Don and Roger on Mad Men
It’s rewatch time!! For the first time ever this summer we
will be watching an old season of a television show over the course of several
weeks. Installments will be posted Sundays and Wednesdays with the posts
spoiling only the episode that is being talked about. This summer the rewatch
is on the first season of Mathew Weiner’s 1960’s period piece Mad Men, one of
the great first seasons of television.
Thoughts on Mad Men’s pilot “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” as
soon as I denounce Psychology as a great cocktail party trick…
“Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know
what happiness is? The smell of a new car, it’s freedom from fear, it’s a
billboard on the side of the road that screams assurance that what you’re doing
is ok… You are ok.”
-Don
“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” the first episode of Mathew
Weiner’s Mad Men is perhaps the worst of the entire series (all though there
are a few duds here and there they are few and far between. The episode, while
providing a broad stroke of what the series would end up being, isn’t
representative of most of the thematic and ideological subtleties that would begin
to be present as soon as an episode later. The show’s first episode is
energetic and fun (it’s effective as a pilot in the fashion that it does get
you in to the word in a fun way) but is most of the time ultimately a little
broad and obvious with its themes in ways that the series wouldn’t be further
down the line.
All that being said “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” isn’t a bad
episode of television, in fact far from it. The pilot does many things very
right with its characters and the world it sets up. The first perfect character
moment comes right at the onset of the episode with the introduction of Don
Draper. The opening shot, the pull towards the back of Don Draper’s head
(otherwise known as the Don Draper shot that will be used over and over again throughout
the series) with Don Cherry’s great “Band of Gold” blaring in the background
truly brings the viewer right into the episode. Don Draper wise, for the most
part, is the best part of the episode. Jon Hamm is Don Draper from that first
rear facing frame and his fantastic now six season long performance would begin
from the opening conversation of the episode (of course involving one of the
sixties mainstays, smoking).
The moment where Jon Hamm’s performance truly shines is in
the first Don Draper ad pitch of the series, and the climax of the episode
where Don Draper pitches the “It’s Toasted” add to the Lucky Strike execs as a
last ditch effort to keep them in the building (and he gives a nice world view
statement seen in the quote above). We’ll see many pitches as this season goes
on but the initial one is special as it shows the viewer for the first time
what Don Draper, and Jon Hamm himself can do. It’s a great moment to an
otherwise mediocre meeting sequence.
On the subject of that meeting sequence one of the worst
things that Mad Men pilot does is that it hits the viewer in the face with its
era. Matthew Weiner wants you to know that this is the sixties here much to the
detriment of the whole episode. For example the three midlevel workers, whose
names by the way are Ken Cosgrove, Harry Crain, and Paul Kinsey, (and who will
become much more developed characters in seasons to come) are used constantly
throughout the episode to establish the pigheadedness of the attitude towards women
in the sixties. This is also evident in the brilliant yet on the nose scene
where the head secretary Joan walks Don’s newest secretary Peggy through the
office and while exemplifying (falsely in fact) all the things that she needs
to do to impress her new boss. The sixties, in one way or another are being
bombarded upon the audience (Nixon is referenced, typewriters, smoking ironies
etc.) sometimes in favor of atmosphere other times hurting the sense of realism,
a problem which will be fixed over the course of this season.
It’s disappointing that the sixties is so blatantly
introduced verbally as the show itself captures the atmosphere of the sixties
simply with its look. This pilot sets the bar for how beautiful the series will
look throughout its run and much has to do with director Alan Taylor (Sopranos
alum at the time) along with the many cinematographers, set and costume
designers. The entire look feels like the era that it’s trying to convey as
every shot feels as if a special attention is given to it. The look of the
series has always been an important part of the atmosphere and overall tone of
the show and its nailed right from the beginning of the pilot.
The other thing that works really well in the pilot despite
its broadness is the main character set ups. Don Draper, as mentioned above, is
the main character that is built here but Peggy and Pete also get a lot of
development time. Peggy, who is essentially the second most prominent character
in the series, gets a lot of fine set up time here with her adapting to the
office. The initial confusion of how a secretary acts towards her boss (in this
case she is told throughout the episode that she has to be sexual) develops the
mentor relationship that Don has towards Peggy. We see Don having a soft spot
for Peggy right from the start even as she mistakenly thinks that he wants sex
as part of the job.
The other relationship with Peggy this week involves Pete.
Yes one of the main plots of the episode was Pete’s bachelor’s party as he’s
about to get married to the then not cast Trudy. The plot is a mixed bag with
the actual bachelor’s part being much too broad (especially with Sal and his
clear gayness that no one else seems to notice) but the importance with Pete in
this episode involves the sudden drunken sex between Pete and Peggy. The relationship
seems sudden even in with the slight lead up to it (Pete calling her Amish). For
the most part Pete’s vulnerable minutes in the pilot (such as the one with
Peggy) work better then Pete in the office (something that will be corrected in
a few episodes). Overall the characters in general are what will define Mad Men
and they are clearly the best part of the episode.
Before we leave the pilot it’s impossible to not talk about
the last scene. Yes after watching Don sleeping around all episode we see that
in fact he is married. Gasp! Yeah leaving the reviel of Betty until the episode
and acting it up as a big surprise was probably the worst portion of the
episode. It’s really obvious (even on first viewing I had it in my head) that
Don is married and as an ending to an episode it doesn’t really work. Had
smaller weight been placed upon the reveal itself and being placed into the
importance of the character and her relationship with Don, even briefly, the
sequence would have had much more weight.
“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” overall while nowhere close to the
best of the series (or even this season) does provide decent set up to the
series as a whole. The show will get more subtle and more powerful character
wise the pilot does do a good job at establishing the groundwork for what is
one of the great first seasons (and overall shows) of television.
Some other Musings:
- Sal (the art guy if you didn’t pick up on it) is written way to broadly here. Sure we get that he’s gay and no one else can notice it!
- I had a friend who began watching the series who at the beginning really didn’t like Joan (the redhead head secretary played by Christina Hendricks). She does come off a little unlikable here with her seeming manipulation of Peggy, but ultimately I read the scene as Joan trying to help Peggy in the only way she knows how to help. I like Joan as a character and I hope people begin to pick up on her charm as we move forward.
- Roger (silver haired main boss) has some one liners here! I forgot that he’s not a regular at the start of this show.
- Don being paranoid about Pete trying to replace him is the one problem with the Don arc in this episode that is soon fixed.
Wednesday: “Ladies Room” where we get an introduction to the
rest of the ladies in the Mad Men world
Try your best not to spoil lots of the series down the road
if you comment. I know it’s not a very spoilable series but even so I’d say
keep it to the first season.
That’s just me though. I’m curious what did everyone else
think?
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