'Our Hams Are Worth Fighting For': Mad Men Recapped
So much for Beatlemania. The season premiere of Mad Men arrived Sunday night with most of 1964 behind it and Don Draper having bitten off more than he can chew in the office, at home, on a date, in the media, you name it. Independence has elevated our man from mini-celebrity to major cultural influencer, and he will not be pushed around by mere fads. Slapped around by a whore, OK. But that's where he draws the line. Let's explore.
Series creator Matthew Weiner handled the writing duties on his own last night, making the crucially important (and smart) decision to invite the audience's imagination from the start. No more conceptual bloat of season-opening, depression-era-orphan flashbacks, no more on-the-nose period detours contemplating the enduring question, "Who is Don Draper?" Just Don and Jack Hammond, a journalist from Ad Age, summoned to help boost the "scrappy upstart" Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce out of the primordial Madison Avenue muck. Don deflects the inquiry -- such introspection is anathema to his humble Midwestern upbringing, he says. And it's too bad! They could have bonded over Korea: Don's identity theft and Jack's faulty prosthetic leg, the latter of which seems included only to later draw the quintessential Roger Sterling bon mot, "They're so cheap they couldn't even afford to send a whole reporter." Haw.
With that Don, Roger and Pete bounce off to another meeting, this one with the father-son combo behind the Jantzen bikini two-piece bathing suit concern. They're a little frustrated to see their market share decline as the competition plays up the flesh; Jantzen is a family company, they say, and they need a campaign that appeals to buyers' taste, not their prurience. We've seen these guys before -- the old-fashioned clients who know exactly what they want when it'd just be easier, quicker and more humane to shoot them in the head upon entering SCDP's trailblazing creative domain. The preliminary meetings always end, and their results always yield the same crushing inertia a few weeks later. At least some things never change.
But getting back to that trailblazing creative domain: How about our first tour of the new offices? It was like some kind of erotic revelation, peering behind the door, winding into this narrow space of color and light and modularity and youth and potential and experience and power, swinging and alive, yet awkward and imperfect. "You don't know how tiny this place looks to a stranger," Bert groans, more wracked with existential horror than anything like his partners' (and viewers') own nagging self-consciousness. (He gripes about the lack of a conference table, but what really seems to be missing is his carefully calibrated workplace feng shui.) Its corridors won't rival the old office's open floor anytime soon, but what it lacks in space it more than compensates for in electricity.
Take Peggy for example, playfully entangled in mock-singing with newbie part-time copywriter Joey when Pete walks into her sprawling office -- definitely a step up from the shoebox she inherited at the old joint -- with a Sugarberry ham. Here's another client sweating over market share during the holiday season (this is the first we've learned it's approaching Thanksgiving), and it'll take a few drinks and a three-way brainstorm to sort out a solution. Peggy takes the lead, sitting on the table, feet on a chair, sipping whiskey and batting around ideas; Pete engages her awfully well for someone whose baby she secretly carried and abandoned, but hey. How could anybody resist this Peggy, who conjures a plot (!) to hire two women (!!) to squabble over a Sugarberry ham (!!!) in a grocery store. That'll attract the attention of the press and provide the peg on which to hang a new campaign. The catch: No one can know about the stunt (as if they won't figure it out anyway).
She's no direct descendant of P.T. Barnum, but at this point Peggy might be the best asset the new agency's got. Don's colorless Ad Age profile dazzles exactly nobody, even prompting HoHo Cook Jr. to yank the National Jai Alai Association from the firm ("You didn't mention jai alai," Pete tells Don) after Harry Crane has sold a special to ABC. Lane and Bert are exasperated; the extent of Don's competitive fire is expended kicking a chair across the room while Joan reminds him things will be fine. OK, so maybe Joan is the top asset. Point is, things aren't going well for the once-superhuman Don Draper, and his vulnerabilities are wearing off on the others.
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Comments
Betty's new characterization is so disappointing. She was my favorite character and now she's turned into the flat childish bitch everyone kept saying she was for the past 3 years. I understand that this is how she'd go after being free of Don but still it's really terrible to watch. I would rather her be written off the show then watch Weiner knock her down like this.
I also don't like Peggy's new brassy and sassy attitude. But again, I get it.
What happened to the mad men rankings?
Rogers line was "They're so cheap they couldn't send a whole reporter"
Of course, that's what I meant. Sorry, and thanks.
Those were Mark Lisanti's domain, and he has since relocated. Apologies! I miss them, too!
I don't want to live in a world without a Fingerbang Threat Index Level.
ST- still love me Movieline but my day is a little grayer.
I was really hoping they would've gotten rid of Betty as a regular character. This is a show about the lives of a staff of an Ad Agency not the the lives of the spouses of the staff on an Ad Agency. I don't think Weiner thought it well out when he had them get a divorce. He could've at least had her have an affair this season and leave the divorce for next season which is the last season.
Regardless of why the client didn't want it, that Jantzen campaign did suck.
And I'm happy to see the Sally Draper Matricide Level at bright orange level! Go Sally Go!
My biggest concern was when Henry got in the car with Betty. Are you going to open the garage with the not yet invented automatic garage door opener? Thankfully, Betty mentioned opening the door, and a crisis was avoided See, Betty still has a reason to be on the show.
Weeeee!
Sorry! Nothing we can do about it. I sincerely hope they return as well.
Betty Draper is the whining albatross around the neck of this otherwise superb show. I applaud her shortened screen time and the fact that the mother-in-law character (a total bitch in her own right) may at last, make her twist in the wind a bit.
Sally Draper For The Win.
YES.
I think the point is that Betty is never satisfied, and yeah she may be everyone's least favorite part of the show, but for now she can't just be written out or written in a way that isn't true to the story and character arcs.
I vote for Carla killing her during a race riot. We can do this!
I found the new location for Mark Lisanti's Mad Men power rankings, and yes, the first recap includes a fingerbang threat level: http://marklisanti.tumblr.com/tagged/mad_men .
I just pictured Carla bashing her over the head with a blunt object. Love it. Honestly as much as I want Betty to go away, I wish there was a way to make Carla stay as a regular on the show!
S.T., great writeup! Big shoes to fill obviously, and you filled them quite well, thank you.
I'm glad he's still doing them.
Sally's a brat.
Correction. She's a matricidal genius.
And for the record, Betty was a "lusty...crappy mother" for the entire run of this show. Brittle, angry and dismissive. That's not changed (and it means Sally will be a "mean girl" once she gets into Rosemary Hall).
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