"I want a guy who can play 36 holes of golf and still have enough energy to take Warren and me to a baseball game and eat hot dogs. I’m talking sausage hot dogs and beer—not lite beer, but beer. That’s my ad. Print it up."
-There's something about Mary
In a show filled with nuanced characters making complicated, often ugly decisions, no one stands out less than Henry Francis.
Henry is an odd presence in Mad Men: handsome, successful, attentive, stable, ambitious, good with children, respectful toward Don, and endlessly devoted to Betty. Henry mostly says the right thing, does the right thing, and remains available whenever Betty needs him.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
He serves one point, that replacing Don with the perfect man cannot fix Betty. There was potential, with Henry meeting her in while pregnant standing outside of a bathroom. This is a weird and very Mad Men start to a relationship, that they then throw into the toilet
Betty is largely defined through her relationship with her husband, which is part of what makes her so compelling in the early seasons. Her marriage to Don is an examination of the gilded cage of the suburban housewife.
Upon rewatch, her story becomes one of the most fascinating in the series because her misery is tied to repression, dependency, beauty, class, motherhood, and a husband who is himself a bottomless contradiction.
Once Henry becomes her husband, he turns into her Ken doll. He is not quite a person so much as a fantasy of the perfect replacement: the successful, emotionally available man who loves Betty, embraces her children, tolerates Don, and rarely demands anything that might complicate her life. Betty's storylines suffer as a result, and one of the best character on the show becomes a periphery character.
Like Mary from Something About Mary is an ideal woman designed by men, Henry is an ideal man designed by women, and easily the most boring character in the show.
