The Moth Chase

Dear Kathryn,

Well, we wondered at the beginning of the season why there was this focus on how impulsive and reckless Lane can be – I suppose we now know. The earlier Doris storyline (and even the Pete beat-up, which we were oh so gently reminded of this week) helps situate this one; despite the held-together British exterior, what actually holds Lane together seems to be a knack for duplicity and terrible decisions. Unlike other storylines in Mad Men that often feel like they’re trying to talk about something else (gender, politics, consumerism, etc…) this one felt like pure story. As pure story, though, it requires some later narrative pay off, and this leaves me very concerned for what the embezzled sum will do to SCDP’s potential to nab the car and put itself on the map (a nice little parallel there, of course, is that the most expensive Jag was still $2K less than what Lane stole…which shows us just how deep in he is). All that said, what really captivated me – and all of us, I’m imagining – was the lovely interaction between Don and Joan. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn (“with a K”),

At first I was a little bored by this episode; it didn’t feel like all that much was happening. But then I realized that things weren’t moving because we were instead getting a full, fairly detailed narration of the tension that is going to lie at the heart of every story from now on – the poison that hovers outside the safe spaces. Perhaps the show’s title, “Dark Shadows,” should have clued me into this from the start! But this tension between the threat outside vs. the safety inside was played with in numerous ways – Megan’s reference to Betty poisoning them from 50m away, her concern about the toxins in the smog, and Betty’s sad realization that while she’d had a good week with her Weight Watchers friends, “in here,” she’d had a bad week with everyone else, “out there,” perhaps even the references to the Devil…And so with this theme established, we saw the threat Ginsberg poses to Don, and the almost Betty-like move that Don pulled to avoid that threat. We saw the threat of a younger man who could nab Jane, and Roger’s realization that his selfishness is at the heart of his own sadness. We saw Pete’s fantasy and explosion about Beth on the train – indicating that that story is not going to fade away. And, most exciting of all – we finally got to see Meghan and Betty in the same room…and feel the type of tension that you’d need a damn sharp knife to cut. And I think that’s where I need to start! Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

I’m sorry I never responded to your post from last week, but this episode seemed to make a strong bookend to the major themes developed there. Especially the lingering questions about Megan’s place at SCDP in relation to her real vocation. It turns out that when Megan’s socialist dad suggested she gave up too soon on her dreams, he did mean acting. I suppose the content matters less to him than the striving and he worried that his favorite daughter was being handed life too easily. It was telling that of all the reasons Megan gave for wanting to return to acting, the one that hit hardest and seemed most compelling was her confession that she felt better failing at an audition than succeeding at a Heinz pitch. She might be “one of those girls” who is good at everything, as Peggy confesses to Joan, but that only means she feels the pull of her own desire more strongly – she can’t just use the barometer of success or praise to guide her way. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn,

I think the best way to approach this episode is character by character. Seeing as I’m up first, I’m going to be sneaky and take the ladies: Megan and Sally (I’ll leave Peggy and Joan for you, though, and any fellas you want to nab). It was great to get some more context on Megan, although I have to admit, I was left wondering what these dreams were that she had (besides acting?) that her father wanted to see her pursue? Did that one puzzle you too? And were you also left a bit worried by Roger’s response to Don claiming his father-in-law was a communist? But of course the dad wasn’t the one we were focused on. Julia Ormond was fabulous as the drunkard, flirtatious mother! But more on that in a minute. Megan’s central storyline was, of course, her coup of the Heinz campaign, and subsequent gifting of the whole package to Don. There was a moment (in the taxi) where I thought, maybe I’m wrong; maybe Don really is turned on by his wife’s brilliance and the chance to be truly partners with an equal (or even better!). So I felt the shocking gut-shot of realization along with Megan when Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

Well, where to begin about the first Mad Men episode I can remember that played with its own chronological beginnings? I have to admit being a bit slow on the uptake. When the screen closes on Peggy waiting in the dark for Abe to rescue her from her strange day and long loneliness, and reopens on a cheerful Roger bounding into Don’s office to pitch a “debauched and unnecessary boondoggle” in upstate New York, I assumed we were in the next day. Even when it becomes clear that Don is planning to grab Megan and head to a Howard Johnson, leaving Roger behind or forcing him into a couples get-away, my first thought was “how many days in a row will Don make Megan skip work to go to HoJos?” My tired brain didn’t piece it all together until I saw Megan was still wearing that fabulous orange dress. No matter how many orange sherberts Don wants to eat, Megan wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the same dress to work two days in a row. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Natalie,

