If you can tear yourself away from the barbecue today check out this month’s Rolling Stone which has a nice Mad Men photo spread and article that you can’t read online unless you pay for Rolling Stone (what is this a joke?).
- AMC
- You’ve got something on your…oh never mind.
But we have more serious matters to discuss…
A depressing episode, draining in a way. I think it’s the type of episode that fits in well when you’re watching a DVD marathon but seems brutal on its own,
It was Peggy’s birthday (May 25th for trivia night emcees). She’s 26 and “doing all right” as Megan puts it, though not married and pregnant, as Trudy kindly avoids mentioning. And what does every 26-year-old blossoming career girl want? A fancy dinner with her doting boyfriend and family? Nope. She wants to spend it fighting and then bonding with a drunken, ring leading Don Draper, who’s using the pretext of work to avoid an ominous call to California. Don’s pretty selfish and self-righteous about the whole thing, if you can imagine.
Maybe because I’ve been waiting all season for a Don and Peggy episode I came out a little disappointed. Their parallels and connections were almost overwrought, especially by Mad Men standards. But I was glad to see how these two very refined people are so open with one another. He’s hard on her but she can call him on his shit and he’ll take it. And even if I was underwhelmed by their patter, it felt genuine, about as real as spending an average evening with a pair of best friends.
The cementing of their relationship was buffered by the news we all knew was on the other end of the phone, that Anna is dead. I’m not going to bother complaining about the apparition but to say it wasn’t the best choice.
- AMC
- Not what it looks like.
Peggy and Don’s stories usually mirror each other and this season their both searching for identity. Nothing pisses off Peggy Olson more than thinking you know what she wants. Freddie did it, Allison, Rizzo, and now, finally, Mark, her twerpy boyfriend no more who finally got a pretty good line. Their awkward break up scene in front of the family was awesomely funny, and I’m happy he’s gone.
The episodes have been stuffed lately – it’s hard to revisit every little moment you like when they’re around every corner. And the title and product and theme this week, The Suitcase, can be unpacked (forgive me) on many, many levels. Let’s look at some highlights instead.
– Drinking being represented as a problem rather than a way of life. Roger laments a night out with no booze. Functioning alcoholic or not, Mad Men is finally starting to take alcoholism seriously as a disease. Don’s a fucking mess (Peggy kind of calls him out on it) and Roger’s always clutching his ulcer. It’s still funny, but it’s much more in our faces and has been since Betty told Don she didn’t love him. He’s been a bottle a day guy since. This ties right into…
– The Return of Duck! Showing up again just to remind us how terrible life can be when you’re a raging failure. I was wondering if him and Peggy still talked, she has to be the best ex-girlfriend ever. For those annoyed and disgusted by Peggy’s fling with him, I think she responded to the way he takes her seriously as a professional and her job is the most important thing in her life, she said as much this week.
But do we really need Duck sneaking around SCDP and pathetically wrestling with Don just to serve as a warning sign? It was sloppy and obvious at worst, mildly entertaining at best, though it provided a chance for their annual body-function joke. Duck’s aborted shit on Roger’s chair is S4’s Roger puking (S1), Freddy pissing himself (S2), and of course the lawnmower.
– Danny Strong (who’s character is conveniently named “Danny”) seems to be fitting in nicely with the new gang of idiots. Call me crazy but somehow I’m not in awe of SCDP’s corral of promising young talent. Meta-joke, he’s Jewish in real life (Crane joke’s “You’re such a Jew.”) But he can play Protestant.
– Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay. Another odd cultural event to base an episode around. I love how Mad Men does that; depicts something we take for granted as exciting and relevant. There was also an undercurrent of the changing definition of manhood, ad the fight helped frame this theme.
– Help me out. Is this the first time we’ve seen Don cry?
There was also a lot packed into those last couple lines there, metaphorically speaking.
“Leave the door open or closed?”
“Open.”
Wonder if now with Anna’s passing as somebody who actually “knew” Dick Whitman and not Don Draper, if that means Don is more able to move on with his life and be more open with people. One thing about this season is we keep hoping and seeing little flashes of Don picking himself back up and kicking ass again. Saw it last week with the whole scheme to make the other ad agency go bankrupt with Honda (or was that the week before?), and seeing it again with Don being open with Peggy, a rarity for him.
I wonder if showing the ugly side of hyper-boozing was in any way a concious choice to avoid the unfortunate glamorization/romanticization of an era’s lifestyle that was already starting to happen (“What Mad Men Character Are You?”) and that completely happened, albeit briefly, in the mid-nineties during the zoot suit/cocktail culture/Swingers-the-movie era?
Either way, I’m glad the show’s taken that turn. That Swingers shit was annoying.
As for bodily function jokes, don’t forget Rizzo coming into Peggy’s office asking if she farted, which immediately followed him asking her behind the closed door if she had her hand down her panties. I admit, I lul’d.
Oh, and JACOB, you, too, are such a Jew!
(Don’t get all meshugenah. I am, too).
I think it’s the second time Don has cried. He definitely cried when finally telling the truth to Betty last season.
Hey welcome back guys. After a second watch I decided to jump on the internet bandwagon and say this was one of the best episodes of Mad Men I’ve seen.
Also forgot to mention the hand holding at the end, which reminds of us Peggy taking Don’s hand in the first episode, showing us how far they’ve come together. This was kind of an insider’s episode. Lot’s of pay offs. I had this written down in my notes I swear. I’d scan them in to prove it but they’re covered with pornographic sketches.
twosquattingwomen it’s funny how Mad Men is taking this turn on alcohol and then we’re bombarded with a “cocktail culture” app from AMC.
Jacob,
Really? Not surprised, actually. The show creators do one thing, networks will market in a completely separate way.
Oh thank christ you rescinded, Jacob. I was gonna have to ‘splode with ragey rage. Best episode EVAR.
I agree, Jacob. For a show about Don and Peggy, this episode was a long time coming. Don finally shows Peggy he respects her enough to treat her like the other senior colleagues. I don’t want them to hook up like everyone else out there, but I hope Don takes her on a plane trip somewhere nice.
Also: “‘I’m the greatest.’ Not if you have to say it…” Projecting much, Don?
I got nervous when Peggy opened the business cards, nothing would kill the momentum of the Don-Peggy relationship (and thus the focal point of the entire series) more than her starting another agency. But she’s not ready and she knows it. I’m still waiting for the enevitable “fixing the Life™ Cereal slogan” scene. I’m imagining them sitting around drinking, frustrated and tired throwing around things like, “Life is shit!” (laughs) “life is hell” (laughs) “life is terrible” …until someone (Crane?) blurts out “fortunately its also a cereal!) …[silence]
Overall, I’d say this is my favorite episode yet- Peggy’s laugh when Don says “Roger’s writing a book?!”; Don too busy, distracted and guilty to sleep with anyone; Duck trying to shit on Roger’s chair; Don ‘sprucing-up’ after a shitty night to calmly predict that the Clay-over-Liston photo was history…
This is why Mad Men is the best shit on TV right now!