I HEARD YOU LET THAT LITTLE FRIEND OF MINE TAKE OFF YOUR PARTY DRESS: For thoughtful, cogent analysis of last night's Mad Men, go see Sepinwall. For thoughtless, rambling reactions to it, wait 18 or so hours and check here.
What I thought was most interesting about this episode, aside from the fact that Zoe Bartlet is now old enough to seem too old for this particular gentleman caller, was how Don's spiral manifests itself in so many ways. It's not just the liquor, the clumsy pawing, the lack of suavity with all three of his romantic targets this episode. It's the carelessness with the boundaries that he so meticulously maintained before.
The episode opens with a pretty impressive string of things that would never have happened to the old, more cautious Don. In Season 2, when Jane bought him a shirt for his drawer after noticing that he wasn't living at home, he just about stared a laser through her forehead for acknowledging the existence of a private life. In Season 1, Peggy took hostile fire when she made a foray into the same forbidden zone just to get Don to pay her back for the bail money. And I don't recall a secretary other than Joan sitting down in Don's office except when necessary to make notes or take dictation. But this episode opens with Allison sitting comfortably (who, including Joan, has ever felt comfortable in that seat?), not only referring to Don's private life but being asked to read a private letter. Even when Don is making a show of frustrating strangers' intrusions on his privacy, he's being more careless with it than we've ever seen.
And, of course, it gets worse. In an early (maybe the first) episode of the show, Peggy comes on to Don, believing, from what she's seen, that it's part of her job. Don angrily rebukes her, telling her that she's his secretary, not his girlfriend. Allison is a much better secretary than Peggy ever was, but drunk, incautious, adrift Don, still wearing for Allison the swagger that isn't there for Market Researcher and Nurse Ratched, stumbles right through the modest resistance that Allison's professionalism puts up.
So here's my question: is it that Don has a genuine affection for Allison that he didn't for Peggy and Lois (and that either he doesn't have in the same way for Joan, or that he did have but couldn't act on because of the Joan-Roger relationship), meaning that he'll try to make it up to Allison and Market Researcher's prediction about how he'll be married again in a year may not be that far off the mark? Or is he just so far gone that, in violation of rules that he has always observed, he's newly indifferent to the consequences of his behavior in the workplace?
I thought the tryst with Allison simply reflected how far Don had gone off the rails.
ReplyDeleteRe: Allison, I'm inclined to think it's an indication of Don's downward spiral. That said, though, I wouldn't be all that surprised if he did marry someone before long, and possibly even her.
ReplyDeleteThis episode was a masterpiece of television writing. It was incredibly uncomfortable to watch at times (Don w/ Allison, Peggy w/ Freddy, anything involving Glen, anything involving Lee Garner Jr) and had so many layers of meaning that I couldn't sleep for quite a while after turning off the TV.
Oh, Freddy, I love Freddy Rumson. I really want him to understand that Peggy is his boss now.
ReplyDeleteHas Weiner succeeded where Chase didn't (query: did Chase really want to do this?) in actually making his protagonist (for the moment, anyway) truly unlikeable?
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard for me to stay up and watch this show, because it doesn't mean going to sleep at 11, like Aimee, it means staying up for hours thinking about it! That was one dark hour of tv. I'm not sure I can buy Allison having sex with Don, though. Joey called him pathetic and even though he's Don Draper, he's drunk and sitting on the floor outside his sad apartment and they do it on the couch? What could she have been thinking?
ReplyDeleteDraper has redeeming qualities. He loves his children and is a good father when he's around them, as opposed to his monstrous ex-wife. He is masterful at his job.
ReplyDeleteFar more unlikeable protagonist: Walter White.
That was the highlight of the episode -- in the past, the "kids" were always more or less in awe of Don.
ReplyDeleteHaving paid $880 to get into my apartment (locksmiths be some damn thieves), the plot hinging on Draper losing his keys and having an attractive woman pick them up and bring them to him was especially harsh. Then again, I might well pay even more than that to avoid daily awkwardness.
Mad Men power rankings not yet up, but I'd go (1) Joan (excellent party planning), (2) Lee Garner, Jr. (still has to ask for floor-wax-quality), (3) Peggy. The rest are a wash, but Roger (forced into Santa suit), Lane (hoisted by his own Lucky Strike), and Pete (at least one other character recognized he's not that trustworthy) fell a bit.
Say what you will about Tony Soprano, at least he's not in advertising.
ReplyDeleteHe loves his children and is a good father when he's around them, as opposed to his monstrous ex-wife.
ReplyDeleteOf course, he's not around them very much at all, due to events entirely of his own making. Don Draper may love his children, but he isn't available enough to be considered a good parent.
And it looks like he knows it, given his visible reaction to Sally's letter to Santa.
ReplyDeleteDraper may love his children, but he isn't available enough to be considered a good parent
ReplyDeleteHence the qualification. Anyway, a person can be a good parent despite limited time, not that I'm willing to give that to Don without qualification.
I feel so much pity for Don, which I think is where Allison got sucked in, especially after the letter to Santa. And I think at this point, Don is in such great need of human connection, he found himself breaking a lot of his rules (like psuedo-Betty last week) just to fill the hole a little bit.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else in need of human connection and finding it in all the wrong places is darling Sally Draper, who made friends with the little perv down the street. Like mother, like daughter- hopefully she gets far enough away from her family at a young enough age so the damage isn't permanent and she doesn't end up like her mom.
I'm pretty sure that the 1950's and 60's were the premier decades when it comes to generating daddy issues. We know that Sally has expressed interest in boys (kissing Francine's son last year), but it seems Glenn has far outstripped the boundries of Sally's innocent dabbling. We know he's a freak ("Can I have a lock of your hair"), and there might just be no one more vulnerable than poor pre/proto-pubescent Sally.
ReplyDeleteI now have, with Glenn, the same feelings of dread and can't-look-away horror that I got from The Cousins on the last season of Breaking Bad.
In a few years I don't think anyone will be terribly surprised to find out that Sally resorted to drug use to dampen the pain inflicted by her dysfunctional parents. Not sure yet about Bobby; guess it depends on how much Glenn and Sally let him hang around.
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing: Glenn comments that no one said hi to him when they got to the tree lot. Does that mean Betty saw him and deliberately ignored him so as to not needing to explain to her new husband how she got to know the second weirdest kid in the world.
I am going to say that on the Glenn freak reasoning scale, I would have to rank watching Betty pee is higher than asking for a lock of her hair.
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