I watched seasons 1 and 2 again and I have changed my mind about a number of characters. Previously I said I love Joan. Now I think she is a sad case. Joan is very limited and superficial despite her assets: looks, brains, poise and presence. She fully accepts the limitations placed on women at the time and embraces the idea that the best she can hope for in life is to marry well. Although she has plenty of opportunity and power to advance as a woman, she sits back and discourages Peggy from doing what she is too much of a coward to do. The only time Joan loses her composure is to cry over the death of Marilyn Monroe, or to flash some bigotry when one of her office flames dates a black woman.
Peggy is still a bit of a mystery to me. In the first two seasons she does make great strides as a woman earning a job and an office usually reserved for men only. However, I still can't view her success as the product of great courage and brains. She has some kind of weird detachment from reality that is fully evidenced with her reaction to the unwanted pregnancy. She denies, denies, denies.
I can't decide what the writers' intent is with Don Draper. Is he everyman, a little bit of everything? Watching all 4 seasons, he is all over the place. No one is *that* complicated. He can't be a single person.
The only time he seems like a real person is when he is with the former wife of the real Don Draper, and then after she dies, a little bit with Peggy.
When does season 5 start???