Belated Mad Men Thoughts

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything about Mad Men.  Mrs. and I missed a couple of episodes when we were on vacation and then had to catch up and the next thing I know the season is over.  But Season 6 went out with a bang, as the finale was one of the best episodes of the whole series.  The season overall might not have been the strongest of the series’ run, but I really did enjoy it.  It’s amazing that I have yet to be disappointed by a Mad Men season, continuing to prove it belongs as one of the best (if not the best) dramas of all-time.

The Season 6 finale provided some surprises (Don’s firing) and changes (Pete and Ted’s move to California) and so it’s going to be interesting to see what direction Matt Weiner and the writers go in for the final season.  As I see it, the show can go in two directions.  I could see a scenario where the focus shifts from SC&P in New York to the new office in California.  This would mean that Ted and Pete would factor heavily in the action.  And if they move the time forward enough the office in California could be a success and we could see a few others out there (Harry for sure, and maybe Roger or Joan?).  With Don out at SC&P (assuming this isn’t a temporary thing) we would obviously also have him in California in this scenario, either to chase Megan (if she indeed went to California to pursue her career) or just to get away from New York.

The more likely scenario though is that the action stays in New York and in this case I assume that Peggy becomes the focus, since next to Don’s, her story is the most interesting and the one we’re invested in.  In this case Roger and Joan can stay a part of the overall story without any moves.  And we still have Ken, Stan, Ginsberg, and maybe Bob Benson in the office as well.  But can this be done without Don coming back to the firm?  Or are we going to have another scenario, one where we spend most or all of the season away from SC&P and focus wholly on Don and his existential crisis?  In the end we’re going to see a lot of Don either way because Mad Men is ultimately his story.

Some other thoughts on what the future holds for the world of SC&P:


Don 

He lost his wife (it would seem) and his job (unless it really was just temporary).  But he has started to face who he is.  The Hershey pitch and subsequent confession of where he grew up was one of the best scenes the show has ever done.  And bringing the kids to the house where he was raised is a step in the right direction.  I don’t know if we’ll see Don back at SC&P (although there’s definitely a chance – but I’m more inclined to think he’d end up at a rival firm), but as mentioned above, I could definitely envision a scenario where Don moves out to California, either with Megan or just by himself (he could also end up working in the SC&P California office I suppose).  I told Mrs. that I really feel like the best ending for the show would be for Don Draper to die.  Not literally, but figuratively with Don giving up the name he stole and returning to his Dick Whitman self.  Now I’m not sure what that would mean in terms of the government coming after him, but it seems like that is the closure that Don’s character needs.


The (Ex-) Wives of Don Draper 

It’s possible we’ve seen the last of Megan and that when the show returns Don will be divorced yet again.  If she does return it could be because without a job Don was able to go with her to California to try to patch things up (or chase her there if he’s trying to get her back).  I was one of the (seemingly) few people who liked Megan’s character, but I think her and Don’s relationship is well past the point of saving, so my guess is she won’t be a major player next season.  Either way, we’ll always have "Zou Bisou Bisou".

Betty on the other hand should certainly factor in some way into next season.  Mrs. called the Don-Betty tryst and I have to say the Betty character really came alive this season.  I don’t think we’ll see her and Don together again, but I think we’ll get some closure on their relationship before Don heads out for the rest of his life.


Don’s Kids 

There are so many directions that Sally could be headed in.  Will she end up on drugs?  In counseling?  As a hippy?  A nun?  A horrible mess of an adult?  An incredibly successful professional?  A Betty clone?  A Don clone?  There are just so many possibilities.  We’ve got Woodstock coming up, but is she old enough to make that trip?  What other trouble can Sally Draper potentially get into next season?  I’m fascinated by where her story goes.

I think Don has two other kids as well, but the other ones have just been second fiddle to Sally.  At least Bobby got some decent play this season with the Planet of the Apes scene and the “Father Abraham” song that stuck in my head for days.  Maybe they’ll dust off Gene in Season 7 and throw him a line or two.


