'Mad Men' season 3 premiere: British invasion
"Mad Men" got down to business pretty quickly with its season premiere Sunday -- showing us that Betty's still pregnant, things are unsettled at Sterling Cooper, and most of all, Don Draper is still Don Draper.
And I don't just mean because Don, whose out-of-town trip with Salvatore gave the episode its title, slept with a stewardess while he was in Baltimore. But in his interactions with the other partners at SC -- including Jared Harris as Lane Pryce, the firm's financial officer from across the pond -- his flashback scenes at the beginning and his treatment of Salvatore at the end of the trip, Jon Hamm got to play with a lot of what makes Don such a complicated and fascinating character.
It's a great start to the season, and one that -- though it jumps ahead in time -- leaves you with far less of a sense of dislocation than the second-season premiere did. It looks to be about six months after the end of season two, which would put us in the spring of 1963. Betty's very pregnant, and the money men from British ad agency PP&L have tightened the belt, which we see in the ugly departure of (previously unseen) head of accounts Burt Peterson.
It feels like the culture clash in the SC offices, and how it might reflect the changes we know are looming in the outside world, will be a big and rich area for the show this year. Sterling Cooper has a number of big accounts, and Don, Salvatore and others there are obviously pretty good at their jobs, but the agency is destined to end up on the wrong side of the advertising revolution that was already starting to happen by mid-1963. "You're the dying empire," Peterson rages at Pryce as he's being canned, and he could just as well be talking about Sterling Cooper as the Brits.
The other big development in the episode is what happened to Salvatore in Baltimore. Sal is pretty deep in the closet (this is a married man, after all), so it's not out of the realm of possibility to presume that he's never even been with a man -- and to get "caught" as he did had to be one of his worst fears realized (notice how flustered he was at the start of the London Fog meeting).
But Don, to his credit, really doesn't give a damn what Sal does behind closed doors -- and as a man who knows from living a secret, is uniquely positioned to understand what Sal is going through. "Limit your exposure," Don tells him by way of supplying a tag line for the London Fog campaign -- in other words, do what you have to do to get along. Not exactly the most progressive message, but given the time, it's practically a model of tolerance.
Other notes from "Out of Town":
- When Don tells the stewardess it's his birthday, he's not lying, really. It is Dick Whitman's birthday, and he starts the episode replaying the circumstances of his birth (as it was no doubt repeated to him by his deeply damaged parents).
- Other than seeing that Betty is still pregnant -- if it's been six months, she's maybe a month or two away from giving birth -- we don't get much of the Draper family life tonight. Sally's anxiety over Don leaving, to the point that she breaks the clasp on his suitcase, is a little heartbreaking. She also provides a nice bookend to the episode, asking about the day she was born and giving Don a chance to reflect on how different it was for her.
- Speaking of the culture clash, it seems the order to pit Pete and Ken in a head-of-accounts deathmatch came not from Pryce but from his superiors in London. The way the two men reacted to it pretty well sums up their characters -- Pete the entitled, petulant child and Ken the even-keeled, take-it-as-it-comes adult.
- That was Ryan Cartwright (Vincent-Nigel Murray on "Bones") as Pryce's secretary, John Hooker. The way Joan smacked him down while appearing to be the model of decorum -- first in their conversation about Burt Peterson's departure and then in suggesting he take Burt's office -- was absolutely brilliant.
- A few favorite lines: Betty on Sally's destruction of the suitcase: "She's taken to your tools like a little lesbian." The midwife to Mrs. Whitman: "His name's Dick -- after a wish his mother should have lived to see." Joan to Hooker, who's telling her about the differences between Britain and America: "A truck is a lorry, and an elevator is a lift. I get it." Don to the flight crew at dinner: "I don't usually tell people I'm an accountant."
Thoughts on the "Mad Men" season premiere? What did you think of the time jump, and what do you think it means for the rest of the season?
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Another great line: There will be fat years. There will be lean years. But it will always rain.
Absolutely loved it. I was welling with tears during the first scene, beautifully done.
How amazing was Jon Hamm in this episode? He got to play the tender husband lulling Betty to sleep, the randy playboy with the stewardess, the brilliant ad exec with the London Fog guys, and he had that amazing scene where he subtly let Sal know he wasn't judging him by using the "Limit Your Exposure" idea as cover. That's a heck of a range for one episode.
There was something of a different feel to this episode and you can tell already that the theme of the season, as the creator has said, is "change". Bring on next Sunday!
Unfortunately, we also learn that Joan is still engaged to be married to the cad who raped her in Don's office last season (revealed when she tells Peggy she can't wait to be out of there, or something along those lines).
if we are supposed to be in the spring, that means Joan did not get married as planned (the wedding was supposed to be at Christmas).
am I the only one that thought Don seemed nervous with the stewardess? maybe he was playing shy.
he was so sweet with Betty, like he is actually trying to be a good husband...but i guess some things never change.
I felt so bad for Salvatore. But of all the people in the office to find out his secret, at least Don would be the most discreet.
What the heck happened to Duck Phillips?
i suspect that Duck Phillips was let go. In the finale when Don and Duck have the confrontation during the meeting, it is obvious that one of them would have to go. The British side of the table had expressions that seemed to say that Don had to come with the deal. Plus they made the comment about how Duck could never hold his liquor.
The time jump is about right. We don't have to go through all of Betty's pregnancy, but we didn't go so far ahead as to feel displaced. If it, indeed, is early 1963, this is about the last gasp of what was before the winds of change really started blowing--and not just for Sterling Cooper.
I thought this episode was brilliant. One of the things I love about Mad Men are the many layers that each episode has, as does each character. John Hamm is brilliant as usual, as is the guy who plays Pete Campbell- completely creepy but so perfect. I'm really interested to see how this season plays out, as 1963 is a very interesting year, with the ******ination of JFK and the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan, among other things. A great show, probably one of the best on TV right now. Everything about it is done so well.
Joan is not engaged, she is married. When she mentions looking forward to not having to be there, I think she was referencing when she gets pregnant/has children, she won't have to work.
This was a great episode! Well written, well acted.