Mad About the Men: The Color Blue

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 10:

‘…My mind misgives, Some consequence yet hanging in the stars.’

For ten episodes now we’ve been dragged inch by agonizing inch to the top of the rollercoaster and last night’s episode has us teetering on the precipice, white knuckles gripping our seats, just waiting for that stomach-shattering plunge into oblivion. Tragedy, revenge, the disintegration of the family – if I keep returning to Shakespeare in my head when I write about this show, it’s no coincidence.

The Color blue? The color is black – deep deep black, make no mistake.

An award to honor Don’s humanity? Tish tish boom! Mr. Weiner. The oxymoron is so blatant it hurts a little. It’s actually difficult to watch him with Miss F, so eager as he is to project some kind of innocent nymph-like fantasy upon her persona, quite literally turning her into the prancing May fairy she first appeared to him as – hippie star on her cheek and all. Blurgh.

His discomfort with her coming out of the shadows and into reality – the arrival of her epileptic brother and her subsequent stalkerish move on the train – displayed the extent to which Don wishes to preserve the theatrical fantasy. The brother got it right, ‘he’s arrogant, his plans were interrupted,’ and woe betide anyone who deems to interrupt Don’s plans. Something tells me things aren’t going to end so well with Don and little Miss, and for once, it might actually be her that gains the upper hand.

Listening to Don wax lyrical about the emotional power of the telegram in his trademark honey tones was equally hard to swallow. ‘You can’t frame a phonecall,’ he proclaimed, which is quite handy for you Don, quite handy indeed. Paul and Peggy’s subplot this week was fine, but reinforces the issue I’ve had with her this entire season, where the business at the office has become a prop for the greater domestic drama that’s unfolding. Also, anyone notice how every meeting at Sterling Cooper lasts approximately 3 minutes? I wish I had had creative reviews like that.

Betty’s patience was rewarded - in a fashion - this week, as that locked drawer finally yielded its secrets, and wouldn’t you know it was the housewife’s friend, the washing machine, that handed her the key to the forbidden fruit. Personally I want to see Betty rain down the fires of hell upon Don’s head.

The final scene at The Waldorf was majestic, with Roger spewing niceties about a man he’s come to despise, praising Don’s ‘loyalty.’ Thanking Betty for ‘sharing him,’ oh god the irony, even Don looked like he had a hard time swallowing it as he stood up.
 Brace yourselves, it’s going to get bumpy.
Quote of the week: Miss F to Don: “Do you feel bad about what you do?”
Next week: Apocalypse.

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Long Live Lemmy

We have a "two fer" here: Just the other day we overheard the unforgiving statement (amid the squealing guitar of Danger Zone) that "the only thing the 80's got right was the music." We beg to disagree. The 80's also had British sitcom The Young Ones, which debuted in the U.S. on MTV (although TLF was forced to make this discovery the hard way on VHS). The show also featured musical guest stars Madness and rock gods Motorhead, the latter shown here performing "Ace of Spades." Revel in this time capsule and the perfection of Lemmy's gravelly vocal.

Mad About the Men: Wee Small Hours

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 9:

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
- MLK Jr.


The American Dream was front and center of this ninth installment of the season, the most fractured and in many ways most frustrating episode so far.

The grainy radio broadcast of Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech (dating us on or around August 28 1963 - three months away from Roger’s daughter’s wedding and the assassination of JFK) hissed through Don’s car as he took a drive in those wee small hours and once again (yawn) sought to exert his influence over Miss Farrell. He loves her because she’s different! But really, she’s not that different at all. Watching Don move in the same tired old circles is becoming somewhat tedious and I can only hope that the writers will take us somewhere unexpected with this storyline.

But yes, the American Dream – free spirited Miss Farrell running (sans sports bra) through the pre-dawn streets; dreamy, lonely Conrad Hilton musing on the greatness of a hotel chain that will literally allow you to be BE IN AMERICA wherever in the world you happen to be, and lovely Sal, working his way up from Art Director to commercial director, directing a burly man with a knapsack on his back, a Lucky Strike in his mouth and a faraway look in his eye. The symbolism is almost too much to bear.

America.

I wish I’d been counting the number of times they said the word throughout the episode. It was a lot.