What a fantastic episode! It was one of those gems that managed to pack so much into 47 minutes, while also keeping to a strong central story line. Like the last several episode, particular historic events framed the episode and infiltrated the consciousness of our characters. In this case, the Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas, and to a lesser degree by Britain’s defeat of West Germany in the 1966 World Cup (still a central moment in British self-consciousness marked by the little ditty my English friends like to sing about Germany: “Two world wars and one world cup, do-da, do-da”). Pete’s young co-ed summed up the general reaction with her lovely quote that I stole as the title of this post: “things seems so random all of a sudden.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn,

Well if we ever had an episode that was ‘all about…,’ this one was it: the violent heart of men, being the ‘…’ in that ‘fill in the blank’. But for the first time the theme of the episode got me wondering, how often are the Mad Men themes a fruition of a seed previously planted? When Greg raped Joanie last season (or was it the season before?), it got brushed under the rug so quickly.  Nevertheless, the memory of that scene has hung sometimes ominously in the air and other times, much as it would in real life, I suppose, it has disappeared from clear sight. Indeed, there have been moments when I’ve mistakenly liked Greg again, and then quickly wondered if not only Joan, like me, had forgotten what he’d done, but if even the writers had too.

To build a whole episode around this theme of male violence, then, that couched the dissolution of Joan and Greg’s marriage in the Chicago Speck Massacre of mid-July, 1966 was perfect. As the episode explored its theme, and the terror (as well as desire) such violence can incite in the women who face it, I think Ginsberg offered the most interesting thread. Consciously repelled by his colleagues’ fascination with the Speck case, he nevertheless sub-consciously Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Kathryn,

Let’s start with Betty, if for no other reason, than to get that story out of the way quickly. We noted last week her conspicuous absence. It feels a bit cheap to me for the absence to give way to the reveal, dun dun dun…she’s now a fat housewife. This might just be me – but I always find the make-up in “attractive character got fat” storylines too distracting to let the story work (think fat Lee Adama on BSG). And, in general, these storylines overdo it (consider the fact that only a year has supposedly passed since we last saw Betty and January Jones is pregnant here AND has make up work done to expand her even further). But what intrigued me about the storyline was this: Roger’s naming of her narrative as “actual life and death” was immediately undone with Betty’s own declaration that she’s been put through the ringer just to find out she’s fat. There’s the obvious symbolism that being unattractive really is death for Betty. But what I find more interesting here is the use of Betty’s near death storyline to bring about the revelation that she doesn’t actually want to be loved. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Natalie, Mad Men is back and what a joyful romp of a two-hour premiere! The boiling tension just below the surface, the promise of drama and intrigue to come, but all held slightly off center so we could just get to know each other again over a tea-smoking good party. I hadn’t realized how much I missed this group of snarky, caddish louts until I saw them all assembled, some better or worse for wear, figuring out their way into the brave new world of the mid-to-late 1960s. I couldn’t figure out the exact date of our launch, but context clues and a few google searches suggest spring/summer of 1966, a little more than six months from where we left off (for example, we left Joan a few months pregnant (not even showing) and her baby is clearly just a few weeks old). Oh what a difference a half-year makes! Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Kathryn,

What on earth?! Earlier in the season, when Don slept with secretary #1, we talked about how he was so pathetically becoming the Roger he had ridiculed last season…and when he started up with Meghan, it felt like the same thing was happening all over again.  I loved Roger’s response – who the hell is that?!  And the knowing grin – this is what we guys do.  But I’m still left wondering if there’s something different with Don and Meg?  Or, if not something different about those two in relation to all the other men who marry their secretaries, at least something different between Don’s feelings for her and his feelings for secretary #1.  I think what it comes down to is what a wife is supposed to be in this culture – Faye is a wife for our time, a companion, a partner (as we’ve mentioned a few times this season).  But Don’s generation doesn’t want a partner – he/they want a mother for the kids, someone who fits in his life rather than disrupts it with her own. Meghan fits – and so it’s love.  In fact, Meghan fits better than the original Mom (Betty) because she’s patient and sweet.  And she lets Don be patient and sweet.  It seems that’s what love is in that culture – the ability for someone to make you in to who you want to be. That’s why using Anna’s ring from the real Don was such a nice touch – it’s as if Don gets to start over again as Don…something he’s been yearning for all season.  Read the rest of this entry »