I eat Pop Culture.

Let’s get a quick correction out of the way: to clarify the 1963 timeline, the show is now in July. I thought that due to all the coat-wearing an episode or two back that it was already fall.  However, they  mentioned 4th of July in last night’s episode. Possibly in Weiner’s constant attempt to be extremely accurate, the coats signified that spring/early summer in New York in 1963 was on the cooler side? Whatever the case may be, just wanted to update the timeline.

One other thing…I’m going to try a new format with the Mad Men posts. I’ll start them with a quick recap (aka bullet points) and then follow with more in-depth commentary/analysis.

********************SPOILER ALERT —so for the love of Mad Men’s Emmy wins last night (Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series/”Meditations in an Emergency”)!!!!! please don’t read any further if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 6***********

RECAP:

• Sally is freaked out over her new baby brother. He has the same name and room as her late grandfather, coping with life/death has her afraid of the dark.
• PPL’s Director and Chairman of the Board crossed the Atlantic and crashed Sterling Cooper’s 4th of July holiday (“subtle” as Draper so eloquently put it), to reveal a re-org, with a young economic whiz, Guy MacKendrick now at the helm, and Lane to be shipped off to India.  Harry is the only employee in NY promoted, as head of the Media Department.
• With the Brits in town everyone was on their best behavior, until Lois lost control of Ken’s John Deere lawnmower (courtesy of bringing in the new account) during a drunken reception in the office and ran over Guy’s foot (“just as he got it in the door,” ah Roger, with his never-miss wit!). This quickly changes everything. PPL decides that Guy can’t work now that he’s missing a foot, and they put Lane back in charge.
• It was also Joan’s last day at Sterling Cooper, as she was leaving due to Greg’s anticipated appointment as Chief Resident. Unfortunately, he didn’t get it, and now Joan faces going back to work.

COMMENTARY:

Turning lights on and off, sitting in the dark, that seemed to be a theme in last night’s episode. The show opened with Sally sleeping with her light on, and Don promising her a nightlight if she cleaned her room—which later we see her lying wide-awake in the glow of the new nightlight. That same night, before PPL’s visit, we see Don in bed, in the dark, with a slight smile on his face, in anticipation of what tomorrow’s meeting will bring; and Joan, in her apartment, upon learning Greg’s unfortunate news, stands at the light before sadly turning it off.  For Sally, she’s afraid of the dark, what she can’t see; Don is in the dark about his future with Sterling Cooper, and for Joan–once illuminated with the prospect of being a devoted housewife for her doctor husband, she too is now  in the dark about her future.

With PPL’s visit, Don is once again passed over for a promotion, and immediately takes a meeting with hotelier Conrad Hilton, per Hilton’s out-of-nowhere request. Turns out, Conrad, or Connie as he prefers, was the bartender (or so we thought) that Don bonded with at Roger’s Kentucky Derby garden party. Connie asks Don for advertising advice, Don gives him a nugget and then asks for the account.  Don isn’t an accounts man, he’s creative–so just how will this play out? Roger’s name was left out of the re-org projector presentation, clearly the Brits don’t take him all that seriously, so will he get the credit for the Hilton account? After all, Connie was at Roger’s party, so there is a connection there.

Moving on to Betty/Sally/Baby Gene…I can not say enough about how impressed I am that Mad Men is delving into the painful and dysfunctional side of  sibling rivalry and birth-order issues. Most TV shows deal with this as people are adults, and recalling all the moments of what went wrong. With this show we are watching it happen, the beginning of all the issues everyone’s going to be screaming at each other about in 20 years. Sally, the oldest, coping with life/death, and the confusion Baby Gene is causing her. We see Bobby in the middle, and Betty tending to the newborn with affection, and trying to buy Sally’s security and approval with a gift, rather than directly approach her like Don does at the end.

This is a delicate thing Weiner and the writers are covering, childhood and the dynamics of families and so far they’ve done a brilliant job. I especially love that this all takes place (for the moment) in the late 50′s/early 60′s, a time so often romanticized about, where the reality is glossed over with images of Camelot, perfectly coiffed hair and convertible cars.