The New California Office 

It seemingly came out of nowhere that Pete was going to California with Ted (wasn’t it supposed to be a one person office?)  But either way he’s off to the sunshine state.  The question is how much Pete will we get next season?  Love him or hate him (and I guess it’s mostly hate him), Pete has always loomed large.  There are two possibilities with Pete, either Season 7 will follow him and Ted (and possibly others) to the California office and he’ll get lots of screen time, or he’ll be relegated to some guest appearances.  I can’t imagine a season without Pete and doesn’t he still have to meet his long lost son he had with Peggy?  That ship has sailed you say?  Yeah, probably.

The one thing that makes me hesitate in thinking we’ll follow SC&P to California is that Ted’s story might be less interesting without the Peggy tension.  I like where they took his character, but what’s left?  Unlike Pete, Ted hasn’t been a major player since day one, so it’s possible his story is over and we won’t see much or any of him if the action remains in New York.


Those Left in the SC&P New York Office 

In a way, the final shot of Peggy in Don’s office, taking his role as creative director, sitting in his chair, and getting the Don Draper back of the head shot like in the credits would be the perfect end for that character (and complete her transformation into the new Don).  But there’s no way we’re getting a Season 7 without Pegs, right?  So I think that we’ll still get plenty of Peggy even if the action moves to California, with her being the New York perspective.  And there’s a pretty good chance (as I mentioned above) that she becomes the focus of Season 7 (after Don of course).  My prediction is that her and Don will cross paths again before all is said and done, either at SC&P or just out in the world.

A few characters were a bit of an afterthought this year, with Joan being the biggest of the original cast.   Are we to assume that the Avon account came in and it’s hers now?  There seemed to be little mention of it after the initial introduction, but if she didn’t get it, was she punished at all?  With just one season left I’m not sure what’s left of the Joan story.  Maybe she’ll marry Bob?  Or Roger?  Ginsberg and Dawn also took back seats this year.  Both of their characters had potential, but we’re probably not going to get much of them in Season 7, one that necessarily has to revolve around Don.

I’m assuming that unless we spend a lot of time at SC&P, Ken Cosgrove (and his eye patch), Bert, Harry and Cutler and the rest of the CGC remnants won’t get a ton of screen time.  But even if we don’t see much of him, doesn’t it just seem like Harry will be spending most of Season 7 at the Playboy mansion?

We don’t need much more Bob Benson, right?  Especially now that his secret is out and we know he’s a fraud . . . and that he’s gay . . . or bi . . . or straight and hooking up with Joan . . . or they’re just friends . . . or she’s his beard.  Wait, what do we know about Bob?

No matter what happens in Season 7, can we all agree that we need at least one or two Roger Sterling one-liners each episode.

And can we agree that we also need more Stan in Season 7?  He definitely won the “most improved” award this year.  His beard alone was worth a few laughs.

Another Mad Men Post

At the risk of this becoming an all Mad Men blog, I have some thoughts on this week’s episode, the best of the season so far.

We had characters burning bridges, be it Don with Jaguar, Pete with Trudy, CGC with the car client they dropped to chase Chevy, or Pete and his father-in-law after their run in at the . . . ummm . . . "hotel".  We also had a lot of characters going behind others' backs - Bert, Pete, and Joan with the IPO; Roger chasing the Chevy executive; Don & Roger scheduling a dinner with Jaguar sans Pete; Don & Teddy with the merger; and of course the usual adultery (Pete as always, his father-in-law, Peggy with Teddy, etc.)  And finally, change has been the most prevailing theme for the whole show, and we see what happens to those who don’t change or aren’t willing to change – they get left behind.  And so it’s really interesting to hear Peggy (really the symbol of change on Mad Men) tell Abe that she doesn’t like change and wants things to stay the same.  Well be careful what you wish for Miss Olson, because by the end of the episode her new firm has merged with her old firm, and her old boss is suddenly back in her life.  Things are pretty much back to the same as they ever were for Peggy.

