Don Draper thinking alone at an Italian Restaurant in Mad Men
A Review of this week's Mad Men coming up just as soon as I choose my Italian
meal…
“It’s all about what it looks like isn’t it.”
-Pete
The last season of Mad Men had really one noticeable dud and
that was the Jon Hamm directed episode “Tea Leaves.” It was a dud for numerous
reasons, the most glaring being it’s focus (and technically introduction) to
fat Betty. The episode was the sour point on an otherwise pretty amazing season
of television. Cut to season six with the second Jon Hamm directed episode
“The Collaborators” and one will find no such blemish. “ The Collaborators” was another
great Mad Men hour and continues a great rolling start to the season.
Don is really going through a lot right now that’s for sure.
The season opened with him feeling lost in his own little world and this
episode continued to bring that point home. It’s gotten bad with his marriage
as at this point Megan is afraid to tell Don about her having a miscarriage.
She’s so terrified to tell him at this point she confines with Silvia, the
woman with whom Don is having an affair with, about the miscarriage before
confining with Don about it. It’s scary that Megan is more intertwine with
Sylvia then with Don at this point. Megan is so distraught she fires the maid!
While it ultimately turns out to be fine once she tells Don it, it’s still
telling about the state of their marriage compared to what it was way back in
the height of last season.
But truthfully it’s all about how you handle it in public,
and Don handles it exquisitely. Don handles being left alone with Sylvia at
dinner brilliantly in one of the most dynamite sequences I’ve viewed in quite a
while. The dance like dialogue intercut with the opera music and the sex was
gloriously shot and edited in every way. Add on one of the fiercest and dynamic
conversations in recent Mad Men memory and the sequence itself was nearly
perfect intercutting both the awkward rules and feelings of the affair
emotionally with the playful sexual desire of both parties.
At this Point that sexual desire is what’s compelling both
Don and Sylvia through this affair that it seems that both parties aren’t
emotionally comfortable with. Sylvia is close to Megan and has a liking for the
woman so she feels rather uncomfortable at times with sleeping with someone
whose friend next door is married to. Don seems to begin to get uncomfortable
with the ladies being as close as they are and Megan ultimately finding out
about the situation. Even so Don continues to go back to Sylvia and Sylvia to
Don. Don seemingly can’t help himself, as was seen with his relationship with
Betty, and is a machine of want. No matter how happy he seems to be in his
marriage he will literally cheat under Megan’s nose to fulfill his want. It’s
the deep dark cycle that doesn’t ever seem to end.
It may, ultimately, have something to do with his past.
Through flashbacks we got to see the life that young Dick Whitman lived in that
strange shared residence where he witnessed the sleazy Max sleeping with his
mother while spying through a peephole. If there was one slight problem with
the episode it was the strange flashbacks that were interspersed through the
episode. The scenes felt a little out of place in the episode, and while they
accomplished their goal theme wise, felt a little strange within the rest of
the episode. That being said they were short enough to not harm the episode in
any way they were just kind of strange.
While Don can’t seem to hold on to his personal life he sure
can handle himself in the workplace. Good old Herb returns in this episode with
a vengeance hitting on Joan and asking for a different style of advertising his
product that would ultimately hurt the business as a whole. After a little
consideration, and a good battle with Pete, Don throws the suggestion for a
loop delivering one of the purposefully worst idea pitches of his career in the
most hilarious scene of the last two episodes (it had me when Don was suggesting
putting adds for Jaguars in the Sunday paper and talking about how they could
sell them alongside used cars as well, brilliant!). Don will break the rules to
get what’s best for the company and he shows a level of passion that he hasn’t
placed in the job in a very long time.
Then there is Pete who after taking most of last episode off
came back into focus in a most unfavorable light. Pete continues to have a
tough time in almost every facet of his life, especially personally. In the office
Pete seems to hang on by a thread as he seems to be a puppet for the companies
that he represents, even more so than other accounts men. Pete looks like the
fool when Don shows up Herb and ultimately get’s blamed for it. Also that young
guy Bob seems to be after Pete in the long run.
Despite all that where Pete’s life seems to hurt the most is
at home. Pete is trying to sleep around but is kind of doing it all wrong and
thus makes things complicated. Pete is clearly, as usual, trying to imitate the
Don lifestyle with the inner-city apartment and the many mistresses. The
problem is that it’s obvious to Trudy exactly what he’s doing. Trudy always
seemed savvier than any one of Don’s two wives and when Pete is foolishly sleeping
with the woman who lives a few houses down from him, she’s sure to find out no
problem. Trudy is clearly insulted when she puts the pieces together, not
because he was cheating on her, but because he made it so obvious. It was
fantastic to watch her say that she will destroy him if he even pisses on their
property again without her permission. Pete’s marriage is now out the window
and his personal life in mayhem, he’s beginning the trip to rock bottom much
sooner than Don the man who he’s been, oh so poorly, trying to be.
Then there is the other half of Don’s presence Peggy who
also is forced to break a few rules this week in the name of work. When her
boss catches her usual late night call with Stan, who talked about the Heinz
ketchup debacle, she is forced to go against friendship to get a head start on
the account. While it’s hard to say where this will lead Peggy as the new Don
of another office character arc intrigues me especially with her minions (that’s
what I’ll call them) not liking her style of running things.
“The Collaborators” was another great episode in season six that
continued to stick its characters down the rabbit hole. Lives and relationships
are being tested in newer, more solid ways and thus are ultimately crumbling
before people’s feet. It will be most interesting to see where the show takes
these arcs over the next ten episodes.
Other Musings:
- Joan hasn’t gotten much to do in these last two episodes but what Christina Hendricks got to do with her two scenes here was absolutely excellent. I’m happy to see her and I’m sure we’re going to get tons more Joan as the season moves on.
- Go Trudy! It’s great to see a wife on this show that isn’t clueless to her husband’s affairs.
- Peggy (as glossed over a bit earlier) hasn’t quite gotten respect from her workers. It’s hard to use the Draper strategy when you’re a woman in the sixties I guess.
- This was a super well directed episode, including the great dinner and sex montage and a couple of wonderfully put together shots. Props to Jon Hamm indeed.
But that’s just me. What did everyone else think?
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