And finally, let’s talk about Joan. Sigh, poor Joan. She is so damn calming, she has me wanting to sit next to her on the couch and tell her all about it. So, Greg didn’t get the position, but he’s still a doctor. Of course, this throws a wrench in their dynamic, he’s probably going to feel like a failure, and it will affect his work/home life. And Joan now has to go back to work, which she doesn’t want to do. Will she go back to Sterling Cooper?  She did save Guy’s life with her quick thinking with his blood-gushing injury, so she could probably call in that favor if she wanted to…but there is that Joan-pride thing, she had the perfect opportunity to ask Don for her job back at the hospital, and she didn’t.

So many reasons to tune in next week! We are up to episode 7, “Seven Twenty Three.”  I looked up the date July 23 (7/23),  1963 and couldn’t find anything significant. Anyway, in the upcoming episode, Peggy receives an expensive gift, Betty gets involved with local politics, and Don contemplates his future.

Oh, baby! Lots of stuff happening on Mad Men, let’s get down to business…

*********SPOILER ALERT, so in honor of Peggy finally having someone take her out for a business-related lunch, in a fancy restaurant with mini lamps on the tables and scrumptious Bloody Mary’s, please don’t read any further if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 5***********

The stork stopped by, it’s a boy! …  Betty finally gave birth to the surprise baby, and oh boy, she was not a happy camper, throwing insults all over the place and making it clear to the hospital staff, and all of us wincing from the other side of the TV screen, that she is not excited about having another baby. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Don seemed relaxed, reading the paper, a stark contrast to the other husband in the room, soon-to-be-first-time-dad Dennis Hobart, who could hardly contain himself. But was Don’s coolness due to this being the third time, or an honest lack of enthusiasm? I think both reasons are likely, but I also think Don may have had a possible moment of clarity when Dennis freaked out to Don about the thought of losing his wife during childbirth and then blurted out, “how could I love that baby?” We of course know Don’s mother died during childbirth. So did Don consider that even if he wasn’t thrilled about this new baby, that regardless, no baby should go unloved or carry the burden of  how he/she came into the world? After all, he did say to Sally later, during their midnight snack, that “not all surprises are bad.”

With Betty arriving home from the hospital, smiling and cheery, could it be possible that her “fog” lifted too (she even referred to the birth as a fog), is she ready to happily accept the new addition to the family, and not just go through the motions? Only time will tell. That scene at the end of the episode left room for way too much ambiguity: yes, back to business as usual, Betty tends to the children, but my goodness, she really took her time, there was no running to crying Baby Eugene’s side. And on top of it all, after all that labor and weird anxiety dream where she thought she was dying, she didn’t even get the little girl she was so badly hoping for.

Will Duck steal away Peggy & Pete?… Peggy asked for equal pay and got turned down by Don. Pete knows he is redundant, basically having the same job as Ken; and then got in trouble with a client and Roger and Burt for wanting to pursue the African-American consumer market. Peggy and Pete are both undeniably frustrated, and both are probably in their respective Manhattan apartments, right now, strongly considering Duck’s offer: to join him at his new firm, where ideas and creativity will be rewarded. I say the two of them should do it, I’d love to see how all of that goes down, and how the show deals with rivaling ad agencies, especially if one is  more progressive than the other–who can and will keep up with the times, for they are a-changin’.

Hot for teacher…one final thought: is Don considering going there [Sally's lovely and young teacher]? I picked up that she was putting it out there as a possibility, but he didn’t seem entirely interested. Due to bad timing (um, time to go have a baby) or is he swearing off the relationship cheating and just sticking with convenient and no-attachment options [the flight attendant in Baltimore]?  Draper doesn’t love change, so I’m guessing it was timing…we may see something with those two down the road.

Ok, next week’s episode: “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency,” will feature a surprise visit at Sterling Cooper, and Joan gets some unexpected news.