The moments I particularly enjoyed:

- Pete falling down the stairs
- Roger keeping copies of his memoir “Sterling’s Gold” in his bag
- Bob Benson offering to pay Pete’s hooker for her services (and really why was Bob there in the first 
place, to hold Pete’s pants?)
- A smiling Bob Benson holding two cups of coffee up to Pete and Ken as they discuss the “father-in- law incident" from the night before
- Both Don and Marie in the restaurant scene with Herb and his wife. A drunk Marie insulting them in French was great, as was Don’s “I love puppies” comment.
- Joan telling off Don (isn't it about time someone did?), even though she’s still a partner in the firm so her part in winning Jaguar wasn’t really for nothing
- Peggy’s face when she heard Don’s voice in Teddy’s office - why do I get the feeling she's not super excited to be returning to the old office?


The complications I’m anticipating for the remainder of the season:

- The inevitable Don-Teddy ego clash
- The almost as inevitable Peggy-Don clash
- The potential Roger-Cutler accounts guy clash
- The Peggy-Abe clash after Peggy ends up having an affair with Teddy (even though I really hope they don’t take it any further, as much as I dislike her relationship with Abe)
- The Don-Megan clash after the expected blow-up following Don and Sylvia’s affair coming to light (and with Doctor Rosen having quit his job, it will make it that much harder for Don to continue the affair, right?)

A Few Mad Men Notes

As expected this week's episode of Mad Men dealt largely with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and specifically various character's reactions to the tragedy.  There's plenty to discuss, but I'm just going to quickly hit some things I enjoyed:

1) Loving your kids.  Or maybe not loving them like you thought you would . . . or should . . . or something.  Did Don really say he didn't actually love his kids?  I know Don is confused and continues with his little existential crisis and all, but really?  This seemed a bit out of character to me.  He at least always seemed to love Sally, right?  Hmmm . . . we'll have to see where that goes.

2) Bobby Draper!  I think they've had like 25 (approximately) child actors play Bobby, but here he finally gets a big story line.  Until now Sally has been the only one of Don's not-actually-loved kids to play a major role (and I wouldn't count on any additional screen time for Gene anytime soon).  But here's Bobby front and center, even making Don proud . . . at least until he shows more concern for Henry than his own father.  

3) Awkward hugs.  Peggy's hug with her secretary wasn't terribly awkward I guess, although it did come after her awkward comment about how it wasn't as bad as it could have been (meaning the rioting, but with the assassination in everyone's thoughts).  But Joan's hug of Dawn was as awkward as it gets.  Dawn didn't even turn to face her.  Yikes.  And speaking of awkward, I really enjoyed the early scene with the Drapers running into the Rosens in the lobby.  They're going to D.C. Don!

4) Peggy & Abe.  I never liked them as a couple and probably never will.  But I did enjoy Peggy's reaction to Abe casually mentioning something about raising their kids.  Although everyone seems to think it's a foregone conclusion that Peggy and Teddy will have an affair (and did you notice Teddy sitting in Abe's seat at the awards presentation?  Symbolism!), which could spell doom for her and Abe.  It would, however, keep in line with her turning into the new Don.  And she was even looking to buy a home in Don's neighborhood.

5)  Poor Pete.  And speaking of the new Don, as terrible as Pete can be, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him as Trudy tells him not to come home to comfort her and their daughter and he's stuck ordering Chinese food (and having his own awkward encounter with the delivery man) in his bachelor pad.  He's like Don circa Season 4.  Pete needs to find a Megan.

6) Ginsberg.  More awkwardness as Ginsberg has the world's worst first date.  But I was reminded why I loved his character so much last year.  We need more Ginsberg.  And although I'm sure this has been theorized somewhere out there on the internet, I haven't seen it, so I'm going to throw it out there.  I could see a potential relationship between Ginsberg and Dawn.  First Dawn mentioned to her friend that she'll never meet someone at work, and now we Ginsberg failing at a potential relationship.  They're both minorities within SCDP, so could that get them together?  This is probably where Mrs. would tell me I'd reading waayyy too much into this show, but there it is.

