Mad Men “The Monolith” Review: What society expects

Serious looking creative types on Mad Men

Photo Credit: AMC TV 

A Review of “The Monolith” as soon as I go see the Mets…

“Do the Work Don!”
-Freddy

Over the last two years Mad Men has had its detractors; many fans and critics have been skeptical of the dark backslide that Don had been going through throughout last season and the fact that he really hasn’t changed profoundly after all of this time. Last week’s episode we got Don getting into the office, despite the situations and this week we get Don working through the office despite not really being able at all. “The Monolith” throws Don through the ringer and then shows that for once this man may be on the path to redemption; and because it’s been so long and tenuous along the way it seems to be feeling a heck of a lot more satisfying.

Our voice of reason for Don this week is actually Freddy Rumson who manages to come through for Don at when Don seems to be in a terribly dark place. Don has been doing a whole bunch of nothing at the office for the weeks that he’s been back and it seems that it starts to get to him. It’s made even worse when he finally gets his first job which is making tags for Peggy. This pushes Don over the edge, he’s trapped essentially in office hell and no one is there to support him. When he brings the advertising for computers idea to Bert he gets instantly shut down and nearly humiliated.

As a result Don goes to the one thing that he seems to know best and that’s the bottle. He steals a bottle from Roger’s office and decides to resort to drinking his troubles away. This seems like another opportunity for Don to sink back to the level that he was at last season as Don seems to want to just eliminate all of his troubles the easy way. Thankfully for last year’s detractors Freddy comes to the rescue managing to get Don out of his terrible slump in one fell swoop with the power of the pep talk. Don puts his head down and ends up going through with his last resort crap job because of it and hopefully redemption will be found through this place of mediocrity.

The situation is also awkward for Peggy who gets Don dumped upon her. The two haven’t gotten along particularly well over the last little while and their meeting in this role is particularly awkward. Sure Peggy enjoys being in the position of power for a few moments, but soon realizes that she gets Don because no one really wants him and he’s going to be an utter pain to get along with. It’s an interesting situation for both parties, especially Peggy who still seems confused about just what is actually going on with the people in her life especially the ones that she thinks (and is mostly right about) destroying her life as she knew it. It’s made even better by just how great Moss and Hamm are on this show and how their chemistry over the seasons has been allowed to develop, making for one heck of an awkward working reunion.

On the other side of the show there is Roger’s journey to find his daughter amongst the hippies. Metaphorically it’s an interesting contrast to the new high tech computer being built in SC&P but on a more literal, and show operational level it’s a great way to get into the heads of both Margaret and Roger and figure out where they are for the time being. Slatery especially does a fantastic job of playing Roger as he tackles the emotions of really giving Margaret a toxic childhood and almost having to except the hippy lifestyle (that seems like she’s mostly into it because of the sex). The sequences that play out between the two are fantastic they combine the hopeful (the stars conversation and whether people will land on the moon), with the darker aspects of it (the sex and Roger not taking the idea very well at the end), it’s a strange set of emotions and one the show ends up playing off of very well.

Once we get past the broad computer metaphors “The Monolith” is another really good episode of Mad Men. It manages to move our characters forward and potentially into a mode of redemption, while still playing off of emotional problems that have been festering forever. We’re moving closer and closer to the end and maybe we’ll get some redemption for a certain falling character…

Or maybe again it can all change on a dime…

Some other musings:

• So with Margaret in hippyland USA and her terrible husband punching rednecks, where does that leave their poor child? Is he just going to have to resort to fake shooting secretaries all day?

• Don and Lloyd actually seem to have a good business relationship going until Bert decides to drive Don back into obscurity.

• When does Ted get to do anything, or get punished at all for running and hiding in California? Man being friends with Cutler does pay off in the end…

That’s just me folks. What does everyone else think?