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

7:13pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZQnFDy1FruMo
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Filed under: anti-tobacco, SCDP, Mad Men sally Sally Draper betty Betty Draper 
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

10:24pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZQnFDy17fu3v
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Filed under: lucky strike betty Betty Draper roger sterling joan harris lane pryce mad men mad men season 4 episode 10 mad men