October 18, 2010
4.13: Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milkshake

Here we are, folks. A season marked by change ends on the cusp of more change for our main characters. I feel a bit misty-eyed for the definitive end of some key relationships in the show -  Don and Betty, Carla and the kids (thanks a lot, Betty), Don and Faye, Joan and Roger (we think), Bert and the agency. But I’m also heartened to see hope and happiness in Don’s eyes; a welcome change for such a tortured soul. Since I’m too disorganized and undisciplined to write this in a better way, I’ll just hit the main themes of the season and examine how the finale addressed them:

The Development of Don’s True Self

Is secretary Megan the woman Don would wind up with, free of the constraints of his previous life? Here is the guy who was living a construction of a life (Betty, kids in Ossining, etc) and was never quite free to just “be”. More and more this season,  especially after the death of Anna, he’s allowed Don and Dick to merge. (Note Don telling Sally that he was Dick in as non-complicated a way as possible: “It’s a nickname I use sometimes.”) Now that he has shed away all the stuff he thought he needed to be happy (the wife, the mistresses), he winds up with Megan. She is precisely his type, right? Brunette (I knew Faye wouldn’t last largely because of her hair color), strong, independent, and shockingly good with the kids. She has “that same spark” as Peggy, Don says. The moment when she calmly cleaned up the spilled milkshake showed Megan’s cool; we all remember how Betty reacted to Sally’s outburst at Thanksgiving. Where Megan is chill, Betty is chilly.

Women’s Roles in the Workplace

We’ve seen Peggy grow up and grow more into a role as Don’s equal; but she’s clearly not a Jane or a Megan. The scene where Joan and Peggy (who haven’t always been on the same team) commiserate over the fortunes of Jane (Don’s former secretary who Roger married) and Megan burst with subtext: Joan and Peggy have both proven exceedingly competent professionally, but neither were ever - and will ever be - the secretary gals who wind up up achieving marriage with their bosses instead of professional success. It broke my heart a little when Don told Peggy of Megan, “She reminds me of you,” knowing full well that while he loves Peggy, he will never LOVE Peggy. 

Faye is a Peggy in that way. She’s decidedly not good with kids, and great at her job. As a shrink, she understood and nurtured Don, but maybe too well. She had Don pegged from  the beginning of the season when she said “you’ll  be married again within a year.” Is she also right as she gets dumped, when she said “You only like the beginnings of things”? Is Megan really, finally the one, or is Don using her as his latest exercise in escapism? Don’s an emotional hobo. We assume he’s found his “home” in Megan, but Faye is a smart cookie… 

The Ascent of the Youth, Descent of the Old

It appears Bert is really gone, eh? And Roger, besides the one-liners (“Did you get cancer?”), is more of a figurehead than anything else these days. Ken and Pete are the ones landing and nurturing accounts - how long can Roger stick around in these tough times for SCDP? Sounds like something we’ll find out in season five. 

The even younger characters - Glen and Sally - are as interesting to watch as ever. Glen’s line to Betty: “Just because you are sad doesn’t mean everybody has to be.” ZING! Now that Sally has the support of a stable future step-mother I hope things are looking up for her. But as is Mad Men’s wont, I don’t feel so stable about much of anything as we move forward…

Of course, I didn’t hit Joan’s pregnancy reveal, Henry Francis’ “no one’s ever on your side, Betty” awesomeness and Pete’s growth as a character. So I’m looking forward to hearing from y’all, my Mad Men brethren.

I could wear these nylons all day,

Elise

12:15am  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy1F_xs7
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
October 17, 2010
Matt Weiner Looks Back on Season Four

“We talked about Don, and Don and Peggy, and the great child acting of Kiernan Shipka…”

10:37pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy1Fyl8T
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
October 17, 2010
4.13: Best line from the finale

Peggy, who’s reeling from hearing the news that Don is getting married to his secretary Megan, burst into Joan’s office to gossip about it. Joan simply asks, “Whatever could be on your mind?”

-John Taylor


10:26pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy1FyT1w
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
October 17, 2010
4.12: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

As usual, the season ends way, way too soon for us MadMenaholics. Somehow we’re already nearing the Summer of Love, and this season more than the rest we’ve gotten to see real evolution. SCDP is no Sterling Cooper (though the new company is failing), Peggy’s become a bonafide working gal who can equal Don in creative talent and emotional restraint and coolly hang with the Bohemians on the weekends, the decline of Roger and Bert reflect the passing away of the old ways of doing business, Pete’s gone from slimy office weasel to guy who falls on his sword to keep Don’s secret.

