Monday, August 23, 2010

The Boys Are Back In Town!


Chip,

Finally!  A Mad Men worth talking about!  I’ll be honest, the first four episodes have felt, at times, like one big hangover.  Count me as one of the viewers who was hoping the party wasn’t over yet.  Boo!  Hiss!

Despite its slow pace this season, one thing I’ve enjoyed is seeing the characters turn out to be something other than the people we thought we knew so well.  Okay, maybe I could have done without more Dick Whitman in California.  But other than that, well done, Matt Weiner, et al.  In that vein, let’s made a quick run through the SCDP partners:

Roger Sterling
Roger was in Pearl Harbor?  Who knew?  And Roger is more loyal than forgiving? Has anyone told Mona? I was blindsided by Roger’s loyalty to his dead GI friends, given that only four episodes ago he was denigrading the Ad Age reporter who lost his leg in Korea and accusing the magazine of being so cheap “they can’t afford a whole reporter.”  You know I’m a huge John Slattery fan, Chip, and I was blown away by his cringe-inducing appearance in the SCDP conference room just after the Japanese visitors accepted their gifts of Johnnie Walker and cantaloupe.  Cantaloupe?  Perhaps to remind them of Joan’s gravity defying feats later?  

Bertram Cooper
Are we seeing more of but hearing less from Bert?  I can’t tell if he’s more involved in the new firm than he was at Sterling Cooper or if he’s just more visible these days because there’s no second floor at SCDP, reducing him to hanging out in the lobby and reading magazines.  Overall though, Bert seems to be the SCDP partner who has surprised me the least so far.  I like Bert, and I wish we’d have a moment this season to rival his all-time classic, “Don, would you say I know something about you?” moment.

Don Draper
So glad he’s back!  I was getting worried after all that moping around the bachelor pad, or should I say cave, and hanging out with Anna Draper in California.  But this week, and even last, he showed it to us in spades.  Well, maybe not when he took Bethany to Benihana, but other than that, pure testosterone…..I was dying when he told the Times reporter, “Never heard of him,” when asked about Ted Chaough at the rival agency.  This is the Don we know and love, and sometimes love to hate, the one who will tell Roger Sterling he’s out of line and for whom Peggy will ride a motorcycle in circles.  And B-T dubs, what about that prank?  The architect of that nefarious plot to put Ted in his place was none other than Don, the same Don who gave Peggy a healthy dressing-down for staging the Ham Brawl of ’64.  And that is different because?  Oh yeah, it's not. 

Lane Price
Oh my.  So Don isn’t the only miserable bachelor around the office…..that New Year’s Eve had to be a low point for both of them.  I loved the flower mixup that led to Lane’s lonely holiday exile in New York. Lane obviously relies on and respects Joan’s authority as office manager, but he can’t quite treat her as a colleague, can he?  Denying her request for vacation time then sending her flowers to apologize.  What confusing times these people live in! I do like Lane’s role at SCDP as a decisionmaker, though.  When he came over to run Sterling Cooper, he was just St. John’s lackey.  We’re seeing something of the man he really is this season.  I just hope he doesn’t shove any more steaks in his crotch.  Ugh.  Which brings up another point…Chip, who do you think got the top bunk in the kids’ room when Don and Lane had their sleepover with the girls who “didn’t go to Barnard”?

Pete Campbell
The kid in the perpetual blue suit is a big boy now!  I think Vincent Kartheiser is a brilliant actor.  I’m impressed every time he makes us want to swat Pete away like a mosquito flying about, yet 30 minutes later we’re cheering the guy on when he shows some moxie.  His handling of the Clearasil matter was nothing short of ruthless.  How’d you like that guy for a son-in-law, Chip?  I was even a little impressed that he kept the petulance to a minimum (on the Pete scale anyway) during that lunch with Ken Cosgrove.  I mean, it’s not every day you get accused of having spread the rumor that Ken was the one who made the John Deere go rogue on Guy’s foot. And quite a bold accusation from young Petey when he called Roger out for objecting to taking Honda as a client, claiming Roger was merely wrapping himself in the flag to disguise Roger’s real beef that if Pete landed a big account, the firm would be less beholden to Roger’s (and the firm’s) cash cow, Lucky Strike.  I thought it was so interesting that this week Pete was the young upstart who didn’t understand Roger’s loyalty to his dead war buddies and was actually eager to do business with Roger’s enemy.  At the end of last week’s show, we had a very different Pete gathering with the other Establishment types, while locking eyes with Peggy through a window, she off for lunch with her new Bohemian and Sapphic friend.  Who is Pete?  He’s the character who has the most complex path ahead of him, I think.  He’s been groomed his whole life to be the next generation East Coast Elite.  Yet, he’s looking at Peggy (wistfully?), the clear implication being that the two of them are contemplating the path not taken.  Is Pete going to hold on to the past, or will he really embrace the counterculture, and not just because it sells product?

What are your thoughts about the SCDP partners, Chip?  And care to get into the women of Mad Men?  Now THAT’S a conversation worth having.

Looking forward to hearing from you.  Till then, I’ll just be applying Pond’s Cold Cream, brushing my hair 100 times, and thinking of new ways to use jewelry as a stop sign.

Peace, Holly

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