Part 2 of a 5-part series on TV shows that have become my reference guides during my descent into shadiness.
“Mad Men”
Until I started watching this show, I had no idea that every married man in the 1960s cheated on his wife, but boy, did they ever!
It seemed like a fun era to live in if you were a rich white man with the drinking and smoking at work, and the flying in airplanes in fancy clothes, and the being able to disappear for hours at a time because you weren’t tethered to a cell phone.
But above all else, “Mad Men” has taught me one crucial thing:
Men with great wives will still cheat on them.
Case in point: “Mad Men’s” Betty Francis (formerly Draper). She is classy,
stunningly beautiful, fluent in Italian and a great cook to boot. She isn’t frigid in bed or opposed to having fun. But all that wasn’t enough to keep Don Draper faithful. Same goes for Pete Campbell’s wife, Trudy. She is assertive, supportive and a great mom, but he cheated on her during their engagement and as a married man, he seems to f*ck around every chance he gets.
“The Tudors”
First off, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is really good at playing cheating bastards. He was a gorgeous, murderous villain in Match Point, and in “The Tudors” he took selfish d-bag to a whole new level as King Henry VIII. When it came to women, His Majesty had a short attention span, and his love would turn to hate faster than a new NBC show would turn to obsolete.
I learned many valuable sexual positions lessons while watching Showtime’s depiction of a volatile, power-hungry, horny ruler of 16th-Century England. But what stuck with me the most were three words:
Maitresse en titre
Pronounced “may-tress on teet,” this French phrase means “official mistress.”
Yes, back in the day, adultery was so embraced that kings actually bestowed titles and influential roles to their mistresses. This tidbit of knowledge helps me feel less pathetic about my circumstances, because it’s comforting to know that there was a time when mistresses were revered. (Shout-out to Marquise de Pompadour.)
In Season 1 of “The Tudors,” Henry asked Anne Boleyn to be his maitresse en titre. She refused, saying she would settle for nothing less than being his Queen. Well, that strategy sure backfired:
Ms. Tress 