7) Stan's facial expressions.  Roger will always get the best one-liners (and he was great with his zingers at the drugged out insurance guy he brought in), but Stan is quickly becoming just as good of a source of comic relief.  I'm not sure he actually had a line this week, but his weird grin and giggle and stoned demeanor with the insurance dude was flat out hilarious.

Mad Men Thoughts

Warning:  SPOILERS for the latest Mad Men episode.

From Harry and Joan’s spat to Don and Megan’s invitation to become swingers, I have a lot of thoughts on this week’s Mad Men, so what was going to be a quick post got a bit long, but what can you do?

I’ll start with the SCDP vs. CGC (Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough) pitch showdown for Heinz because it was cool to see Peggy against Don (and Don listening through the door as Peggy used his old line on the client).  In a way it was Peggy cheating on Don and it might have been this as much as Megan’s love scene that drove Don to erupt at Megan (reminiscent of when he was mad at Megan when she left SCDP and he took it out on his work wife Peggy at the cool whip tasting).  And I have to give credit where credit is due.  Mrs. and I were talking after the episode and I said something about Peggy winning the account for CGC and Mrs. was like “they didn’t get the account”, and I later found out that Mrs. was correct and that I misunderstood what Teddy told Don.  Ooops.  Well Mrs. got a kick out of me telling her she was right (“can you repeat that one more time?”).  I’ll have to pay better attention so that never happens again.

So anyway lots of infidelity this week (well really every week) – we had Peggy cheating on Don, Don continuing to cheat on Megan, Megan “cheating” on Don in her love scene, Joan’s friend cheating on her husband, Timmy from Heinz hitting the town sans wedding ring, and of course SCDP cheating on beans with ketchup.  And it’s getting really hard to feel sorry for Don at this point.  He’s treating Megan like crap and acting like a hypocrite.  He gets mad at Peggy for doing something he himself would certainly have done (and was doing) by trying to win an account at all costs, and he gets mad at Megan for doing something that he does on a much worse level, since her “cheating” (and I’ll keep putting that in quotes because she didn’t really cheat) was fake and part of her job and done with his knowledge.  And note the similar way that Megan is thrown on the bed in her scene and the way Don throws Sylvia on the bed at her apartment (after giving her the penny – you know, just in case we missed all the prostitution allusions last week).  Don’s going to have to wake up and get himself right because he’s losing (or lost) all redeeming qualities.

Dawn finally gets some quality screen time this week and it’s about time.  I assume this is to help set up the MLK assassination next week (they couldn’t possibly skip over that, right?).  The show needs to give us more of the civil rights action going on, which I think will provide some interesting story lines.  I love that Joan put Dawn in charge of the supply closet and time cards.  She says it's a punishment, but it’s also passing the responsibility, which can only mean good things for Dawn, and hopefully for Joan as well.  She saw that she had to give up the secretarial/office manager duties if she’s ever going to be taken seriously as a partner.

And I guess I should at least mention the Harry and Joan argument.  Harry’s become quite the ass, but he’s both right and wrong here.  Right because he does appear to bring in a lot of business and is responsible at least in part for the company’s success, so he might really deserve to be partner (his personality notwithstanding).  But he’s wrong in that while Joan sleeping with the Jaguar guy was not the most moral or ethical way to become partner, she was a vital part of the organization prior to that and worked hard and was responsible for a lot of the firm’s success as well.  A partnership might really have been merited even if it wouldn’t have happened without the jerk from Jaguar.  And for some more parallels, I like how when Don and Megan were asked to join in some group love with her boss (or whatever he was) Megan said no even though she acknowledged this might cause her to lose her part, which contrasts her with Joan who gave in to sleeping with someone to get ahead at her job.

