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In reaction, the media narrative finally shifted this week. Obituaries and dissections have been posted en masse, many by outlets who'd previously extolled the anti-Betty worldview. She may not have been likable at all times, but the rush to write her off was never fair. It's just unfortunate that it took her impending doom to make people reconsider her.Not that this is anything new. Breaking Bad actress Anna Gunn received an astonishing level of vitriol from irate viewers who couldn't stand the way Skyler stood up to her meth-cooking husband—this started as early as the first season, when she was merely suspicious, and escalated throughout the show as she learned the full extent of his dealings. Betty's trajectory was quite similar. Evidently, playing someone's wife on TV can be as thankless as actually being one of those wives, and Jones has received misplaced criticism from the very beginning. Betty has long been one of the show's easiest characters to dismiss, whether detractors attributed it to the character's hollowness or the actress's limited range. Both complaints are, and have always been, overstated.Related: The Real Don Draper from 'Mad Men'?One of the easiest things to forget about the former Elizabeth Hofstadt, at least until she announced her plans to pursue a master's in psychology earlier this season, is that she already holds an anthropology degree from Bryn Mawr. She was too intelligent and too restless to be happy being arm candy and a perpetual hostess in the Draper and Francis households. She occasionally made gestures toward going back to work but never had the support or confidence to follow through. Though she struggled against that sad truth for years, she accepts death with a serenity that few others on the show could muster. Even her second husband, who's made a habit of relying on his political connections to solve their biggest problems, is absolutely incapable of processing the truth of what's happening.Evidently, playing someone's wife on TV can be as thankless as actually being one of those wives.
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