But this is a dream curdling like a bottle of milk on Don and Betty’s breakfast table - think of the sheer number of dream sequences we’ve seen this season. Connie Hilton is alone and unsatisfied, rightfully so - his grand-daughter will turn out to be Paris Hilton. Miss Farrell may be either ‘Pure or dumb,’ but she’s still just another woman who falls for Don’s charms. And Sal, with all the undertones of racial discrimination permeating the episode, Sal was the greatest victim of all. Don’s almost-whispered line of ‘You people,’ was cruel, cold and unexpected, much more shocking than Betty’s admission that the nation may just not be ready for a civil rights movement. We expect that from Betty – trapped so helplessly as she is by her desire for revolution and her paralyzing fear of change. We expect more from Don whose god-like patina continues to slowly tarnish as the season proceeds.

Betty’s stalled attempts at an affair showed the paradox that exists between what we dream of (the opening dream sequence of Henry seducing her on that damned fainting couch) and what we get in reality – thrown cash boxes, broken promises and ‘tawdry’ liaisons in locked, messy offices. Her dream was born and crushed by reality, just as her dream ended so rapidly last week when she returned home from Rome.

The overbearing and increasingly stifling feeling that something terrible is about to happen continues to haunt me as the season persists. Thank God for last night’s brief moment of comic relief – coming as always from Pete Campbell trying a cigarette and enduring a five minute coughing fit. It was a great piece of physical comedy, as was his flapping run out of the door after the vile Lucky Strike client. A thing like that.

Quote of the week: Don to the Art Director: “Now that I can finally understand you, I’m less impressed with what you have to say.”
Next Week: A party for Cooper

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: Souvenir

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 8:


Ahh there’s nothing like those hazy, lazy, crazy dog days of summer to give one permission to, well, act like a dog… but more of Pete Campbell later.


Again, Betty was very much the focus of this episode, in a season that continues to elevate her to new heights of significance (it reminds me a lot of what happened with the character of Claire Fisher in Six Feet Under). Yes, she kissed Henry Francis in a move so predictable as to be almost unworthy of mention. Whatever. I don’t really care. What I DO care about is her little Roman holiday.


I’m not sure how I feel about the repressed female experience of the era becoming so central to the show – at the cost of the actual business of making ads - I haven’t made my decision yet. But throughout this season we continue to learn more about Betty’s untapped, festering accomplishments. Yes she was an anthropology major and yes, she can speak pretty damn good Italian. I loved that line in the kitchen last night, ‘When you don’t have any power, you have to delay things.’ Ouch.


Betty and Don’s trip was a fantastic little device, reminiscent of his trippy sojourn to California last season, it liberated them both from reality, hey there was even a fabulous bit of role-playing in the restaurant scene (let’s take a minute to give thanks for the marvel that was Betty’s hairstyle) It was a literal and metaphorical re-lighting of the flame – note the repeated images of cigarettes being lit this episode.


But God it was sad and for once I actually felt genuine sympathy for Betty, who knew as soon as she stepped foot back in that house, reality would came crashing back down. Her last line of the show was utterly devastating, when Don gave her the Hilton gift shop trinket and she said to him, ‘Then you can have something to look at when I tell the story about the time we went to Rome.’ It was a tear-your-heart-out moment. For Betty it was back to life, back to the kids, back to being partially ignored by her husband, back to motherhood. Glitzy, pointless souvenirs are all that remain when the fun is over. Her speech to Sally about the first kiss only served to reinforce this pathos, ‘it’s where you go from being a stranger to knowing someone.’ And you can’t help but self-complete that thought with something along the lines of, ‘and after that it’s all downhill from there.’


Pete Campbell had himself a little European adventure of his own this week, treading that well worn path to the bedroom of the au pair. I don’t know about you but there is always something so profoundly creepy about Pete Campbell putting on the moves with a woman, slithering through the bedroom door like Gollum.


He gets several bonus points this week though, first for the way he took his shirt off like a four year old when he got home, second for watching cartoons alone, third for offering the au pair a selection of choice German beverages such as ‘Beer, Riesling and Schnapps’ and finally for dropping what is becoming his catchphrase, ‘A thing like that!’ LOVE it. I want to make it into a t-shirt.


But wow, I was blindsided by the way that story arc turned out, Pete in what appeared to be genuine tears on Trudie’s return, begging her not to go away without him again. I’ve always been a strong supporter of Pete, I want to see his character redeemed, and this week he was like a little boy lost begging his mother not to leave him again.


