Mad Men Gets Underway, Everyone’s Fucked

Wow. That was a train wreck of an episode—for the characters that is, not the show. Last week I had a feeling this would be a triumphant season but it doesn’t look like Matt Weiner is going to let up on the bleakness. After the Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of anxiety this episode elicited in me I think it will be awhile before the workers of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce see any relief that doesn’t come straight out of a bottle and into a glass of ice.

But on a lighter note…

Freddy’s back!

Though it probably won’t be for good, the new firm has reached out to their old friend Freddy Rumson, now sober and freelancing. Peggy’s initial excitement at seeing him quickly turned to dismay, though as his sexist asides and frumpy ideas got under her modern-woman skin. I swear I uttered, “He’s old fashioned,” at the television seconds before she did. It also afforded us a look at Peggy’s growing confidence. She openly scoffs the idea that young women look up to old women and chews him out in a precisely worded Don Draperesque rant. The only thing saving her from being a total B is that she feels genuinely bad about it. But as she becomes more and more like Don (secretive, arrogant, willful) maybe that tenderness will start sealing itself away.

Her new boyfriend’s a tool. I think her decision to sleep with him means he won’t stick around long. Thank god it looks like Duck is out of the picture.

I’m surprised, too, because they’re bringing back familiar faces and the other two who showed up were distinctly unwelcome. Glen Bishop, creepier than ever and now vindictive towards Betty is trying to “save” the young Draper daughter. Sally’s attraction to him looks to be her new way of acting out. (He’s played by Matt Weiner’s son. Way to go dude, scarring your kid forever by giving him a Christopher Walken reputation out the gate as an actor.) The other was the hated Lee Garner Jr., who’s turning into the show’s villain. Last year he ushered out fan favorite Sal, this year he’s busy humiliating Roger and forcing the whole firm to spend money they don’t have.

SCDP is walking a thin line, acting like a power player, throwing around their weight and image while they barely have room to spend. This was verbalized in a slightly-too-meta scene between Don and the research woman (name?) where she basically states the show’s theme and the firm’s inner conflict in a clear but awkward line, “It all comes down to what I want versus what’s expected of me.” Everyone on the show is explicitly struggling with this at all times. I find it almost insulting to have it stated.

But it does give us insight into Don, and the horrible wretch of a man he’s become. I know I know, he’s lonely, his family has been usurped, there’s no one to take care of him…but can’t he just man up like he’s always hollering at people to do? Instead he makes drunken passes at any pretty girl nearby (who are turning him down at an alarming rate for DD) and when he does manage to fuck one it’s the absolute worst choice, his secretary hold-over from last season, poor Allison, who I always had a massive crush on. Taken in by the letters from his kids, softened up by the younger staff’s scorn (“He’s pathetic,” mutters the new art guy whose name I had to look up—it’s Joey—because he’s pretty forgettable) and maybe flattered and maybe drunk, Allison and him have a drunken screw that can’t have been the full Don Draper treatment he’s known for. Don then pulls a move right out of The Apartment and gives her her bonus the next day. Horrible timing. Don’s veneer is beginning to fade. Without the grounding presence of his family people are beginning to notice his faults.

So so much happened this week and I hope I managed to address it all. How’d you enjoy it? Is your skin crawling like mine?