Mad Men

[Mister Tee]

A few thoughts about last night's Mad Men:

I really was fearful Roger was going to end it all. Still not convinced he won't. He's at rock bottom.

I know people are going to say, Oh, Don, can't you stop yourself -- but Megan is clearly taking command of that situation. I have to say I half-expected Faye to pick up the hint of foreign perfume on Don. And her gesture to Don may be the most generous thing anyone's ever done on this show. She's seriously in love.

The new hire waving his hand and not getting called on was one of the funnier recent moments.

Unless I'm forgetting something, this is the rare episode with no "what was happening in the outside world" references. The previous episode was August, and this one took place less than 30 days later (or Lucky Strike would have been common knowledge). Upcoming events: the Pope's visit in October (routine now, but at the time the first time a pope had left Rome in, like, 600 years), and, if they push to early November, the first great blackout.

[kaytodd]

I'm 90% sure Joan is pregnant. I wonder if Roger will be around to even see her belly grow. He does not seem well and there will be hell to pay when the other partners find out what he is hiding about the Lucky Strike account.

Poor Pete Campbell. He brings in a huge account that will likely lead to a lot more business and Don's unusual background endangers everything. Don essentially offers to leave the firm but that sends Pete into a panic. He apparently does not think SCDP can survive without Don so he allows the account to go away and takes the blame for it. The sensible thing would have been to let Don leave the firm.

So, other than Burt, all of the partners had a horrible episode. And I did not even mention the strange story of Lane, his father and the Playboy Bunny. It is hard to picture SCDP surviving after these events. There are only a few episodes left this season so some very interesting things are coming, starting next week.

[Mike Kelly]

This episode brought back a personal memory. A week before my 18th birthday in 1965 and the weekend before I was to move to Florida, my brother-in-law decided to bring me to the Manhattan Playboy Club. Drinking age was 18 in NYC and I needed fake ID, which I duly memorized. When we got there the greeting bunny informed us that their house rule was minimum age of 21 for entry. Talk about disappointment. I had to wait three years after moving to Miami to get into the Playboy Club down there.

Mad Men captured the look and sounds of the Club perfectly, which is no surprise.

[Mister Tee]

For those lamenting that the show skipped over Beatlemania, Sally's ecstatic squeals captured its very essence. Wasn't it wonderful that even Betty found this endearing?

Many people at other sites are saying it, and I have to concur: I spent the rest of the show worrying the tickets would fall through, causing an even deeper rift between Don and Sally. It didn't happen -- but it's pretty much the only thing that didn't go wrong for our characters.

You could write reams about this episode -- it's as themically rich as any we've seen; every moment seems of a piece with the entirety. Even just the way the closing music encapsulates both the pop culture context (The Beatles) and the prevailing plot element, everyone keeping secrets. (Too bad Beatles' rcordings are so expensive to license, leaving us with that cheesy instrumental version)

A few points:

I'm still 90% sure Joan went through with the procedure, but her "We avoided a tragedy" was artfully ambiguous.

Loved Roger tearing up the Rolodex card even while expressing sympathy.

We certainly now see the origins of Lane's servile nature.

What a show.

[Greg]

Here's something that came as a big shock to me. Randee Heller, the actress who plaid Miss Blankenship, was the Karate Kid's mother in the first Karate Kid film.



Edited By Greg on 1285256199

[danfrank]

R.I.P. Miss Blankenship

I work with a woman who has been best of friends since childhood with the actress who played Miss Blankenship. She told my friend that the whole cast was very supportive of her except for Elizabeth Moss (Peggy), who accused her of being a "scene stealer." She said that Jon Hamm is even better looking in person.

Her character was a little over-the-top, but she had some great line delivery, as in her last episode, after Bert Cooper insists that the 3-letter-word for a flightless bird starts with the letter "L," and Blankenship says, "the hell it does." She was a worthy foil to Don, and I'll miss her.

[flipp525]

The scenes between Don and Sally were beautifully acted.

I would seriously support an "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series" Emmy nomination for Kiernan Shipka next year. She was the very clear stand-out in this past episode and I think she's been consistently strong this whole season.

I was just getting to like Blankenship, and then this had to happen . . . Nice touch - Bert instinctively insisting that her service will be at Frank E. Campbell.

I thought Bert Cooper saying that Mrs. B. was "an astronaut" was incredibly touching.



Edited By flipp525 on 1285104075

[Damien]

The scenes between Peggy and Abe perfectly crystalized the way in which women (actually "girls") were not taken seriously and condescended to by men of the New Left. This was an episode largely about the changing roles of women in society, and it was fascinating how the men were all irrelevant and/or impotent: Don not being able to control Sally or to glibly reward the woman who brought Sally to the office; Roger not even trying to defend Joan against the mugger and being shot down by his editor over his ridiculous book; Bert Cooper doing a lousy job on his cross-word puzzle and not even having an office in which to do it; the partners relying on Joan to write Blankenship's obit; Abe's inability to order a Johnnie Walker at PJ Clarke's.