I’ll sign off with a nod to the delightful appearance of Joan. Ah Joan, how we miss thee already. Points also to Pete for not making her feel bad about being in another job as the ‘manager of the republic of dresses,’ he equipped himself well. Joan’s new hairstyle was almost worth tuning in for all by itself.


Line of the week: (mentioned already but worth reiterating) Betty to Don: “Then you can have something to look at when I tell the story about the time we went to Rome.”
Next Week: Let’s get back to the office for some ad fun.


Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: Seven Twenty Three

Spoiler Alert. Season3, Episode 7:

Teacher knows best.

And it was quite enjoyable to watch ‘Miss’ take Don Draper over her knee last night and give him a good tongue lashing. In fact, this entire episode was really about Don getting shown his arse, and I have to say I rather enjoyed it.

He was on splendidly grouchy form and all the more handsome for it: late to the office and dressed-down by Conrad Hilton, shouting at Peggy (even though we kind of agreed with him), shouting at Betty, getting told by Sally’s teacher that he’s just like all the other guys and finally, taking a joyride, drink in hand, picking up a couple of hitchhikers and finding himself face down and bloody on the shag pile of a cheap hotel room. The New York Hilton, this was not.

But perhaps his greatest loss, his most profound reduction came in the unlikeliest form of a tete a tete with Burt Cooper. The mild-mannered, sock-footed eccentric showed his teeth and essentially blackmailed Don into signing a three-year contract because after all, ‘who’s really signing this contract anyway.’ It was all done so quietly, so disturbingly. Suddenly you understood how this man had built his empire, and it wasn’t by serving drinks in a room full of Rothko.

Like a phoenix from the ashes though, we are certain Don will rise again. Probably next week.

Peggy and Pete had a nice little scene together about the Hermes scarf and for once Pete actually flexed some fairly admirable moral muscles. Peggy just wanted the pretty thing in the box and hey, who can blame the girl. As usual though, Pete’s best intentions sent Peggy down the road to ruin as she ended up in bed with Duck, whose wooing speech will traumatize my memory for weeks to come. Duck, apparently, likes it in the morning. Gag.

In other news of not-so-dangerous liaisons Betty met with Henry Francis as the ghost of her Kentuky-Derby-party-past came back to haunt her too. She was clearly expecting him to make an advance and was obviously miffed when he didn’t. But patience, dear Betty, patience. It will come. Her random and amusing moment of the week was buying that fainting couch on a whim, oh and that fabulous little beat when she hung up the phone in Don’s office and checked the locked drawer in his desk without even thinking. It’s these tiny glimpses that make these characters so fantastically real. Keep checking Betty, one day you might find it open.

Imagery of sleep, unconsciousness, sunrises, eclipses and so on were abound. The meaning of these could be stretched into a PhD thesis at this point. I’ll leave you to dwell on that.


Line (s) of the week:
Duck on the ad agency Grey: “It’s a Penn Station toilet with venetian blinds.”
Peggy to Pete: “Stop barging in here and infecting me with your anxiety.”
Next Week: More Pete Campbell. Finally!

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 6:


"It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood."
Macbeth, Act 3, sc. IV


And so it goes with this season of Mad Men. Blood begets more blood. American Gothic anyone? Last week it was Gene mopping up the foetal blood in Betty’s dream, this week it was gobs of the stuff dousing the employees and ruining Joan’s green dress as Guy McKendrick’s foot was unceremoniously sawn off by a runaway John Deere tractor.


Guy walks into an advertising agency…. And has to be carried out on a stretcher. Boom boom.


The Yanks quite literally, took down the Brit. Happy 4th of July Sterling Cooper.


‘The British are coming’ indeed. We blundered in with our plum-in-mouth accents, said lots of things like, ‘quite,’ and ‘rather,’ only to lose one of our finest men! He went to Cambridge don’t you know and will now, ‘never golf again.’ Thus this brightest of corporate lights was extinguished. An account manager without a golf game, is like Don Draper without a mistress.


Themes of transatlanticism were writ large and in big bloody letters across the entire episode and though they provided general comic relief it was a touch heavy-handed for my liking. But hey, I’m biased. The subject of the re-organisation was amusing, as was seeing Sterling’s name left off the chart entirely, “I’m being punished for making my job look too easy,’ he said. Another golden nugget from the Silver Fox.