It’s only Episode 4, and already the jackets are coming out (Sally wearing one on her way to school, Don asking his secretary if he needs to take his coat). One more detail the Mad Men kids pay attention to, telling time through wardrobe. Oh, and if it’s already early fall, does that mean Kennedy’s assassination will occur mid-season rather than finale? I hope so for two reasons 1) if it happens at the end of the season it will be too much like last season ending on the Cuban Missile Crisis and 2) I think it would make this season much more interesting to really take the time to see how the President’s assassination affects everyone on Mad Men. Ok, on to discussing Sunday night’s episode, “The Arrangements.”

*************SPOILER ALERT so for the love of Don’s latest secretary, Allison, and the hope that she lasts for awhile, do not read further if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 4 *********************

R.I.P. Grandpa Gene…we knew it was coming, but man, didn’t make it any easier. And just when Sally and her Grandpa were starting to bond, how great was that driving scene?–now her world is shattered. The preview for next week’s episode looks like Sally starts to act out. I think we are in for some serious character development this season with Sally dealing with death/reality, and with Don and Betty as parents dealing with a sensitive and strong-willed daughter.

Bye-Bye Patio, Hello Jai Alai…some interesting stuff happening with the Sterling Cooper accounts. The kids at Patio ended up not liking what they asked for, a TV commercial with an Ann-Margaret look-alike singing about the product a la the opening scene of “Bye-Bye Birdie.” Despite the ad being almost identical to it’s counterpart, no one could put their finger on it, but there was something “off” about the ad. Roger said it was because it wasn’t Ann-Margaret. Is this a little metaphor via diet soda? No matter what you do to it, call it, whatever, it will never measure up to the real thing? You could say that about most things: the true original of something is always more desirable than the imitation.

Moving from beverages to athletics, Pete Campbell talked his wealthy college pal, Horace, into going with Sterling Cooper to promote his dream of making the sport jai alai bigger than baseball. Since it’s 2009 as we are watching this, and jai alai hasn’t become bigger than baseball, we quickly realize that Pete’s friend, which he affectionately calls Ho-Ho,  has a lot of money to burn on an underwhelming product.  Don tries to take the high road and get Horace’s father involved, put a stop to the foolish investment. Horace’s father sees it as a necessary life lesson, let him fail. As Bert Cooper says in the meeting, “Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, that’s how I was raised.”

And that brings us to the theme of Episode 4, advice. Yes, this episode had a lot of advice getting thrown around…

…Don, not feeling as comfortable as his wealthy colleagues with watching one of their own fall flat on their face, told Horace he could do better, find something else to do with his fortune. Much to Pete’s relief (commission!) Horace ignored Don’s attempt to be more fatherly than even Horace’s own father.

…After Peggy’s ad for a roommate in Manhattan resulted in prank calls by her fellow Sterling Cooper staffers, Joan stepped in and told her to change her boring angle and be adventurous, that it’s about two young single women in the city. Peggy took her advice and changed the ad, and found a lovely and exciting roommate.

…Grandpa Gene tells Sally that she can be anything, despite what her mother says/does.

Those are the biggies, any more that I forgot?

One thing I want to point out…Don supporting Sal’s commercial, despite it not getting them the Patio account. Don knew it was good work, and he told Sal that he was now officially a commercial director. It was a nice moment between the two. And now we see Don has another alliance  with someone else who has a “a secret.” First Peggy, with her pregnancy and now Sal, who we know is secretly gay. Don, with his own bag of secrets, really has empathy for these individuals, he supports them and cares about them. He knows what its like to live two lives, bury a past, and be really passionate about work. They are all outsiders in a way, not privileged like Roger and Pete, they feel they have more to lose and have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.

This season, Mad Men has taken a deeper look into class issues, something that I feel scripted television doesn’t really delve in to enough. It’s not polite to discuss money, right? But that’s one of the important elements about this show, it doesn’t strive to be polite, it wants to expose the issues, the hypocrisy, explore the human condition. Formalities and etiquette are what we use to keep things even on the surface, while ignoring the emotion and motivation that’s really going on underneath…I’ll save some of my further discussion for a night that AMC airs a repeat.

