh, to me that's just some Salon/Esquire purple prose, IMO. Peggy's never resonated with me at all.

Maybe that's just me projecting. Sadly, I see by FAR the most of myself in Pete friggen Campbell. The frustrated ambition of your late 20s/early 30s. You're doing so much spade work and by your early 30s you're doing more than that. You're often leading the things that are fueling growth but it's still the guys with grey in their temples that are taking credit for your ideas and getting your bonus money.

I'm not old money; not ivy league so I don't identify with him on that front. And while I married young and have a daughter, I'm not the shitty husband Pete is. He's not a perfect analogue, but he's a hell of a lot closer to the mark for me than Peggy is. Moreover, I just think Vincent Kartheiser is a better actor than Elizabeth Moss. He's more emotive; more expressive with his face and mannerisms. It's hokey but it's true - I feel Pete more than Peggy and to me that's in large part because of the job Kartheiser does.

And as to Peggy being the show's moral compass; precisely what separates her from Don? Why is she identifiable but Don isn't? It's nothing more than timing - we saw Peggy rise through the secretarial pool whereas we were only told Don made a similar meteoric rise. Like Don, Peggy's ambition has gotten in the way of having a stable family. Like Don, she seems more at ease when she's unhappy. We've seen her absolutely blast guys like Mathis and Ginsburg much as Don did with her when she was in their shoes. If she ever actually gets the job that Don has, she'd just be Don, right down to her self-destructive approach to personal relationships.

There's nothing about the "Peggy is the proxy for the audience" thing that has ever made a single whiff of sense to me. She's Don earlier in Don's career and that's it.

By golly, he's almost figured it out!