The scenes between Don and Sally were beautifully acted.

I was just getting to like Blankenship, and then this had to happen . . . Nice touch - Bert instinctively insisting that her service will be at Frank E. Campbell.

[kaytodd]

Very good episode. I especially liked Peggy's scenes with Abe. I think Peggy from Season 1 would have been dazzled by a "counterculture intellectual" (for lack of a better term) showing an interest in her and would have been deferential to him. But Peggy has experienced too much since Spring 1960. When he started trashing corporations as soulless evildoers, she pointed out to him that she actually meets and talks with people who work for coporations and own large companies and they are usually regular people. When Abe shows disdain for that point of view she puts an end to their evening together. As she later admitted to Joyce, she was and still is attracted to him. But that did not stop her from calling him out on what she saw as B.S.

Interesting final scene between Don and Faye. I think she is totally wrong about the reason Don asked Faye to help him with Sally. It was obviously out of desperation because he could not get Sally to listen to him. Faye's tearful accusation that Don was testing her ability to deal with Sally was a surprise to me. Her tearful statement that she failed that test makes me think she is in love with Don. I was not expecting that.



Edited By kaytodd on 1284997077

[Mister Tee]

The stunning revelation for me last night was seeing just how much Sally is Betty Draper's daughter. Visually and vocally she had never seemed so like her, and her manipulation of her father, self-satisfied smile when she succeeded, and tantrum when she failed were all Betty to a T. This is not to fail to show sympathy for Sally -- it's clear Betty treats her horribly, and anyone can see why she'd want to get out of there. But she's not a wonderful innocent hopelessly victimized.

I don't blow as hot and cold on the show as others do. Sure, I can perceive The Suitcase as a standout episode, but I almost never find any entry lacking in virtue. (The exception: the side trip to La Dolce Vita land two seasons back) Tonight had that hilarious get-Blankenship-out-of-the-office sequence (and then Bert's eloquent tribute to the arc of her life), any number of beautiful throwaway lines (they come so fast I can barely remember them), and that final Career Girls tableau -- which may have been a bit overkill, but was overkill in a way I eat up. Does anyone know the music playing over that? It suited the final shot perfectly.



Edited By Mister Tee on 1284996115

[Greg]

I think in terms of quality this week was much closer to two weeks before than last week. The "My mother made that!" line gave me one of the most awkward laughs I've ever had watching TV. I'll miss there no longer being any smart-ass comments from Blankenship. I wonder how long it will be before Draper's daughter fully reveals why she hates it so much at her mother's.

[kaytodd]

I wonder if Don has at least exposed himself to AA. Perhaps attended a meeting and then got the hell away from there. He obviously has no sponsor but some of the terms he used in his journal (and the fact that he is keeping a journal, something I would never imagine the Don from previous seasons doing) makes me wonder if he is taking baby steps to making his life better, and he is starting by finding out if he can live without being plastered most of the day. Just not ready to take the full plunge.

If he is doing things like taking a trip to an AA meeting, I'll bet it is with the advice of someone close, like a former secretary of his who is now a true colleague.



Edited By kaytodd on 1284641894

[Damien]

I'm a few episodes behind, but "The Fog" has taught me to approach any Phil Abraham-directed episode with caution.

A friend of mine was in a Phil Abraham-directed episode of The Sopranos. He was not complimentary. In fact, Uncle Junior told him not to pay any attention to the guy.

[Eric]

I'm a few episodes behind, but "The Fog" has taught me to approach any Phil Abraham-directed episode with caution.

[Damien]

Mad Men went from one of its best episodes ever to one of its worst. Usually the show conveys so much through so little -- a gesture here, a glance there, a totemic piece of 60s pop culture in the background -- but everything in this episode was so heavy-handed, from Don's unconvincing (and over-written) voice-overs to the camera's obsession with lingering on alcohol.

The icy confrontation between joan and Peggy in the elevator didn't ring true -- surely, the emotionally fragile Joan would have given at least a hint of gratitude, her appraisal of the Joey firing was way too glib.

The tension between Henry and Betsy seemed arbitrary -- and to have him and the politico talking about John Lidsay in the White House seven years hence, when the man had not even yet been elected Mayor was a rare faux pas on Matthew Weiner's part.

Oh, and where was Roger? Surely, he would have been in the middle of the vending machine incident.

On the plus side, the women's hair-dos were absolutely perfect -- if you see the likes of Elke Sommer or Connie Stenes at mid-60s Oscars you see the same styles. And even though Don's secretary's a drag, i did love the exchange: "It's Gene's birthday." "Do you want me to get a present for him or her?"



Edited By Damien on 1284529722