Don Draper will see you at the movies
Photo Credit: Amc
A review of tonight’s Mad Men coming up as soon as I create
a Molotov cocktail add…
“Everybody likes to go to the movies when they're sad”
-Bobby
When death hit’s chaos erupts. Especially when it is the death of a figure of great importance that dies. Mad Men delivered death and chaos in one of its most scattered episode to date. Yet the magic of Mad Men is that it managed to tie chaos into a theme and make the episode feel almost right. The Flood ends up being chaotic, emotional and a good hour of television.
The chaos comes from the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and
the spoils of his legacy being poured onto the streets of New York. Matt Weiner
and crew set up the tragedy properly, taking around 15 minutes to introduce the
actual event and setting up the disposition of the characters. Don at the
beginning of this episode is still distracted with the world around him, as
evident with the scene early one when he asks his favorite couple Sylvia and
Arnold where they are going after he knows where they are going (clearly missing
Sylvia’s wondrous sex no doubt). Then the add awards sequence is set up quite
naturally. The sweeping shots, the Megan and Peggy reunion, and the parallel to
Ginsberg on an awkward date all seem to be normal in an episode of Mad Men. The
scene starts with an interesting speech from Newman and then…
…Bang! Out of nowhere the episode and its tone take a
massive turn for the worst. Out of nowhere the assassination of Martin Luther
King is shouted out right in the middle of Newman’s speech and chaos. Mad Men
sets the rest of the episode on how the characters react to the event and what
kind of emotions and pent up frustration is brought up from the reactions. It’s
truly devastating and powerful and brings out some good character moments.
The best part of “The Flood” are not the reactions in the
moment per say (we saw how that went wrong in season 3 with the Kennedy assassination)
but instead of how the characters deal with the melancholy on the day after the
event. It’s powerful to see these characters who are all definitely affected by
the tragedy have to live another day and deal with their lives as the life
picks up the next day. Peggy for example has to deal with another day at work
and an attempt to buy a new apartment. Peggy’s still reeling from the events
that have happened and yet she gets a call from her retailer right away asking
her to take a bid while everyone is still off guard. Life goes on as normal and
the lives of these characters lives don’t stop with certain events. Thus
emotional chaos happens.
Perhaps the idea of going on is best delivered through
Ginsberg’s storyline (yes you heard that right) where it’s found out that
Ginsberg seems to be afraid of women and dating. Yet his father keeps pushing
even after the tragedy because it’s how we move on that counts and that someone
always needs another especially in times of strategy. It’s an interesting
concept presented in Ginsberg’s storyline and I would love to have some more regarding
the strange “alien like” individual.
The storyline that didn’t work so well this week was Betty and
Henry’s, because in all reality who really cares about Henry at this point. It
was really out of place and uninteresting to listen to what Henry is going to
be politician wise and even less interesting to see how he is reacting to the assassination.
Henry and his relationship with Betty still seems just as uninteresting as ever
and honestly I would be happy never seeing them again on this show. Not that
the performances are bad or that they are poorly written or anything but
because they always are the least interesting and good part of the show. It
seemed oddly disconnected (even they were tied to the theme in some way) to go
to Henry and Betty this week and it deterred from the characters that were
actually fun to watch.
In the end though the best, most disturbing piece of next
day fever was that of Don. The tragedy seemed to bring out the fact that Don
really isn’t a great father at all. First off he forgets to pick up his kids
again, and get’s scolded by Betty for it (in the part of Betty being there that
actually helped the episode). Then he can’t connect with Sally, who is clearly
mad at him, and thus they go out with Megan leaving Don and Bobby together to
go to the movies. We see his inability to connect with his son in full display
as he stumbles to find the right words to display his thoughts in the movie
theater.
Then for Don comes realization, and maybe even as spark of
transformation. In one of the best scenes Jon Hamm has delivered in a while,
Don’s breakdown was the emotional high point of the episode. His speech about
being a potentially fake and terrible father, until one is enlightened (like
Don is when Bobby talks about people in the movies) and realizes the spark is
still there. The sequence is a magical little piece of acting on Jon Hamm’s
part and made the episode’s themes come singing through.
Ultimately the characters see transformation at the end of
chaos. We see Don reevaluating his role as a parent, Peggy looking elsewhere
for an apartment after she couldn’t get her first choice, and the world
adjusting after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Structurally the episode
wasn’t entirely great this week but it provided many powerfully emotional and
well acted moments to keep me reeling hours after it’s finish. Not great but
certainly a solid hour of the show.
Some other musings:
- Randal, Roger’s client whom he clearly found through an acid trip provided a fun deviation this week with his very strange Molotov cocktail that was good for some dark humor. Roger’s reaction to it was priceless!
- Hey Harry when you’re being told off by Pete about how bad of a man you are then you need to start evaluating your life.
- Some callbacks from last season including pivotal scenes involving round tables at an add event and a movie theater.
- Apparently according to the lessons that Don teaches his children only important men are in danger. Hey at least it was a good shot at Henry.
- We need Stan and/or Ginsberg to have an episode or two. That would be golden!
A reminder that this
is going to be the last review of Mad Men that will be out the night of for a
few weeks now due to exams (so I can get some sleep before they happen). I’m hoping
to chime in at sometime during the week but don’t expect these to be up right
away for the next two or three weeks or so. Unless something jaw dropping happens…
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
No comments:
Post a Comment