Premiere week has brought us a lot of big, loud, frenetic dramas, which is fine. But what a pleasure to slip back into the more contemplative world of Mad Men for an hour.

Thursday's episode brought us a little more information about Don Draper's past, Roger Sterling staring his mortality squarely in the face, and Joan Holloway maybe, just maybe, considering just what it is she's been looking for. I'm hugely grateful AMC has picked up Mad Men a second season, because there's just so much stuff there to mine.

(Spoilers dead ahead, mates.)

Our boys (and girls) are making plans for Labor Day weekend 1960, which also means that Sterling Cooper has to get cracking on Richard Nixon's campaign ads (oh, to have a nice, brief presidential contest). After watching a bouncy Kennedy spot followed by a stuffy, staid Nixon talking about the federal budget, the guys get a sense of what they're up against (and once again, Pete has the right handle on it: "The president is a product. Don't forget that").

Things aren't so great elsewhere either, as Dr. Scholl's has cancelled its account, news that Pete seems to take some relish in breaking to Don. Roger Sterling, though, seems unfazed, maybe because his wife and daughter are away and he can go on the prowl all three-day weekend long.

Sterling is pretty much an unrepentant bastard, and I'm going to have that deeply strange image of him riding one of the aluminum foil twins like a horse in my head for a good while. Yet -- and it's a testament to how freaking good John Slattery has been in this role -- I don't mind admitting that I got a little misty at the scene with his wife and daughter in the hospital, as years' worth of regrets came piling down on him.

Roger's heart attack rippled out to several other characters too. Don, clearly, had another existential-crisis moment as he considered his life, and that "this is all there is" and sought comfort from Rachel Menken (good to see Maggie Siff again). He also told her about his childhood, and we got the clearest picture yet of his circumstances: His mother was a prostitute, and when she died in childbirth he was left with his father and the man's wife. Pops died when he was 10, after which she took up with another man. Again: I'd want to run off and change my identity too.

Joan learned of Sterling's heart attack after Cooper called her into the office to help him reassure clients that the status quo would prevail at the agency, and you could almost see the wheels turning: How will this affect me? Joan's calculating nature was really in the foreground in this episode, with her refusal to acknowledge her tragic roommate Carol's romantic feelings -- not rejection, not pity, not anything, just refusal. That made Cooper's takedown of her -- "Don't waste your youth on age" -- all the more brutal.

This show has pretty well completely woven its spell on me. What about you? How'd this week's Mad Men come across?

Comments

That's a good way to describe that "deeply strange" image. Ditto on John Slattery's performance. No matter how icky Roger acts, you still kind of like him and don't wish for anything really bad to happen to him.

We pretty much agree on Don's background and behavior, but, boy do we part ways on Joan. Initially I did peg her as totally calculating, but she's shown some vulnerability the past couple of episodes. I thought she was misting up as she sat down to type those telegrams. And while her response to Carol was abrupt--she just totally glossed over what Carol had just said--it could be construed as a kindness. A kind of "I'm not interested but you've really exposed yourself here so I'm going to ignore it. We can pretend it never happened and still continue as friends." It's not particularly frank, but these people live in a world of lies. (Advertising AND the early 60's.)

Also, rather than a "brutal" "takedown," I took Cooper's advice as an attempt to impart a genuinely helpful insight. Not, it was blunt, but I didn't think it was (or was meant to be) cruel.

meggins | Sep 28, 2007 12:18:13 PM | #

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Joan is a narcist. Her room mates comments were flattering even though she does not share the same feelings she can understand why Carol would be in love with her.
Was Cooper's remark about wasting her youth on age in reference to her escort or was he letting her know that he's aware of her affair with Roger?

| Sep 29, 2007 3:25:11 PM | #

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if don's mother was a prostitute, how can he be so sure about who his dad was?

tim | Sep 29, 2007 8:30:54 PM | #

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I hope AMC has the good sense to adjust Mad Men's season next summer. It premiered much too late, so now it is still running when the networks are starting the Fall season. It should run with the other summer shows.

By the way, does anybody out there know how many episodes are left?

Mike | Oct 1, 2007 10:11:51 AM | #

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I look forward to Mad Men each week, the spell has been cast on me as well.

Hopefully,some of the new fall
fair can help fill the void, once it's gone.

DG | Oct 2, 2007 4:38:21 PM | #

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I agree with Tim, if Don's mother was a prostitute, how would anybody know who the father was? That makes no sense. What a sad childhood he must have had, in such a contrast to his wife's upper class upbringing. I'm sure he has not told his wife anything about his past.

Kathie | Oct 11, 2007 7:04:37 AM | #

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meggins | Sep 28, 2007 12:18:13 PM |

said:

"It's not particularly frank, but these people live in a world of lies. (Advertising AND the early 60's.)"

honesty amongst human beings hasn't improved. c'mon....

it is the conceit of youth to think you will change the world and your generation is somehow different. funny, it never happens...

what, pray tell, is better about our present world of hanging all our filth out there? I don't think you could find a measurable point of lifestyle that is better now...

for all the "hypocracy" - real and imaged of those times.

not for women, not for children, not for men,

for all the freedom given, blacks wear more chains now than did their ancestors...

not a concievable measurable point.

you need to rethink your sterotypes of 60's america.

snottynozebratt | Jul 20, 2008 12:40:27 PM | #

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