It was also Independence Day for Joan, facing down the barrel of her last day at Sterling Cooper, to be saddled with a husband who is half the man that she is. In case we needed any reminder of her prowess, we watched her deftly wrangle the tourniquet around McKendrick’s ankle, so much more the doctor, so much more the one with ‘brains in her fingers,’ than her husband will ever be. Ah Joan… let me count the ways.


There was a legitimate ghost story underplaying all this, with Sally Draper convinced that her new baby brother was the re-incarnation of her dead grandfather. This equated to Don’s worst nightmare: a man in his house just like his dead father-in-law! Horror. As usual Betty’s questionable mothering techniques managed to exacerbate the situation when she claimed the fairies baby Gene is in contact with had left Sally the creepy Barbie doll under her pillow. Brilliant. Cue: the Betty Draper Guide to Good Mothering.


Curve-ball of the episode was the re-introduction of ‘friendly-man-at-country-club-bar’ as Conrad Hilton. And so, Draper falls on his feet again. I had an inkling it wasn’t to be the last we saw of that man’s face. Few people get that amount of face-time with Don, unless he’s sleeping with them.


All in all a bitty episode, more humorous than of late, but I think with a lot of seeds planted for some pretty messed-up stuff to come. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of Joan’s ample bosom.


Line of the episode: Betty to Sally: ‘Go bang your head against a wall.’
Next week: Glimpses of man looking just like Don Draper collapsed on the bedroom floor??


Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: The Fog

Spoiler alert. Season 3, Episode 5:

Out of the darkness and into… the pitch black fog.

Sunday’s episode was probably the darkest of the season so far, and that’s superlative indeed to bestow on a show that astounds in its ability to constantly make us feel like something terrible is about to happen.

Last night it started with that spliced shot of Sally Draper wiping Betty Pearson’s blood on her cheek –wtf? - and it dove down into the depths from there on in.

The entire sequence when Don was in the hospital solarium waiting for Betty was infused with a strange, dream-like quality. Don’s watch stopped, and so did time, as it slid by in the same blissed-out drugged state that Betty was in as she wandered through forests and hallways, chatting with her dead parents. (note that this was the second reference to a watch this episode – Ken Cosgrove was very proud of his Birds Eye watch too…)

This episode was really about Betty’s isolation and frailty, stripped of make-up, her face like a child’s, her hair plastered to her head with sweat, she was a long way from the petulant woman-child we have seen in recent weeks. All of this was starkly reinforced when Don reminded Dennis – the other expectant father in the solarium – that ‘your wife’s in the boat, you’re on the shore.’

That pretty much sums up the experience of most of the women in the show if you ask me. Even Peggy found herself in the boat this week, begging Don for a raise, sadly reminded of her past by the baby gifts in Don’s office and desperate for equality. ‘You have everything,’ she says to Don, ‘and so much of it.’

Oh yes he does, and is he about to have the hots for teacher?? Please. No. The weight of Dennis’s comments in the solarium about a baby being a chance to ‘be a better man,’ were too explicit to be lost on Don. Please Don. Be a better man, or at least if you’re going to be a bad man, pick a better woman to be bad with (Rachel Menken, where are you??)

Back at the office, we got a nice chunk of Pete Campbell time this week, sulking again about the state of his accounts. He actually came up with a pretty good idea about marketing Admiral TV’s to ethnic minorities, but as usual handled it with his trademark incompetence and pissed everybody off. The scene in the elevator with Hollis was painful and classic Campbell, as was him storming out of lunch with Duck when he returned to poach some talent (did you spot the line of flying ducks, behind Duck, in his office at Grey? Ha)

Line (s) of the week:
Don: “They waste paper because they throw out bad ideas.”
Betty on Don “He’s never where you expect him to be.”
Next week: the big boss from England is visiting Sterling Cooper.

p.s. why did Dennis ignore Don in the hospital when he saw him later? Any thoughts?

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: The Arrangements

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 4:

Several carefully planned story arcs came to fruition this week and still the paternal theme that’s hung like a shadow over the season so far, reigned supreme.