And finally, did I hear right that Ken’s father-in-law went to Notre Dame?  I always knew I liked that guy.  

The Don Draper Wannabes

Warning:  SPOILERS for the latest Mad Men episode.

This week’s episode of Mad Men, “The Collaborators”, was basically the tale of two people trying to be Don and failing in most respects.

First we have Pete following in Don’s footsteps by bringing his extracurricular activities a little too close to home.  And while there are similarities in both affairs, there are also striking differences.  There’s never been any question that Don wears the pants in any relationship he’s in, and notice how Don tells Sylvia how it’s going to be (and really how great was that restaurant scene?) before they end up back in bed.  But for Pete, who tries and fails to control the situation with Brenda, Trudy shows him who’s the boss by kicking him out of the house and leaving him living in his office (first season Harry Crane style).  Pete will never have Don’s confidence and this was evident as well with their dealings with Jaguar, where Pete goes along with whatever Herb wants and Don purposely bombs the pitch to stick it to Herb and assert his authority. 

We also see both Don and Pete facing situations where their wife and mistress are thrown together in the same room, but Don plays it off coolly (albeit after exchanging a worried look with Sylvia), while Pete ends up struggling to do damage control as Trudy treats a bleeding Brenda and he’s left hissing at Brenda about what she told her husband.  It seems like Don is doing everything in his power to get caught (maybe he figures that’s the easy way out?), whereas Pete not only has a bachelor pad in the city approved by his wife, but is apparently trying to cover his tracks with this affair and still finds himself sheepishly lying awake while Trudy drives his mistress to a hotel.  I guess it's back to Draper 101 for Pete.  First lesson - pick a more mature mistress.

And then we have Peggy trying to be the boss and failing to do it as well as Don.  The staff doesn’t quite respect Peggy the way Peggy and the gang did Don once upon a time.  And while this is at least in part a gender thing, we see with her pep talk to the staff that she’s definitely still lacking in the motivation department.  And while Don is an expert at deception and keeping everything private, Peggy haphazardly tells Teddy about her conversation with Stan about Heinz.  While Don trusts no one, Peggy is still a bit too trusting.  So she’s still got a ways to go to be the new Draper, but she is still young. 

A few other quick thoughts:

A call back to earlier seasons with all of the money changing hands.  Much like Don tried to give Allison (his secretary back in Season 4) money after their drunken fling, we see him handing Sylvia a wad of cash after their tryst.  Seriously Don?  And lots of allusions to prostitution with the Don situation above, Pete trying to shoo Brenda away from his apartment (“Honey, can we move it along”), Herb showing up in Joan’s office calling back their night together, even the idea of SCDP cheating on “beans” with “ketchup”, and of course Pete giving money to Bob for toilet paper (ok, maybe that’s a stretch – but Bob doesn’t seem above selling himself to move up the corporate ladder).  And of course the more overt example of Don and his step-mom going to live with her sister in a brothel.

Couldn’t help but laugh at Don’s “dance with the one that brung ya” line – Don’s professional loyalty sure is different from that of his personal life.

Nice shot of Don unable to open his door at the end and just sitting in the hall.  Five seasons and Don is still confused as ever about what he wants and what he’s doing with his life.

This I assume is obvious, but what drama it’s going to be this season when Don and Sylvia’s affair finally blows up somehow.  I’ve already read a theory that she’ll get pregnant (since she alluded to how she would never have an abortion), where Megan just had a miscarriage (or maybe an abortion?).  It will be like something out of the soap opera that Megan’s in.

And finally, I didn’t love the flashback scenes.  We get it, Don was raised in a brothel and had a bad upbringing and that’s why he’s screwed up.  Maybe it’s just because I don’t’ believe that that goofy kid really grew up to be Don Draper.  I mean we all have our geeky awkward stages (some of us never outgrow them), but that kid becomes Don, the man women want and men want to be?  I don’t think so.

Mad Mustaches

Potential SPOILERS if you haven’t watched the Mad Men Season 6 premiere.

