Monday, September 14, 2009

YOU'RE A HOUSECAT. YOU'RE VERY IMPORTANT, AND YOU HAVE LITTLE TO DO: Throwaway moments eliciting feelings of generational superiority are obviously a big part of the fun of Mad Men: quaintly drinking one's way through the work day! playing with dry cleaning plastic without your mother batting an eyelash! letting your sub-10-year-old granddaughter drive! But for someone like me who had her kids post-Y2K, the notion of having a baby in the mid-60s just out-mindblows everything else I've ever seen on the show. The out-the-window visit from the family, the drugs, the complete lack of father-to-be presence (great acting by Jon Hamm during that whole stay in the waiting room), the drugs, the we'll-get-this-baby-out-of-you-by-hook-or-by-crook-so-shut-up-and-bear-down attitude from the nurse, oh, and the drugs, and especially the hilarious shot of Betty carrying baby Gene swaddled up in the front seat of the car on their way home for the first time. Yikes.

A lot happened this episode after Don went back to the office a half-day after his wife had a baby. SuperJew Duck's return is great news from a plot standpoint -- I'm deeply curious to find out where Peggy's story will go for the rest of the season. And who knew that Pete Campbell would end up being the best darned ad man out there for the "Negro" community?

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