In the Draper household Grandpa Gene continued to show Sally the only bit of attention and affection she ever seems to get, though when he started putting salt on his ice cream we knew the time bomb in his head must surely be ticking. He started the episode by sharing his last wishes with a sulky and vitriolic Betty, and ended it dead – leaving poor little Sally once again, alone. In the meantime he taught Sally to drive and had little Bobby wielding knives and playing dress-up in his war trophies. Nice.

At the office, the ludicrous aspirations of the client looking to make Jai-Alai, “as big as baseball,” gave Don an opportunity to flex his philosophers muscles once again, giving the son of a cold, disappointed father a chance to salvage his money and run before embarking on what everyone knew would be a fool’s mission. But Don is a man who once scorned, doesn’t give you a second chance. He warned the upstart, the upstart didn’t listen and so Draper happily took the three million dollars with his conscience clear. (Great little moment when he sent the ball through the ant farm and later we saw Joan killing all the ants – metaphor? Maybe, maybe not)

In Betty news… she’s still a cold, heartless bitch. She continues to drink and smoke her way through pregnancy and ignore her children. We learnt, from Grandpa Gene, that she was a fat child – no surprises there (remember in the first episode this season when Don tells her to eat something?) and she stamped her feet like a bratty kid when her father tried to share his funeral plans with her, protesting “I’m your little girl!” The Betty Draper Snow Queen Award for this episode, however, went to the moment when she left Sally on the steps in her tutu, distraught after the death of Grandpa Gene.

The rise and rise of Peggy “I am one of those girls” Olsen continues as the Patio pitch came full-circle and everyone realized the Bye Bye Birdie ad was a pile of shite. Best moment of the episode was Peggy’s smug little grin in the conference room when the clients said they hated it – that’s right, you told ‘em so Peggy. She knows it, and most importantly Don knows it, you can bet some reference to that maypole dancing woman from episode 2 is going to be brought back into play soon enough.

There was also some general Joan frivolity - which I always enjoy - when she out-copy-writer-ed Peggy and told her how to craft a roommate ad that would really get noticed. Though those two are like two cats prowling round each other, Peggy knows a good thing when she hears it. This little scenario also gave Joan the best line of the episode, when she read Peggy’s original ad and said, “It reads like the stage directions from an Ibsen play.”

Finally, it would be wrong to overlook the slow, painful penny dropping in Sal’s wife’s head as he gave that thoroughly convincing rendition of the Bye Bye Birdie number in their bedroom – far more excited by that than any potential action with her between the sheets. It was all pretty tragic.

Line of the week: (second to Joan) Don to Bobby: “Bobby, it’s a dead man’s hat. Take it off.”
Next week: Looks like Sally Draper’s about to go off the rails and someone at SC has been cooking the books.

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: My Old Kentucky Home

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 3:

Supposedly Stephen Foster's original title for “My Old Kentucky Home” was “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night!” Need we comment on ol’ Roger serenading his young wife in blackface? Others say the song’s inspired by Foster’s visit to the opulent mansion of his bluegrass state cousins. Opulent garden parties don’t stray far from spectacle either, and last night’s episode was all about the new separating from (or clinging to) the old- that is, old guard. Roger shows off his wealth and rank with a lavish garden party dripping with yore, while Paul (who also tries to prove his worth with his throwback to Hello, My Baby), Peggy and Smitty- left to grind their noses at the office- instead focus on their own devices. As always Don observes the spectacle for what it is- the Old's denial to its demise- as he attempts to exit during Roger’s Al Jolson moment of horror. When Betty, dressed in updated old lace, insists on staying he escapes to the bar for some “old-fashioneds” (touché). Meanwhile Harry and his wife are uncomfortably caught between the disparity of old power and young up-and-comers struggling to gain a foothold. They’re forced to step off the “dance floor” to make room for Pete and his wife, who flaunt their desperate desire for approval. Their approach- to translate the old with their rehearsed-to-perfection Charleston, exaggerated to the point of camp. Will Pete never disappoint?!

At last, how satisfying to hear Don speaking his mind to Roger: “No one thinks you’re happy; they think you’re foolish.”