We haven’t gotten to see Don do much in the way of making a great pitch this season. I liked the early season bikini ad, but that ended in a tirade. But that smoking ploy was as creative and fun as his shenanigans to get Teddy Chaough to waste resources making a commercial in their competition to win the Honda account. Too bad it drove Bert Cooper to quit, and it may not help save SCDP in the end, but props to the guy for trying. He was probably right not to check with the others - Don’s a “ask for forgiveness later” type of guy.

But then there’s Betty. Who hasn’t really grown up at all. Her insisting upon keeping her appointments with Sally’s child psychologist was already grating enough; by the time she wrecked her daughter by telling her they would move homes simply because she was jealous of her daughter’s platonic time with creepy Glen? It’s totally in line with her character but I am now going to actively lobby for her to be written off the show. Mad Men’s real strength comes in its office stories anyway; if Betty Draper is going to continue to be so one-dimensional, I don’t see any reason to keep her on much at all. It’s frankly a relief her screentime’s been so reduced this season.

But Sally. What will become of Sally? Walton and I spent a lot of time discussing her offline this season, wondering how much she’ll become like Don, or whether she’s going to become overly sexualized as we head into the sexual revolution, how she’s going to deal with living under her mother’s roof for the rest of her adolescence…

And here we are at the season finale. Came too soon.

Pickles are funny,

Elise

6:13pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy1FruMo
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: anti-tobacco, SCDP, Mad Men sally Sally Draper betty Betty Draper 
October 7, 2010
4.11 - “As Don Said, Nothing Is Going to Change”

“We’ve had a pretty good year. We’ve gained more accounts than we’ve lost, a lot more, because our work is thoughtful and effective. Even Lucky Strike said so. Which means that nothing should change. Nothing will change. We’re going to push ourselves, shoulder to shoulder, and we’re going to succeed ten-fold and it will be exhilarating.” - Don Draper

Business, it seems, will be the last institution to change.

Lucky Strike is gone, and Roger got caught. I didn’t really like the fake phone call — I guess they didn’t have speaker phones then, but wouldn’t Draper have wanted to rip the phone out of Roger’s hand and make a direct plea? Wouldn’t Cooper have made a call and found out that Roger lost the account weeks ago? And is the fact that I use the last names of Draper and Cooper and the first name Roger an indication that, as Cooper said, I could never take Roger seriously because he never took himself seriously? Joan even finally gave him the old heave-ho, and now his “Sterling’s Gold” has been published.

It makes me wonder — what’s left for Roger? Lucky Strike was his only account. Is he done?

Meanwhile, Peggy continues to be the redeeming character of the show. The lipstick on the teeth was embarrassing though fun, and I liked that she enjoyed the prank. I still think the wannabe-beatnik guy is a tool, but I’m glad she’s happy all the same. Pete, on the other hand, now has a second child (not that he should leave a meeting because of it or stop chasing hearses or anything), and is being heavily courted by the rival firm. It was interesting that Don got Pete’s back in that room against Roger, but I somehow feel that’s not going to stop Pete from wanting to jump ship. Then again — we’re still waiting for Lane to return for overseas. This season is really, really picking up steam heading into the final episodes.

Which brings me to this: “You always underestimated what a skeezeball he was.”

That was Kaiba’s first thing she said once Don fell off the wagon, in every way imaginable. After I wrote last week, “For the first time since we’ve gotten to know him, I’ve started to feel like he’s someone I can root for. He’s at least trying to be a nice guy now” my wonderful bride-to-be was all too eager to gloat and point out that Don Draper is not a good guy, and that I got sucked in like all men do who want to think you can get away with everything. Ah, gender wars. Don asks Faye to give him inside information, she refuses, he starts drinking “over-par” again (I love that term and am absolutely stealing it, starting this morning), he hooks up with his eager secretary, and then comes home to find Faye waiting for him with a tip for her client. Faye all but says she did it because she loves Don, and she’s tying his happiness and professional life directly to hers. The final scene, where she’s laying in his nook on the couch, just killed me.

A transformation? Not so much. More travels down the Lost Highway? Looks like it…

—Phillip

10:28am  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy1BHH1r
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
October 1, 2010
4.7 - 4.10: Don Draper Travels the Lost Highway

I’m a rolling stone, all alone and lost / For a life of sin, I have paid the cost
When I pass by, all the people say / “Just another guy on the lost highway”

Season 4 is still answering the question, “Who is Don Draper?” As everyone else has pointed out, we’ve seen Don change this season, evolving and adapting to all the other change surrounding him. The good folks at Entertainment Weekly, as well as The Nation’s Greg Mitchell, have made arguments that the inner-Draper episode (4.8 “Summer Man”) parallels Dylan’s most famous song, Like a Rolling Stone. However, much like Don Draper, the song has many layers, and within the origins of Dylan’s six-minute indictment of pride is a song that better reflects the sense of lost/loss Draper has gone through in these last four episodes.

