I’m bored and can’t think of anything to write about so I’m
going to start recapping episodes of the last season of Mad Men. If you watch the show, I hope you get something out of
this and if you don’t watch it, I’m not sure what to tell you.
I was slow to get started with Mad Men. We watched a few episodes as they aired during the first
season but then stopped. I thought the show was good in the early days but as I
started working my way through it again, I really started loving it and the
analysis online has made me appreciate the show even more. My favorite so far
as been season 5 but I also loved seasons 4 and 6.
These reviews will hopefully elaborate on what I love about
the show. Here is a brief summation of why I love Mad Men:
1. Themes
2. Levels
Think about it.
Anyway, we pick up our story in January 1969. This is the
shortest gap yet between seasons of this show. While a few of the characters
found renewal over the two-month gap, most seem to be in a holding pattern.
The most striking story this week was Peggy’s. The last time
we saw her, she appeared to be ascending to take Don’s place as the major
creative engine of Sterling Cooper and Partners, but her personal life was a
mess following Ted’s callous breakup with her. With Don gone, she is having an
even harder time at work trying to please her new boss, who pointedly notes
that he is not as susceptible to her charms as Don was. Ted is ostensibly off
to the California branch of the agency but Peggy still has to make awkward
chit-chat with her former lover as he visits the New York office. And she’s
overwhelmed by her position, which another ex pushed her into, of being a
landlord of a pre-gentrification Upper West Side building.
All this leaves Peggy crumbled on the floor in sobs. It was
an effective scene, with the preceding hour of stress building and building
until of course she breaks down. Who wouldn’t? I really hope she finds her
footing this season. Last year she advanced further in her career but was still
hamstrung by decisions other people made for her and I hope she attains some
measure of power and control. The series is as much her story as Don’s.
Speaking of whom, Don’s life may seem glamorous, as we see
in the swanky slow-motion introduction as Megan meets him at the airport
driving a convertible and wearing a negligee-like dress, but underneath, it’s
all crap. On a visit to California, he lies to his wife about taking a forced
leave from Sterling Cooper and is reduced using Freddie Rumsen as a mouthpiece
for his ideas at his old company. (Megan is lying in her own way, dressing in
late ‘60s bohemian drag and hiding her wealth from her struggling actor
friends.) Sex between the two seems tentative and passionless. Don ends up back
in their New York apartment with a balcony door that won’t close, sitting on
the freezing terrace like a sad sack. The messy personal life is nothing new
but now he doesn’t even have a job to go to. This is Don when he lets himself
unravel because there’s no reason to get out of bed.
Joan is another one in a holding pattern. She seized power
to become a partner and aggressively landed the Avon account last season. But
now she seems to be hitting the same ceilings again as new accounts are hesitant
to work with her. She has proven her worth to the company for years but in some
ways, she’s still being treated like a secretary. I am very much rooting for
Joan, the most competent character on this show, to triumph.
Pete and Roger are those who have actually found some
momentum in completely different ways. The move to Los Angeles was apparently
just what Pete needed and that was the first I’ve seen him happy in … probably
ever. My God, he even offers Don a hug. This old-money East Coaster is the last
person I thought would be comfortable with a relaxed California lifestyle.
Roger also seems to have quite a relaxed lifestyle of his own and we first see
him, naked but for a phone on his lap, waking up in the aftermath of an orgy in
his tony bedroom. When he goes to sleep, he finds a woman and man in his bed
and the woman tells him, “You know everyone is welcome in this bed.” Far from
liberating to me, this seemed more like a harbinger of a loss of control for
Roger Sterling.
So most of the characters enter the Nixon administration at
low ebbs. Will season seven be the story of redemption or will they just slide
further down?
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