Season 1, Episodes 4-7
I have to admit that, after now having watched seven episodes of Mad Men, I’m not yet at the point where I’m ready to proclaim that it’s a masterpiece. Don’t get me wrong, though; there are some wonderful elements to it. I’m just not at the point where I simply can’t wait to see the next episode. I’m almost there, just not quite.
The acting is superb, the stories are interesting and the setting is unlike anything in recent memory. What’s not to like? Well, besides the despicable actions of some of the characters on the show (which were, arguably, the norm of the time period), not much. I guess I can’t quite put my finger on what it’s missing yet. I’m guessing that it’s nothing, and as I continue to learn about the colorful characters, I’ll be more invested and more anxious to see the story unfold.
I love that I’ve kept away from reading much regarding this show, because I’m caught by even simple surprises that make me smile. Like, for example, that Pete Campbell’s wife, Trudy, turns out to be Allison Brie, Annie from Community! Loved seeing her here, though, again, it’s only highlighting that she’s not long for this show …. I think. And … that’s how casting, again, sort of spoils things for me. As soon as I saw Pete with his new “wedding present” (pictured above) and the subsequent tongue-lashing he got from Trudy, I’m half wondering if he’s going to turn it on himself or both of them. Then again, she could be cast on both shows and I’m barking up the wrong tree entirely.
There’s certainly a lot of focus on Pete Campbell, though. He’s continually belittled, and though we believe he deserves it, I sometimes feel bad for the poor SOB. Over anyone else at this point, I’m most interested to see what becomes of his storyline. The way the juniors tear each other to pieces to get ahead within the company, or at least to appear to look more ahead than the others, is a bit sickening to witness. Will he snap or actually excel above them all?
Don Draper’s story took a very interesting twist in this series of episodes, as we learned a bit more of his past as Dick Whitman, brother of Adam. What’s interesting here is that he clearly had a troubled childhood and a stepmother he had particular problems with. So, for a guy who’s drinking hard liquor a lot, with a busy work life and juggling women around, he seems to fit the profile of someone who’d come home and take it out on his kids. Yet, even in the first three episodes, as he slugged back beer after beer while working on a playhouse in the heat, he did it all with a slurry smile. Maybe he takes it out on having multiple women in his life.
We finally meet the second half of Sterling Cooper here, the odd fellow who demands shoeless entry this his office. I’m actually rather surprised Cooper’s name isn’t first on the building, seeing as he appears more senior than Sterling. He does start out showing us that he has some influence with high-tiered clients, such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon. Watching that advertising campaign unfold is definitely one thing I’m looking forward to in the coming episodes.
Peggy slowly works her way into the scene more in these episodes, now writing ad copy. Will Campbell like her ideas and sell them off as his own? I’ll soon find out. And what was with her reaction to Campbell’s hunting story? For a second there I thought she was going to get sick after his detailed fantasy of slicing meat off a fresh kill, but she went and got a danish, as if she was starving!
Some interesting ’60s-era things of note:
(Previous entry: Season 1, Episodes 1-3)
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Jul 09, 2010 @ 14:08 EST5EDT
Roger puking on the client is one of my favorite scenes from the first season. To me, that is classic Mad Men.
Not really a spoiler: Sterling is the first name in the company because Cooper started the company with Roger’s dad.
*POST AUTHOR*
Something I forgot to mention: how can these guys who smoke, drink and eat like slobs look so fit, though clearly they are not?
You’ve hit on what I think is the only truly unrealistic aspect of a show that goes to great lengths to be authentic. It’s not really a failing of the show so much as it is of TV in general; at least American TV. That flaw just looks so much more obvious in a detail-oriented period piece like Mad Men that you do continue to wonder how these guys stay alive, much less in the same sized suit for very long!
I was born in 1960, so I grew up with a lot of that kind of behavior going on and I, too, wondered how I survived. One of my favorite old family photos is from when I was 3 years old and we were at the beach. My Dad is holding me, clad in a plain white t-shirt, knee-length plaid Bermuda shorts, knee high black socks and black leather shoes. He has a cigarette in his mouth and a smile on his face, but my entire head is obscured by a cloud of his exhaled cigarette smoke! The only reason I know that it’s me is because Mom always wrote a description of the scene in the margin of the pictures she took.
I also remember that all the cars we owned had a center, fold-down armrest that everybody referred to as the kiddie seat. And by everybody I mean everybody we knew, not just my family. I spent many an hour careening down the road at 50-80 mph perched on that “seat” blissfully unaware that I was just a blowout or an over-corrected swerve away from becoming a missile.
But I digress (finally)… It took a while for me to get fully invested in the show. At the point you are with the series I think I was more fascinated by the attention to detail and the accuracy of the settings than I was invested in the story of the characters. Mad Men is, I think, the very definition of a slow-burn series, but one that really does pay off in the long run.
There have been periods where I would get bored with the show and just let episodes pile up. During those times I’d wonder if I’d ever go back since I watch so damned much TV, but eventually I’d sit down when I had a few hours to kill and marathon watch 3-4 episodes and get caught back up in it again.
I can tell you that I do not regret sticking with it. Oh and Bob, my favorite moments are any scene with Christina Hendricks in it! To all you ladies out there; feel free to call me a caveman, a lecherous old fart, or simply “a man” (which is, apparently, in a woman’s vernacular, an insult), but it’s refreshing to see a beautiful woman on TV who’s not 2 pounds above organ failure.
I could do with more real and beautiful women on television and less with the sticks in dresses. And when it comes to seeing a curvy woman on my screen I have never seen a more beautiful example than Ms. Hendricks.