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine / And a woman’s lies make a life like mine
Oh, the day we met, I went astray / I started rollin’ down that lost highway

Leon Payne was a blind balladeer. One day in 1948, on his way from Texas to California to visit his sick mother, he wrote the song “Lost Highway.” The song was made popular by Hank Williams first, and then Bob Dylan played it with Joan Baez during the 1965 film “Don’t Look Back.” Many Dylanophiles think this was the song that inspired Dylan’s most popular song, “Like a Rolling Stone.” The song (the lyrics of which I’m interspersing throughout this post) is a simple ballad whose main character has lived a sinful life and is now lost. Throughout these four episodes — from hitting rock bottom (“The Suitcase”), to writing memoirs (“Summer Man”), to trying to turn his life only to learn his daughter is now the one who is running away (“The Beautiful Girls”) to witnessing his past lies smash into his work world (“Hands and Knees”) — Don has tried to be honest about who he really is, where his life has taken him so far, and how he can move in a new direction to improve himself.

I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two / Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I’m lost, too late to pray / Lord, I’ve paid the cost on the lost highway

I’d imagine that by the end of the last three episodes of this season, we’re going to have a much different answer to the question, “Who is Don Draper?” But for the first time since we’ve gotten to know him, I’ve started to feel like he’s someone I can root for. He’s at least trying to be a nice guy now. When his secretary effed up his file for the Department of Defense, he didn’t berate her or fire her. He accepted his own role and his own fault. That’s a big move for Draper. Of course, on the other hand, he’s still lost, and as Elise pointed out, he’s still running from who he really is.

Now, boys, don’t start your ramblin’ round / On this road of sin or you’re sorrow bound
Take my advice or you’ll curse the day / You started rollin’ down that lost highway

Will Don Draper be able to get off the lost highway? More so than any time watching Mad Men, I’m excited to find out that question.

—Phillip

5:29pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy18zSNH
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
September 27, 2010
4.10: Hide and Seek

In an episode full of revelations, the main secret driving the the show’s central character gets kept under wraps - for everyone besides Faye, a new member of the Draper/Whitman inner circle. But let’s review everything we learned about the rest of the characters: Lane is involved with a “negro”! Joan is preggers with Roger’s baby! Joan gets a secret abortion! Roger loses 69% of SCDP’s revenue! Lane’s a victim of domestic violence!

This episode worked so well because it played on the central theme of the show: secrets and lies. And now that we’re four seasons in, the audience is getting a huge payoff for paying attention all these years. We see the resentment Pete harbors toward Don, as Pete has known the Dick Whitman secret since 1960 and now it’s coming back to ruin his business relationship. (Only the irony there is Don actually helped fix Pete’s big secret - the Peggy baby situation - all those years ago.) We see the marked difference between Betty’s reaction to learning Don’s secret and Faye’s reaction. Where Betty turned cold toward Don after learning the truth, Faye drew nearer to him. Faye’s actually Don’s type, of course. Instead of being a trophy wife who can cook and sew and such, Faye is that independent, headstrong woman who Don’s always actually been drawn to. (e.g. Rachel Menken, crazy Miss Farrell, Bobbie Barrett, Midge)

So one of my questions as we leave this episode is, if Don gets away with it again and gets to keep his fake identity, isn’t he still running? He really breaks down here and admits he’s sick of running, but Pete helping him keep things under wraps means he’s going to continue this lie… should the whole house of cards come tumbling down in order to save his sanity?

Finally, the change theme of the season’s really coming into full focus, as Roger loses the company’s golden egg (and, I think, the only real account he’s in charge of). As we’ve talked about in previous posts, his and the rest of the “old guard’s” influence is waning, if not dying a la Blankenship and that client he tried to reach by phone in this episode.

So we head an episode closer to the season finale with SCDP teetering on the edge, and Trudy about to pop out a tot. Methinks this season won’t end with as much caper-style fun and triumph as last season.

Watch out for old British dudes with canes,

Elise

9:24pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy17fu3v
(View comments) 
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: lucky strike betty Betty Draper roger sterling joan harris lane pryce mad men mad men season 4 episode 10 mad men 
September 21, 2010
jeskeets: “She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.” R.I.P. Mrs. Blankenship

jeskeets:

“She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She was an astronaut.” R.I.P. Mrs. Blankenship

9:28pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy15Rqfl
(View comments) 
(Notes: 290)
  
September 19, 2010
4.9: Girls, Girls, Girls

While I didn’t love this episode,  the young versus old, male versus female conflicts we’ve been observing all season come into full focus. And as Walton mentioned, the season-long “the education of Peggy Olson” continues…

I was especially struck by what Walton observed in his “wounded knee” post regarding the gradual disappearance of people like Bert and Roger this season. Just last week he wrote:

It is significant that Roger and Cooper have been absent, invisible. They are part of the fading, receding mode. 

And in this episode, good ol’ Ida Blankenship (who we were all getting sick of anyway) ACTUALLY ‘RECEDES’ in death. How prescient of our gimpy co-blogger to basically predict this. And my god, watching the secretaries put the blanket over her in the background of that  meeting - what a great use of the glass conference room.

But this episode was really about the girls. Photographer Joyce describes at the end of the episode the idea of a woman being a container for a man. But finally,  now that we’re in 1965 and in the midst of great social change, women get a chance to turn their backs on being someone else’s container. But with great difficulty or sacrifice. Faye can’t deal with children well because she chose work over family (signaling that she believes it’s a linear choice); Peggy compares her professional struggle with the plight of blacks, and she’s not wrong.

Ever the traditionalists, Ida spent her life answering phones for other people and dies in that position. Joan was the “container” to Roger’s “vegetable soup,” holding him and warming him all these years, but what did she get out of it in her real life? He married another secretary while she got stuck with an absent failure of a doctor who will  probably die in Southeast Asia.

Sally’s story is sadder than ever; her situation has basically set her up to be someone who either hates men or seeking the attention of men for the rest of her life. Sure is tough being a girl.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

-Besides that rum-topped french toast, Don didn’t have a drink all episode, did he?

-Is anyone actually going to publish Roger’s book?

-Let’s say the mugging didn’t happen. Would Joan have hooked up with Roger? I wish we knew how their affair ended. It seemed she basically let Jane have him, but would he have left  his wife for Joan as he did Jane? I realize I’ve fallen into a  hypothetical abyss here…

To devoted caretakers everywhere,

Elise

11:16pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy14ocRM
(View comments) 
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: season 4, feminism mad Mad Men Ida Blankenship Vietnam Sally Sally Draper 
September 13, 2010
4.4-4.8: The Wounded Knee Episodes

I haven’t been writing for a few weeks while nursing my right knee after an injury and surgery.  But I’ve been following Mad Men closely, thinking about what the show’s writers and actors are trying to illustrate.

Mad Men is now in the process of describing the set of cultural changes that revolutionized American life.  

1) downtown hipster culture versus midtown, WASP male culture.

At the end of 4.4 there are a set of beautiful shots, edited so that Peggy and Pete spy each other through the glass doors.  Peggy’s on her way to hang with the young editors at Life magazine while Pete, in his blue conservative suit, mingles with a bunch of white-haired white dudes on his way to three martini lunch.  

It is significant that Roger and Cooper have been absent, invisible.  They are part of the fading, receding mode.  

2) WASP male culture becomes introspective

Though he made fun of Roger’s tapes (4.7), Don Draper is now a memoirist, writing to get it down and keep it straight.  Swimming, like a John Cheever character, to clean his body and clear his mind.  Swearing of booze for coffee.  Trying to be a man in full.  

The use of silence and the widening, retracting shot as a way of displaying Don’s internal study and his discomfort with whiskey-soaked business chatter in office meeting scene (4:8), puts one in mind of boozy intellectuals in mid-century American high literature:  Cheever, Updike, and Bellow.  Those writers, like Don in his diary, captured a moment simultaneously rising and fading.  Of course, when you document the dying thing, it never really ends.  Consider all the inches given over to covering Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”: a novel is about a white, upper-middle class family struggling with booze, dreams unrealized, conservatism, business, sex, and trying to get right to live right.

3) Women as professionals and leaders

All season Joan and Peggy have been working through a minefield of social and professional changes.  Many women are still negotiating ieds in the work place.  It has been very hard for me to watch the cocksuckers in creative speak condescendingly to Peggy and Joan.  Watching Joey leave was pretty easy.  

“Fuck you, Joey!”

But the elevator scene (4.8) with Joan offering a sharp disquisition on the politics of women in the workplace was powerful and intense.  Not only is Joan physically intimidating, she has a mind of crisp calculation.  Peggy has the same stunned look on her face that Don does when specific truth sinks in.

Thus far the entire season could be called “The Education of Peggy Olsen”: from episode to episode she gets wiser and bolder, while stumbling still in order to prove she has more to learn.

—Walton

12:23am  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/ZQnFDy12P7Eb
(View comments)