Meanwhile, Betty clues in she’s an objet du desir (even in her most pregnant state) to men in power no less. What she’s capable of, we shall soon watch…

Ah, multi-talented Joan. Young meets Old again as Joan plays hostess to her fiancee’s colleagues and wives. She runs her home as efficiently as the office, solving problems while carrying a big stick. His older boss’ wife looks longingly at Joan or at what once was, projecting her own regrets while blissfully reminiscing about “the olden days” as Joan’s pressured to provide an obsolete form of parlor entertainment.

Youth and age meet again in the Grandpa Gene and Sally story. They’ve an understanding and God knows poor Sally needs some. No-nonsense Carla, reminding us she’s not another Viola, stands up to Grandpa in one of her infrequent appearances as witness to the Drapers’ crumbling reality. While everyone tiptoes around, her voice is fearlessly direct.

If last week showed us Peggy’s sexual awakening this week shows her spiritual rebirth. When trying to prove to the guys there’s more beneath that surface, and it’s not square-shaped, something turns on inside her. She floats proverbially (“I am so high.”), inches above the carpet, on which Paul lies and reflects on the uncertainty of life amid the recent events (“I’m thinking of Cuba”), while she looks straight ahead and expresses the brink of her potential. She exits the “smoke-cloud” and into lucidity. Just as she’s at the threshold her new secretary Olive acts the judging old biddy, having only come into the office to support her like some bizarre guardian angel of morality (oh Father Gill, you have many evangelists doing your work, don’t you?). Olive implores her on her future (“I know what goes on in there.”). But Peggy, as if possessed by Don, looks her squarely in the eye and articulates the tangibility of her power before moving past. She knows who she is and where she’s going- practically surpassing Don’s own self-worth (or is it self-prophesy?) in her moment of clarity.

Side note: what’s up with the Tom Cruise look-alike?

LINE OF THE WEEK: “You can come here and be happy and you get to choose your guests.” Roger to Don.
NEXT WEEK: ???
Usually construed by E. Nolan, but this week substituted with humble analysis by Val.

Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: Weekly Review

Today we pull the trigger on a weekly review of one of the most compelling, provocative (not to mention stylish) shows currently capturing our undivided attention every Sunday night. Sharing in our weekly habit is E. Nolan, whose careful examinations on the Mad Men series we'll begin posting shortly.
Disclaimer: the postings contain spoilers so if you're savoring these episodes for a later date or still haven't embarked on Season 1 let alone 3, then you may want to skip and return tomorrow.

Photo by Frank Ockenfels 3

Mad About the Men: Love Among the Ruins

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 2:

Let's start with the themes at play in last night's episode, clearly this one was all about family and patriarchy. We had Roger Sterling (the ultimate Silver Fox) getting told by his daughter she doesn't want him and his new dollybird wife at her wedding. Then there was the patriarchal theme as played out by the Drapers and Betty's father who is clearly in the grip of Alzheimer's or something similar.

Ah Don.... just as I think I've gathered the strength to leave you, you pull me back in, like the beaten wife I am. Last week I screamed at the TV as he once again cheated on Betty with that dopey Air Stewardess. This week I cheered for him as he put Betty's weasel of a brother in his place.

Don was the king of the lion pack this week, stronger than Sterling and so much better than Betty's brother - the ultimate man of the house.

Underpinning all of this was the impending demolition of Penn Station, the metaphorical "father figure" of old New York. There were a lot of sidelines about public transport last night - Joan's flirtatious subway joke, Peggy emerging from the filthy subway in Brooklyn, Draper telling his brother-in-law which train to bugger off on out of his house (that too was leaving from Penn Station). These were glimpses of a grimy city we don't often see outside the gleaming offices of Sterling Cooper. I also enjoyed Embeth Davidtz's cameo as the wife of new Brit boss (his name escapes me) when she made that snipe about the insects. This is New York pre-gentrification.

This all brings me back to the title of the episode 'Love Among the Ruins' Love among the ruins of a family, among the literal ruins of a soon-to-be brutalised landmark, among the ruins of a city. This is a show full of ruins after all... ruined people and now ruined places.

The secondary story was Peggy's sexual re-awakening. Her little parody of Bye Bye Birdie was thoroughly creepy but by God! It worked!! We saw Peggy go to a bar alone, simper, get bought a drink by a burger-eating cretin and then, get laid (kinda - she's not making that mistake twice).

Most telling was the fact she lied about her job and let her new beau believe she was "just a secretary".... women of New York sighed a knowing sigh of understanding at this point. Penn Station may be gone, but some things haven't changed so much after all.