Looking ahead…next week is episode 5, “A Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency”…Don and Betty deal with Sally and her issue, and Betty has a weird dream.  Ohhhhhh, a dream, can’t wait to analyze that!

Is it me, or does it feel like this season’s episodes have picked up the pace? The first two seasons really took their time with plot-points, the characters, and whatever bubble of activity they were in at the moment.  I guess now that so much is established it’s time for the show to punch through the 60s. Let’s get down to it, shall we?

**********************SPOILER ALERT so for the sake of Gertie from ET, I mean Sally Draper, don’t read the rest of this post if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 3 of this season’s Mad Men*******************

“I am so stoned”…On this very special episode of Mad Men, Peggy tries drugs.  How great was Elizabeth Moss as a stoned Peggy? Brilliant! Anyway, its not the 50s anymore, and Peggy is really embracing this modern woman thing.  We want more! We want more! So Peggy, the  next time one of your male colleagues tells you to do something, like get a blender to make mixed drinks during a weekend work session, tell them to get it themselves!

Sticky-Fingers Sally...despite her cherub face, that Sally Draper is trouble! She stole $5.00 from Gramps when he wasn’t looking, and then the whole rest of the episode we held our breath waiting to see just what the hell was going to happen. This is one of the things I love about this show: the kids in it aren’t all cute and cuddly and say the darnedest things. They are mischievous, imperfect and experts at sad puppy dog eyes–you know, like REAL kids.  And it was nice to see Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper) get the chance to hold her own, really showcase her incredible acting skills, rather than just be an accessory for Betty or Don. How authentic was that at the end when she threw the folded up $5.00 on the floor and then with her best little kid effort at being non-chalant, pointed it out. Sally saved the day!–with that quivering face of hers! But Grandpa knew she wasn’t innocent, and yet, despite stern looks he let it slide. Phew!

I’ll just help myself behind the bar, thanks! There was so much more to see at  Roger and Jane’s Kentucky Derby/Garden Party other then all those silly hats. Don is really uncomfortable around wealthy people, escaping to the bar inside the house where he fixed his own drink, while Betty, Pete and Trudy were right at home. Betty even got hit on by a handsome man, and she liked it! Harry and his wife, Jennifer, obviously not in the same social circles as the rest of the guests, were excluded somewhat and were awkward about the whole thing. More talent revealed: Pete and Trudy can dance! So, for the time being they are in-sync and finding ways to enjoy life other than fretting over having babies. BORING. But I guess Pete deserves a bit of a plot break for now. Jane got drunk, stumbled around and really showed how young she was, that she couldn’t hold her liquor like all the seasoned grown-ups around her. This annoyed Don, which prompted Roger to approach him. For the millionth time he proclaimed his happiness for marrying Jane and Don’s response, “No one thinks you are happy. They think you are foolish.” Hmmm, yes, well, wise words from a man who could have the same thing said to him. And Roger’s retort, “You know, that’s the great thing about a place like this [his sprawling Long Island estate], you can come here and be happy and you get to choose your guests.”  Ouch! Roger reminds Don that he has all the money and power, and that’s just one more thing to make Don feel trapped. A part of him wants that life because he didn’t have it, but he is so obviously uncomfortable with all the bullshit. When Don and Betty leave the party they share a tender embrace, the first real loving moment we’ve seen between the two of them in a long time. Thank you, Mad Men writers, we kind of needed that hug.

Looking ahead…next week’s episode is called “The Arrangements,” and will include some stuff at the Draper household between Don and Betty’s father. Also, one other thing that I didn’t really cover in this post is Joan…this is the marriage to watch right now…he’s got issues, she’s pretending not to notice them.  But this is JOAN we are talking about, she calls bullshit on everyone, so it’s bound to happen at some point that hubby gets called out too…at least that’s my wishful thinking.