Two hours of Mad Men down for Season 6 and I already can’t believe there are only 11 episodes left.  The premiere episodes probably won’t end up on any “best of” lists for Mad Men episodes, but I thought they were solid.  The premieres are always a bit slow, but this one once again did a great job of reintroducing us to the Mad Men world, establishing where all the characters stand and setting up the themes for the season.  And it looks like one theme will certainly be mortality, with all of the death imagery (Don was even reading The Inferno - and traveling from the heat of Hawaii to the freezing temps of New York).

We got answers to most of my questions from my previous post:

-The season started in December 1967 (so yeah, the insanity of 1968 will be front and center).

-There were new characters all over the place – Bob the kiss-ass accounts guy; Don & Megan’s new friends and neighbors (Dr. Rosen and Don’s new partner in adultery Mrs. Rosen); a couple of new but unnamed members of Don’s creative team; the creative underlings working for Peggy (not sure if they’ll get lots of screen time or not); Sally’s (and Betty’s?) friend Sandy (might be the one and only time we see her though); and can we count Roger’s shrink?

-No mustache for Harry (although he was rocking a crazy hairdo), but a lot of new facial hair and hairstyles, including Ginsberg’s mustache, Stan’s insane beard, Abe’s hair and goatee thing, sideburns for both Pete and Roger, and of course Betty going brunette.  Change is in the air.

-Yes Don has strayed (more on this later), yes Megan is a (at least semi) successful actress on what I assume is a soap opera, and no there aren’t any kids for them.

-The Roger-Joan relationship seems nonexistent (she didn’t even attend his mother’s funeral), but Peggy and Stan did make a passing mention of it (foreshadowing?)

-Not much Pete in this episode, so we’ll have to wait on answers for him.

-No drugs for Sally (I don’t think), but she’s growing even more rebellious – calling Betty by her first name, closing the door in Betty's face when she was on the phone.  I told Mrs. that while Peggy might be my favorite character, I’m not sure Sally isn’t my second favorite.

-And of course, it looks like Peggy will be a major player this year and is already the new Don (I would not want to be working for her – New Years Eve Pegs, really?)

So back to the theme of the episode, which was death.  Mrs. and I were counting the various death related items, which include (and this is hardly an exhaustive list I’m sure):

-The death of Roger’s mother

-The death of Roger’s shoeshine guy Georgio

-The near-death of Don and Megan’s doorman

-The “death” of Don’s happy marriage (note how he tells his copywriters that the image of the newlyweds doesn’t exist anymore when they pitch the Dow oven cleaner ad)

-The “death” of Sandy’s innocence as she ditches school for the “real world”

-The “death” of the year as they celebrate New Years

-Don’s conversation with the young G.I., which brings to mind the death of the real Don Draper, as well as the potential death of PFC Dinkins when he returns to Vietnam

-Dr. Rosen’s conversations with Don about saving lives and having another person’s life in one’s hands

-The death of the character that Megan’s character pushes down the stairs on her fictional soap opera

-And of course Don’s Royal Hawaiian pitch that makes the client think of death, which did lead to the best exchange of the episode:

Don:  “Does it make you think of suicide?”

Stan:  “Of course, that’s why it’s so great!”

And finally, Don is indeed stepping out on Megan, and even though it was fairly obvious this was going to happen, I was still rooting for him to stay faithful.  Oh well, it’s a much more interesting show when Don is doing his thing I guess, and I shouldn’t expect him to change.  I think this was meant as the big reveal for the episode, but Don cheating wasn’t the part that shocked me, and it wasn’t that he was cheating with the doctor’s wife, it was that Sylvia Rosen was being played by Linda Cardellini.  Which means that Lindsay Weir from Freaks and Geeks has a college age son in the Mad Men world.  And man does that make me feel old.  I mean in real life she’s 2 ½ years older than me, but she was playing a high school student when I was graduating from college.  Ugh.