Peggy's sexual re-awakening was thematically tied-together with the "Patio" pitch and it brought us the most enigmatic moment of the episode. Peggy complained to Don that simply parodying Bye Bye Birdie in a diet soda commercial was making an ad for women from a man's point of view.

Don shot her down with a line that cut to the quick of any of us who have worked in advertising: "You're not an artist Peggy, you solve problems. Leave some tools in your toolbox."

DAMN! that hurt.

BUT. Then he went to that May Dance and became transfixed by the female teacher (?) dancing around the maypole, so joyful, so pure, so energetic. He leaned over and let his fingers run through the grass.......

Cut to Don returning to the office and staring at Peggy through her office door. he sees her, we wanted him to go in, but he didn't. In that moment by the maypole, Don realised Peggy was right, Bye Bye Birdie was wrong. Pretty soon we're going to see a pitch for a diet soda brand with a woman dancing barefoot on the grass around a maypole.. you mark my words.

Also I do want to give a brief mention to the vitriolic wonder of Betty this week, from the missing melba toasts to her shouting at the kids and sulking about the soot-covered coat (more city grime there), she was great.

LINE OF THE WEEK: "You're not fat anymore." - Paul Kinsey to Peggy.
Closely followed by Sterling asking the Brit guy if he ever got drunk and wore his suit of armour.
NEXT WEEK: The preview suggests we will finally see a bit more of Joan and her horrid husband. Hurrah!

Diligently construed by E. Nolan
Photo by Carin Baer

Mad About the Men: Out of Town

Spoiler Alert. Season 3, Episode 1:

The doors of Sterling Cooper are open for business once again, and oh Aunty ‘Em how good it felt to be back, nestled in the ample warmth of Joan’s bosom once more. Unlike the two year leap from Season 1 to 2, here a matter of six or seven months have gone by (essentially real time) and Betty is now 8 months pregnant.

Appropriately for the first episode of a new season, images were abound of birth and motherhood. Our first sight of Don was of him warming milk for Betty late at night, intercut with flashbacks, in which we learned the genealogy of the name "Dick" Whitman. These were actually a little disappointingly handled to me, reminiscent of slightly dubious amateur dramatics but also evocative of the final scenes of Our Town.

However, we did finally learn the full story about Don’s/Dick’s less than auspicious beginnings. He is quite literally the son of a whore, named "Dick" as an angry testament to his father’s appendage. Was this Don’s own paranoia at work? A story created from his imagination? Or was it true? Perhaps the overt theatricality of it all was a clue that we were meant to read this as Don’s own internal fiction? Time, I’m sure, will tell.

This maternal theme was fully rounded-out in the closing moments when scary Sally Draper (who is going to be such an effed-up adult thanks to Betty’s Valley of the Dolls routine), discovered the Air Stewardesses wings then asked about the night she was born. Don was unable to get the story out, drifting off into a dark reverie.

The other big storyline was the outing of Sal. To me, the strength of Mad Men has always been the way they weave the metaphors of advertising together with the broader emotional and social issues of the show – The Kodak Carousel moment is one of the most memorable from Season 1. This was once again done superbly in this episode with the London Fog business.

London Fog became the presence of the Brits in the office, it became a metaphor for Sal’s closeted existence and ultimately a "fog" was what Don encouraged Sal to bring down around himself. His "Limit your exposure" speech to Sal was so absolutely pitch perfect as to cause me to catch my breath. Here he is, a man who knows ALL about what it means to lead a double life, telling Sal to keep the proverbial raincoat on. Limit your exposure. Protect yourself. Once again we caught a glimpse of Don’s humanity, the thing that keeps us hanging on when we’re screaming at the TV after he once again bangs some dumb girl. Oh Rachel Menken, how I yearn for you! You were his only equal.

It would be rude to ignore Pete Campbell in this episode, his creepy Mr. Burns-esque post-promotion victory dance was so macabre, so ghoulish! I loved it. His subsequent descent into foot-stamping and brattiness was equally enjoyable. He remains my favourite character on the show.

LINE OF THE WEEK: "Limit your exposure" – Don to Sal.
NEXT WEEK: Is Peggy going to get laid?

Diligently construed by E. Nolan

Photo by Carin Baer