Mad Men Season 2, Episode 1: Either TV is getting smarter or I am getting dumber

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

0 comments

Mad Men Season 2, Episode 1: Either TV is getting smarter or I am getting dumber

POSTED: Thursday, July 31, 2008, 10:25 PM

Filed Under: TV Mad Men

What's wrong with this picture?

amctv.com

Mad Men is the heir to the cable drama throne previously occupied by The Sopranos and The Wire. The story of a WASP-y Manhattan advertising agency in 1960, the show's received lots of attention for the prolific drinking, smoking, racism and misogyny of the main characters, as well as for its meticulous dramaturgy.

But I would argue most of the praise of Mad Men misses the mark. What its creator, Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner, is trying to tell us, I suspect, is that these are the people who created the consumer culture we live in today. The idea that we express our individuality through buying stuff is relatively new. More to the point, it was invented by people like Mad Men's tormented, secretive Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the creative director of fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper.

Season 2 begins two years on, in 1962. We see now-36-year-old Draper being chastised by his doctor for his high blood pressure and even higher booze and Lucky Strike intake. Thoughtfully, doc fires off a Phenobarbital scrip. Draper heads to the bar, where his attempts at conversation with a beatnik reading Frank O'Hara are rebuffed. Meanwhile, Draper's wife Betty (January Jones) takes a riding lesson and heads home in time to reprimand her African-American nanny, a new feature in the household.

Back at the office, boss man Roger Sterling (John Slattery) engages in a brief parry with his former mistress, office manager Joan (Christina Hendricks), who is now engaged to a doctor — he’s "not Jewish," she angrily corrects Sterling. Draper shows up late to a meeting to find most of his creative team drunk and in possession of some really bad ideas for an airline ad campaign. "Stop writing for other writers," he tells Kinsey (Michael Gladis), one of his hapless protégés who between seasons has grown a very literary beard and taken to smoking a pipe.

Sterling and the head of accounts team up on Draper to get him to hire young talent, something clients seem excited about. Draper is unconvinced. "Young people don't know anything," he protests. "Least of all that they're young." Overruled, he is forced to interview a pair of 23-year-old savants in blindingly ugly ski sweaters.

Draper's coworker/nemesis Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) still can't get his wife pregnant, something the in-laws were already on him about full-force by end of last season. Campbell's marriage is one of the great tragicomedies of the series. He is from an old money family that, as is often the case, is more "old" than "money." His marriage to Trudy (Alison Brie), the daughter of a self-made mercantilist millionaire of some sort, is just the kind of title-for-assets swap that has been so popular in Anglo-Saxon culture since, well, since the Angles met the Saxons! Anyway, we can be pretty sure the problem isn't on Pete's end, seeing as he managed to have no trouble getting Peggy pregnant last season. A few days before his wedding, no less!

Meanwhile, it's Valentine's Day. Don takes Betty to the Savoy for cocktails. They retreat to their room before dinner, with Don assuring Betty "we'll be out of here before the Seder starts." (Weiner, who is Jewish, writes casually anti-Semitic dialogue like F. Scott Fitzgerald on his fourth martini.) They head upstairs, where Don promptly loses his erection (divine punishment from Yahweh, perhaps?). Betty orders room service.

Everyone else from the Sterling Cooper crew seems to be celebrating V-Day by watching Jackie Kennedy show off the newly decorated White House on national TV. Joan fends off the advances of her not-Jewish boyfriend to do so. Not-gay art director Salvatore (Bryan Batt) watches raptly with his new girlfriend, the Sterling Cooper switchboard operator.

Last scene: At home, Draper has purchased O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency despite the beatnik's warnings. He inscribes it "made me think of you" to an unknown recipient and takes a late-night walk to drop it in the mailbox. But to which former mistress? The East Village bohemian illustrator who Draper peaced out on after smoking pot with her and her hippie boyfriend? The department store heiress who took a 'round-the-world cruise when she realized Draper wasn't going to leave his wife? Inspirational high school literature teacher? Probably not that last one — they didn't teach no literature at the school of hard knocks, and that's exactly where Draper got his degree … in being a total badass.

Roxanne

Posted 2008-07-31 21:02:04

I didn't think that white sweater was so bad.

Karin

Posted 2008-08-03 17:23:34

Who is taking care of the baby?

drew lazor

Posted 2008-08-05 22:01:17

I guess Peggy on weekends and Peggy's mom when she's at work? Oh, Peggy...

Boudicca

Posted 2009-02-13 05:35:19

Madmen episode 1 series 2 has just aired on uK TV... so this is somewhat later for you US maddies (but apt for us in Europa). Big debate at the moment is this (and it does require URGENT explanation). We all get it that Betty is trying to 'be someone else' re: sexy babe that she thinks (not foolishly) Don has been having an affair with.. and we also get it that in trying to be sexy she is bound to mess up (this not being her character). But... and big BUT, she has been a top model and knows how to dress. So someone please, please explain the black bustier with BROWN... that's right, Brown stockings. Not even Betty would make that awful mistake. Or do the script writers think we need explanation overload?

Posted by Joel Tannenbaum @ 10:25 PM Permalink | Post a comment

0 comments

Comments (0)

PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
What we're trying to do this weekend
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: