“Mad Men,” Season One: Wrap-up Post

To put it simply, Matthew Weiner and his crew have created a masterpiece, that is “Mad Men.” This masterpiece depicts the early 1960’s to a tee. Between the writing, the acting, and the vibrant visuals “Mad Men” is nothing short of addictive. From the very first installment this show keeps the viewer wanting more and the viewer keeps getting more right up until the season finale that ends with surprising twist.

As Will Harris, a writer for Bullz-eye.com writes, “It [Mad Men] requires a deft hand and a considerable amount of restraint to do a period piece. Those who can’t exercise self-control quickly fall back on the obvious, smacking the viewer in the face with punch-lines about the differences between then and now that are underlined with the biggest, thickest marker possible. Matthew Weiner, the man behind “Mad Men,” understands this, choosing to integrate these differences in a truly organic fashion, weaving them into the storyline rather than blatantly drawing attention to them.”

And I completely agree with Harris. Recreating a time period that was practically 50 years ago in such a vastly contrasting world today is not at all an easy thing to do, but Matthew Weiner does it extraordinarily and naturally. “Mad Men” presents the world of the 1960’s to the viewer in moderation through male domination, excessive drinking, uninhibited smoking, stereotypical housewives, and the segregation of minorities. But all of these facets are not in the viewers face – they are intertwined through all thirteen installments subtlety and it truly does paint a picture of the 1960’s. Harris’ review was one of the many positive reviews I read about “Mad Men” and many reviewers dubbed “Mad Men” the best TV series of 2007.

I don’t think that I can compare any other show that I’ve seen to “Mad Men” because it is truly one of a kind. In retrospect, each episode made some type of social commentary on the early 1960’s. Before I began my journey through “Mad Men” I really did not know what to expect. This show exemplifies its time period in such an honest way that it could be truly shocking to a modern-day viewer. For example, African Americans are just completely non-existent throughout the show unless they are playing the role of someone in the service industry such as, someone cleaning the dishes off a table at a restaurant or someone pressing a button on an elevator. There are a few strong, independent female characters on the show such as Helen Bishop, Joan Harris, Rachel Menken, and Midge Daniels, but for the majority of the female characters, the “glass ceiling” is extraordinarily low.

However, all that is “Mad Men” goes much deeper than the face of the 1960’s. The complexity and intricacy of each episode and each character surely has been the reason why season one has been such a success.

There is one quote that was said by leading character, Donald Draper, in the very first episode that truly sums up the essence of everything that, Sterling-Cooper, the fictional advertising agency represents: “What you call love was invented by guys like me…to sell you nylons.” Quotes as spectacular as this one are intertwined throughout all thirteen episodes, capturing an aura that is “Mad Men.”

I’m one of those people similar to the characters of Midge’s hippie friends who see the world of advertising as the “enemy.” The world of advertising is a complete fabrication of what the real world is like. Advertising is based on trickery and it tries to captivate people to make them believe that their life will be better once they have a certain product. Donald Draper is the mastermind behind Sterling-Cooper and he is absolutely phenomenal at what he does. Donald Draper represents a corporate world in which I despise, but from episode one I absolutely fell in love with his charm and his creativity. Draper’s job by nature requires him to be deceptive, and he is just as deceptive in his work field as he is in his private life, but yet no matter how many extramarital affairs he has I find myself enchanted with him and constantly rooting for him.

The Donald Draper story plot is absolutely fantastic. From episode one I found myself yearning to know more about Donald Draper. I kept asking myself – who is Donald Draper? And this was one of the major questions that was answered throughout all thirteen episodes. The fragmented episodes chronicle the life of Don Draper or should I say Dick Whitman up until his present state and his flaws turn him into a very relatable character. If Donald Draper was everything he exuded to his peers on a daily basis, he wouldn’t be very relatable. The American public likes tragedy, and we like characters that are flawed. Draper is like a sculpture of a Greek god – perfect and beautiful from a distance, but once you get close you begin to see all the cracks and imperfections.

When you watch a television show, the characters you come in contact with from episode to episode become your friends, even your family. You get to know each character and in a sense I felt that I had one up on almost every character on “Mad Men,” because I got to know Donald Draper from a bird’s eye view. I got to analyze and get that close to him and no other character really got that from Don, except maybe for Pete Campbell who did some snooping around to get to know the information that he did about Don. And getting that close to a character makes you feel so deeply for them, which is why I even shed a tear for the last second of the season finale when Don sat alone in his home reflecting on what he has turned his life into.

The one element that a TV series needs in order to be successful is obviously good writing, and this show has phenomenal writing. As I said in previous posts each episode, except for one, revolves around some type of product that the men at Sterling-Cooper, specifically Donald Draper, have to sell. In turn, the idea that Don comes up with to sell a specific product serves as an underlying theme to each episode. The only negative thing I have to say about “Mad Men” is in regards to the “Nixon versus Kennedy” scenario. The Nixon-Kennedy scenario was built up beginning from the earlier episodes and it seemed like it was going to be a very important factor in the episodes to come, but it just wasn’t. The Nixon-Kennedy scenario completely dropped off after the twelfth episode. But this is just me nit-picking to find a negative about the show; this one instance really had no effect on my overall opinion of the show.

It is evident that an enormous amount of thought was put into each and every episode and it was important to really digest each episode in order to grasp its full complexity. Watching each installment of “Mad Men” was an experience that opened me up to the world of the 1960’s, the world of advertising, and the world of flaws that make all of us human. Each character on this show no matter how perfect they seemed on the outside was flawed in some way and one of the best examples of this would be through the character of Betty Draper. Betty Draper is the ultimate trophy wife at face value, but the viewer comes to find that Betty is very damaged and she struggles with her everyday life through the reality that Don is not faithful to her.

I enjoyed the fact that no matter how well I thought I got to know each character and the aura of “Mad Men,” I was still managed to be shocked. And one of the biggest shockers came from the season finale. In just seconds Peggy Olson went from being on top of the world to being pregnant and unwed – it was fantastic. I can safely say that although the blog assignments have come to an end, my journey with “Mad Men” will continue. I cannot wait to begin watching season two.

I rate the season one a 5 out of 5, and if possible a 6 out of 5, just to show how much I enjoyed it.

The Ground Zero Mosque Ad

Despite the actual content of this ad, it definitely makes for an effective ad, according to the rubric. In the span of just one minute this ad establishes a tone, makes an argument, and the point of view is definitely clear. The producers of this ad by no means want a mosque, “a place of terrorist worship,” to be built on the sacred grounds of Ground Zero and the producers are urging Americans to stand up and fight for what they believe in because no one else will – not even the President of the United States.

However, the claims made in this ad are factual to an extent. This ad is extremely aggressive due to the fast-paced music, the tone of the words being spoken, and the shot transitions focusing on the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center and Muslim men wearing something like that looks like a ski mask and shooting, what looks like, AK-47’s.

It’s interesting how the ad begins with the words: “The audacity of jihad.” Jihad is an Islamic term, and it is a religious duty of Muslims. Jihad refers to the internal struggle Muslims undertake in order to maintain their faith and defend their religion. Ever since September 11, 2001, the United States has been in a war against “terror.” This ad simply makes the entire Muslim population the enemy because they never once define whom it is they want the American public to fight against. In reference to the entire Muslim population this ad uses the pronoun “they,” but it is just obvious this ad is referring to all of Muslims.

The producers of this ad want its viewers to feel hate and anger towards the entire Muslim population. The phrase, “Where we weep, they rejoice,” tries to make the viewer react. The producers want the American viewers to retaliate in order to stop the building of the mosque at Ground Zero.

Every single second of this ad is designed to provoke the viewer and in all fairness it is an effective ad, even though the claims being presented are not so factual. But for an unintelligent public, this ad will do what it set out to do.

For one, this ad is implying that all mosques are a breeding ground for terrorist worship. The ad doesn’t even have its facts right about where the actual mosque was going to be built. The mosque was not going to be built directly where the World Trade Center used to stand, but in fact, a few blocks away. The ad uses the World Trade Center grounds and the debris of that day to show how sacred that ground is and to make Americans angry towards Muslims for fighting to put a place of “terrorism worship” where 3,000 Americans died. The ad claims, “In order to celebrate those 3,000 deaths, they want to build a mosque at Ground Zero.”

This ad ends with the words, “Join the fight – kill the ground zero mosque.” The word “kill” is obviously a very strong word. This ad is essentially urging Americans to “kill” a building, which could translate to possibly blowing it up if it ever did get built. This ad was definitely produced to provoke viewers and I think either way you look at this ad, the resulting emotion that stems from this ad is anger – anger towards all Muslims or anger towards the producers for making this ad.

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 13: “The Wheel”

The final episode has finally arrived and it was no less than fantastic. This episode truly exemplifies how amazing the creator, Matthew Weiner, actually is. There are a few characters that are up for discussion in this post and it seems as though they have all fallen into somewhat similar paths. Those paths can be explained as paths of demise or even paths of regret. What truly made the theme of this episode come full-circle was the product that Sterling-Cooper took on to sell – a projector made by Kodak. Herman “Duck” Philips, the new head of accounts, arranged for the executives at Kodak to meet with Sterling-Cooper and this was when Don pitched one of the best, most sincere pitches I’ve seen yet.

This Kodak projector is a wheel-based projector and during his pitch Don explains that this product is not a wheel, but a carousel – traveling the way a child travels. This whole scene was spectacular because of the cinematography, the writing, and Jon Hamm’s acting. As Don’s family photos of a happier time projected onto the screen in front of the executives at Kodak and the men at Sterling-Cooper, Don spoke from the heart. It was symbolic that as the camera focused in on Don’s personal photos the rise of cigarette smoke lingered in front of them. It’s almost as if those great memories of his have been burned and there’s no way of getting them back. During Don’s pitch you could truly tell that he was speaking from a reflective perspective on his own life. He claimed that this product was a time machine, “It goes backwards and forwards and takes us to a place we ache to go again. It lets us travel the way a child travels, around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.” Don’s words were so extremely heartfelt and it made me feel so much compassion for him. It even made me reflective on my own life. Don’s word even broke Harry down, who’s been living in the office because his wife kicked him out after he cheated on her with Hildey in the previous episode. (You can tell Harry truly regrets what he did). Don and Harry are both yearning to go back to a time when they were happy, a time that was less complicated than it is now.

To a certain degree the same can be said for Betty. After Betty’s friend Francine comes over her house with the news that her husband Carlton has been having an affair, it catalyzes Betty to do some snooping of her own. She finds out that Don has been talking to her therapist behind her back and you can tell that she feels as though her privacy has been invaded. In a therapy session, Betty makes it known that she’s not stupid and that Don’s antics are in her face all the time, even though she pretends like they’re not. Betty continues to say that she feels sorry for Don because he has no sense of what family is, and she even begins to blame herself by saying that maybe she’s just not enough. I agree with Betty to a certain extent in the sense that I feel sorry for Don, but I don’t take pity on him. I know Don better than Betty does and Don definitely does not have a cold heart despite all of his extramarital affairs. Don’s enormous heart is shown through several instances in this one episode. After he gave his extraordinary heartfelt pitch, and after he finds out the dreadful news that he brother Adam committed suicide, it’s obvious Don has a heart. He was also thinking about his family after he gave that pitch and he was hoping that he wouldn’t be late so there would still be time for him to be with his family on Thanksgiving at Betty’s fathers house. My point is, Don has a bigger heart than Betty suspects, but that doesn’t warrant me to not feel compassion for Betty as well. It’s upsetting to watch Betty blame herself for Don’s antics. It’s apparent that Betty is really starting to feel more alone than ever and this is exemplified through the very odd encounter Betty and Glen (so strange) had in the parking lot. Betty was crying to this eight-year-old boy and begging him to tell her she would be okay. Betty is desperate for compassion.

Next, I have to discuss Peggy because my mind is still blown. In just one episode Peggy’s dreams came crashing down after she found out that she was pregnant. (That’s the reason why she’s been gaining all this weight). I couldn’t believe that she gave birth to her baby during this very episode. What struck me was the unrealism of it. Let’s be honest, how does a woman not know that she was pregnant up until the day she gives birth. But regardless, that was a shocker. I actually even felt sorry for Peggy when she didn’t even want to hold her newborn son. It’s ironic that just minutes before Peggy gave birth she was promoted to Junior Copy Writer with a job on Pete’s account, which really got him angry. I was never a fan of Peggy’s but I’ve come to realize that she just wants to succeed at her job and be a strong female, such as Joan. I’m still not the biggest fan of Peggy’s but she really pisses Pete off and anyone who torments Pete, I like. Pete definitely has to be the father of Peggy’s new baby son and this is definitely going to make for a great plot. It’s also ironic how just a few scenes prior to the birth scene Pete tells his wife that he definitely cannot support a child on his salary. Well, Pete, you better get another job, because this is definitely your baby. Pete was the only character in this episode that I felt absolutely no sympathy or compassion for. He has proven time and time again that he is as low as it gets.

This was a great episode and I loved the ending scene when Don came home to an empty house. He sat on his stairs with tears in his eyes. He had the most regretful look on his face and then Bob Dylan’s, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” chimed in and that just crushed my heart.

(Viewed in my room at 8:00 PM).

I rate this episode a 5 out of 5.

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 12: “Nixon Vs. Kennedy”

This has been the most surprising episode thus far. After twelve episodes you think you know a show and you think you know the cast of characters, but when the cast of characters never cease to surprise you, you know that the writing of that show is actually that good. And believe me, “Mad Men” is that good.

As stated in previous posts, usually every episode of “Mad Men” contains a brand or an item that Sterling-Cooper is attempting to sell; however, this episode excluded selling a brand or an item and instead focused on the election between Nixon and Kennedy. The election was on the minds of practically every character that works at Sterling Cooper except for one – Pete Campbell. He had another agenda on his mind.

Within the first few minutes of the episode when the camera took a close up shot on Pete and focused in on his eyes as he watched Draper from across the office, I knew it was about to go down. Pete’s eyes said it all – you could tell that he knew things about Draper or should I say Dick Whitman, that Draper never dreamed anyone would ever find out.

We find out that for the past few days, Campbell has been harboring the package that Don’s now-deceased brother had mailed to him in the previous episode. Pete had come to develop an obsession with Don’s past. The package was full of photographs that chronicled Don’s life and there were even belongings in there such as the dog tags of “Donald Draper.”

I truthfully did not think that Campbell would have the guts to confront Don about what he had found in that box, but apparently he did. Campbell essentially blackmailed Don and gave him an ultimatum. Campbell told Don he was going to reveal his real identity to Bertram Cooper unless Don made Campbell head of accounts. I started getting nervous for Don. Even though I didn’t think Pete would have the guts to actually bring up the fact that he knew Don was formerly Dick Whitman, I did not believe that Pete would actually take this news to Cooper. One of my favorite scenes of this episode was the race that Pete and Don had to Coopers office. I found it comical that they were in such a rush to get inside Coopers office that they still found the time to take off their shoes before entering.

My mouth essentially dropped when both Don and Pete stood before Cooper and Pete opened his mouth to reveal that Don Draper is not at all who he says he is. Pete finally makes it known that Don is Dick Whitman. My favorite quote throughout this episode was Coopers reply to Pete after he spilled the beans on Don. “Who cares? There are far worst stories than that. A man is whatever room he is in, and right now Donald Draper is in this room,” said Cooper. After hearing that my heart felt so relieved. I gained the utmost respect for Cooper after he completely disregarded the information Pete just revealed, and Cooper even gave Don the permission to fire Pete, which was great because I absolutely loathe him, which has been my perpetual feeling about Pete since day one.

Although I am constantly rooting for Don no matter how many women he cheats on Betty with, it was interesting to see him crumble when he found out that someone from the office actually knows his true identity. We literally see Don fall apart and become extremely distraught. Rachel Menken was the first person he turned to during his break down, which didn’t surprise me at all. But it shocked me when Don was so serious about asking Rachel to run away with him in that moment. My love for Don dropped just a little in that moment because he was even willing to give up his children and essentially his entire life just because one person found out his true identity. Rachel even felt the same as me, which is why she declined his extremely impulsive offer.

Now that I have a more solidified idea of Don through this episode due to Don’s wartime flashbacks, I can safely say that it’s in character for Don to just pack up and run away and start over “like Adam and Eve.”

Don volunteered for the Korean War and the lieutenant in his unit who is the real Donald Draper thought he was crazy for just volunteering. When I saw the flashback of how “Dick” accidentally killed Donald Draper I couldn’t believe it. But after thinking about it, it made absolutely no sense to me how it was even possible for Dick to switch the dog tags and ultimately lives with Donald Draper. He basically used Donald to fake his own death so he wouldn’t have to deal with the repercussions of accidentally killing his lieutenant. I guess a matter like this is possible during the 1960’s, but I just kept thinking that no soldier would get away with that today. There would be a confirmation of whom it was that actually died. If this show took place during the 21^st century, Dick Whitman would not be able to get away with stealing the identity of Donald Draper.

I got teary eyed during the scene when Don watched from the train his family with his coffin, which contained the real Donald Draper’s body in it. I got even more emotional when young Adam Whitman spots his brother on the train and Don completely ignores him. It was symbolic when the random woman on the train car touched Don on the shoulder and told him, “Don’t worry, you still got your whole life ahead of you.”

This episode was fantastic because it answered so many questions about who Donald Draper really is and just gave the viewer a complete answer to how he came to be Donald Draper formerly Dick Whitman. It’s funny because Dick Whitman is nothing like the Donald Draper I’ve known and come to love. Maybe it was because he was in a wife beater with dirt all over his face in the middle of a battlefield, but Dick Whitman seemed so timid and nowhere near the type of leader that Donald Draper is pegged to be. By adopting the name Donald Draper, Dick Whitman also adopted a persona to go along with it.

Another reason this episode was so fantastic is because dealt with many secondary characters within the office such as Harry, Joan, Salvatore, and Paul. I loved election-party scene that was held in the office after Don left to go home. I found it hilarious that absinthe was used to substitute the water in the office water dispenser. After the absinthe started flowing the party and everyone included, except Peggy, really started getting rowdy.

This episode deserves a perfect score and it has definitely been my favorite episode thus far. Every minute of this episode just got better and better and every scene practically came as a shock to me.

I rate this episode a 5 out of 5.

(Viewed in my room at 9:00 PM).

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 11: “Indian Summer”

This “Indian summer” is surely heating things up. I kept wondering why Adam Whitman’s hair was combed over and why he was dressed in a black suit as if he was about to attend a funeral. I came to find out that he was dressed for his own funeral, and right before he stood up on that chair and kicked it from underneath him in order to hang himself, he sent Don a package, which I’m afraid Don will never receive because Pete Campbell stole it off of his desk. It came to me as no surprise that it was Pete Campbell who would steal something personal that belongs to Don. Time and time again Pete shows his utter jealously of Don.

I’m curious to know what is in that brown paper wrapped package. Something tells me whatever Pete finds in there will reveal to him layers of Don Draper, or should I say Dick Whitman, like never before.

Adam Whitman’s suicide came as a complete shock to me and the fact that this occurred not even within five minutes into the episode is pure genius. On an even more morbid note, I thought the execution of his suicide was done well. I liked the fact that camera shot his body hanging from shoulders down. You never actually see the rope around his neck or even his face for that matter, but it is obvious that he just hung himself.

I love the fact that in almost every episode, the guys at Sterling-Cooper are working on a different account. These different accounts from episode to episode always seem to have some underlying meaning when it comes to the greater outlook of the episode. In this episode, the guys were trying to come up with a way to sell a weight loss belt. This item could represent the metaphor of “trimming the fat.” The fat is surely being trimmed at Sterling-Cooper, now that Sterling is practically incapable to work because of his heart condition. Cooper made Don partner, which came as a shock to no one. He certainly is the most qualified for the job and I was thrilled about that. It’s out with the old and in with the new. Sterling was welcomed back at the office with applause, but he left on stretcher. I think Sterling’s time may be up.

On the other hand, the weight loss belt could also represent the fact that things may not always seem as they appear. When the owners of Lucky Strike came for a meeting, Joan was called in to apply makeup and put color in Sterling’s cheeks so he doesn’t appear to look like the life has been sucked out of him, but in reality, he’s a dead man.

Because Peggy did such a good job with the Belle Jolie account, Don gave Peggy the opportunity to give him feedback on what she thinks of the weight loss belt. I never thought it would happen, but it seems as though Peggy is really moving her way up at Sterling-Cooper. After Don received the good news that he is being made partner, he granted Peggy the new desk and raise that she’s asked for. Joan is definitely not going to like that.

While Peggy was in her dark, lonely bedroom in the middle of the night, ready to try on the weight loss belt, I thought, well maybe this could be good for her. Now I know that sounds mean, but I also know it’s not just my imagination that she has put on more than a few pounds. It’s almost as if she’s gaining weight by the minute, and I really have no idea why. Although the men at Sterling-Cooper are completely chauvinistic, they’re right when they say she really is gaining a lot of weight.

Anyway, I would be scared to put on that weight loss belt. It doesn’t look safe at all. It looks like a giant diaper with wires attached to it. It’s funny how the weight loss belt played the role of a giant vibrator and gave Peggy sensations completely unrelated to weight loss. This belt was obviously made like that on purpose – in order to sell a weight loss belt to 1960’s housewives, the producers decided to sell simulated sex.

Speaking of simulated sex – I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Betty giving herself an enormous amount of pleasure off of the vibrating washing machine while she fantasized about the salesman who invited himself into the Draper residence in order to sell some air conditioners. The whole washing machine thing was just awkward, but her fantasy was the opposite. Betty was attracted to the salesman the moment he walked through the door and I think that’s why Betty made him leave as she was leading him up the stairs and into her and Don’s bedroom. She felt like she was intruding and betraying Don by bringing another man into their sacred bedroom. And when she told Don very casually about the salesman she let in the house, Don responded with an outburst. He did not like that at all. It seems like Don really can’t deal with Betty anymore.

The situation with Betty and the salesman triggered Don to call up Betty’s therapist in the middle of the night. (I really hate that invasion of privacy). He tells the therapist that he feels like the sessions are making Betty weaker. Don even says that he’s afraid of leaving her alone now and the therapist suggests some more specialized psychoanalysis. I think Don and the therapist are just overreacting.

I can’t end this post without mentioning Rachel Menken. Her feelings for Don have severely grown and it looks like she’s going to want more out of Don besides just some casual sex here and there. Her heart lies with Don and this is definitely going to cause some disruptions between Don and Betty. Rachel is worried that what her and Don have is just a fantasy and Don assures her it’s not. While Betty is up in bed reading magazines called Family Bride, Don is out making love to Rachel and clearly has no remorse. Don tells Rachel he is exactly where he is supposed to be.

This episode was definitely filled with a lot and the episode panned out at a faster pace than previous episodes. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But I guess the reason is because there are only two more episodes left to the season and more story plots have to be instilled before the season ends. I admire when the episodes go at a much slower pace because those episodes tend to be the best ones and that just goes to show how amazing the writers of this show are.

(Viewed in my room at 8:00 PM).

I rate this episode a 4 out of 5.

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 10: “Long Weekend”

I have to admit this episode started off slow, but it definitely built up momentum right up until the very last groundbreaking scene. The progression picked up through the characters of Roger Sterling and Donald Draper.

Roger Sterling has finally hit rock bottom and his reality has slapped him dead in the face and the same seems to be true for Don. I don’t think this episode had anything to do with Don hitting bottom, but it had to do with him and the realities he faces. Roger Sterling reminds me of the pimp-daddy himself, Hugh Hefner; they both even display a head of gray hair. It baffles me that throughout all his extramarital affairs Sterling never ceases to speak of his wife and the fact that he just cannot relate to his daughter.

After holding a quick and easy casting call for Cartwright Double-sided Aluminum, Sterling courts the pair of twins that he chose for the campaign up to his office after everyone in the building had gone home for the Labor Day weekend. For a minute there I thought a three-sum was about to occur with Sterling sandwiched in the middle of the young models, but the models declined when Sterling suggested that the two of them kiss. Don was basically forced to entertain one of the twins and give her a couple of kisses, while Sterling had rowdy sex with the other. But after Sterling had his fun with the young model, he underwent a heart attack, and the aftermath did not look good for him. While lying up on the hospital bed, Sterling is forced to take a step back, look at his life, and get his priorities in order. His wife and daughter come in to see how he is doing and he passionately cries to them and tells them he’s so sorry. I think Sterling is finally realizing that he may have burned out his fuse and that his life may be dwindling. The booze and cigarettes and his gluttonous lifestyle is going to kill him.

If anything more serious were to happen to Sterling, it would obviously affect the company, but after hearing the terrible news Cooper had Joan send out a telegram to all the Sterling-Cooper clients reassuring them that everything will be okay. As Joan typed up the telegram on her typewriter, her eyes swelled with tears. I think she has more feelings for Sterling than she realizes.

Joan isn’t the only character who was deeply affected by Sterling’s heart attack. The fact that the doctors did not know if Sterling was going to survive really opened Don up and made him take a step back to look at his own life and reflect on the things that are going on around him. It came as no surprise to me that after leaving the hospital, Don showed up disheveled in the middle of the night on Rachel Menken’s doorstep. In the beginning of this episode when Rachel and her father had a meeting with the creative department at Sterling-Cooper, I noticed tension between her and Don. You could see it in her eyes that she still has deep feelings for Don, and when she comes around you can tell that Don feels the same. I knew that that would not be last time she would appear in this episode.

It’s funny how Labor Day weekend makes everyone a little be more receptive. Maybe it’s because all the wives are out of town, like Betty and Sterling’s wife; however, Don would have probably made a late night visit to Rachel even if Betty was home. Don’s visit to Rachel was extremely significant in terms of character relations and Don’s character development. After Don passionately kisses Rachel, he tells her, “This is it. This is all there is,” and Rachel winds up giving in to Don’s temptation. After some late night lovemaking, Don laid in a vulnerable state wrapped in Rachel’s arms and for the first time he reveals that his mother was a prostitute and that she died during childbirth. He also tells Rachel that when he was ten, his father died. Don essentially grew up without parents and I do not know why Don would reveal all of this to Rachel during that moment, but I do know that he was definitely feeling vulnerable – it surprised me that he even declined a cigarette during that moment.

This episode was definitely filled with some real meat and real character developments that are certainly going to leave their mark in later episodes. The Kennedy-Nixon campaign has made a bit more progress and secondary characters like Joan are even progressing. I think this episode reached a defining moment throughout the season thus far, and I am definitely anticipating the episodes to come.

(Viewed in my room at 9:00 PM).

I rate this episode a 5 out of 5.

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 9: “Shoot”

The Draper’s neighbors free-ranging pigeons played a role in a metaphor for the theme of this episode. It’s almost as if this episode’s theme was an attack on the popular cliché: spread your wings and let the wind take you where it may. This episode exemplified both Betty and Don’s ability to go after what they want and create their own destinies, despite where the wind may be pushing them.

Jim Hobart, head of a much larger and international rival advertising agency – McCann Erickson – approaches Don during the intermission at the theatre and begins to court him in order to get him to leave Sterling-Cooper and work for them. Don had me a little worried at first, but I knew he was just toying with Hobart. I saw a deeper side to Don when Sterling made him an offer of a $45,000 a year salary to stay with Sterling-Cooper, even though they both knew it wasn’t about the money for Don. Don told Sterling that he’ll take the money, but he doesn’t want a contract. He said if he ever were to leave Sterling-Cooper, he wouldn’t leave to do advertising somewhere else. Don wanted to be free of a contract in order to one day actually live. Even though Don is extremely good at what he does, he doesn’t live and breathe by advertising – he’s so much more than that.

Betty also took control of her own destiny during this episode. For a moment she started realizing that she doesn’t want to die knowing that she only played the role of a housewife. Betty had a life before Don – she worked and she even was a model for a period of time in Manhattan and in Italy. After Hobart tried recruiting Betty to be a model for a Coca-Cola ad, by telling her she’s a dead ringer to Grace Kelley, she begins to reminisce on the days when she used to model. During the first fifteen minutes of the episode all she says to Don, her friend, and her therapist is that she used to be a model. She clearly misses it. It struck me when Betty told her therapist that she was just starting to feel old after she had kids and moved to the suburbs. Her mother always wanted her to be pretty in order to find a man to take care of Betty. Betty realizes that she’s found a man and now what? “Are you supposed to sit and smoke until you’re in a box,” said Betty. This episode showed that Betty has a deeper side to her than just the surface of a trophy wife, which is primarily why she took Hobart up on his offer and modeled for Coca-Cola. She put on a classic 60’s dress and smiled for the camera holding a bottle of Coke on a picnic blanket with her “loving family.” After her first day of shooting it seemed like Betty didn’t feel old anymore – she actually started feeling really sexy, which was obvious when her and Don started undressing each other on the living room couch.

But of course everyone has an agenda and Hobart’s agenda was to recruit Don, not so much Betty. If he can’t have Don, he doesn’t want Betty, which was upsetting. I liked seeing Betty do something other than cook and clean. After McCann let Betty go, she went home and told Don that they offered her so many opportunities, but she just realized that she rather stay home and have a warm meal waiting for Don. Don knew that she was lying to him, but he went along with it – I think Betty was just embarrassed to say that she got fired.

Back over at Sterling-Cooper the Kennedy-Nixon battle is on the ad-men’s minds. Sterling-Cooper is campaigning for Nixon and in the conference room, it stirred up a little tension to see Jackie Kennedy speaking in Spanish on the television. Pete and Harry came up with the idea to purchase Secor-laxative commercials to take up Kennedy’s airtime in the undecided states. Cooper ultimately congratulated them, and rightly so – that was just an epic move. The only problem I have is that I still do not understand what exactly Sterling-Cooper is doing for Nixon and his campaign. It has not really been revealed yet, and it’s frustrating.

At Sterling-Cooper the tension is definitely rising between Joan and Peggy. It appears as though Joan is just a bit jealous of Peggy ever since she wrote some copy for the Belle-Jolie account. Joan is upfront about the role she plays as secretary and she keeps trying to get Peggy on her level, but Peggy just won’t give in. Peggy tries to stand her ground and act like she has a bit more dignity than that of Joan and I just think that Peggy should stop lying to herself – too much is going to her head.

The end-scene of this episode was my favorite, although there were absolutely no words. It was just Betty, a devious look in her eyes, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and a BB gun. She aimed and fired at the next-door neighbor’s pigeons in response to a threat made against her dog, and that was just pretty awesome of her. I love to see that fiery side of Betty and some newfound moxie.

I rate this episode a 5 out of 5.

(Viewed in my room at 1:00 PM).

“The West Wing,” Season One, Episodes 1 & 2:

One of the first things I noticed about this political drama was that practically every character carried a beeper – beepers are so 90’s, therefore, without even actually knowing, I knew this show had to be created in the 90’s. After doing a bit of research I found that The West Wing debuted on NBC in 1999.

The hit-series 24 seems to be The West Wing’s modern-day cousin. I normally wouldn’t prefer a political drama, but the pilot episode of this show did a good job in unveiling the cast of characters. One thing that struck me about this show was the clever dialogue. This show seems to be extremely well written and not a second of either episode was wasted – every scene had some significance and I think that’s a difficult thing to do.

This show primarily takes place in the White House and it is very fast paced. Characters are constantly moving in and out of rooms in the west wing of the White House and there are a lot of talking heads – no scene is ever really that stagnant, and I guess this is what life in the White House really is like. It’s chaotic – there’s a lot going on.

During the pilot episode, it struck me as odd that everybody in the White House seemed to be running around and taking care of the President’s business. All I kept thinking was, where is the President? The one thing the audience learned of the President before ever becoming introduced to him is that on vacation with his family he rode his bike into a tree and moderately injured himself. I think this was done deliberately in order to make the audience have an off impression of the President before even meeting him. In my opinion, he just seemed like a dope for riding his bicycle into a tree.

But this all changed in the last few minutes of the pilot episode when the audience becomes acquainted with President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. My impression of President Bartlet completely changed when he made his grand entrance into the White House and kicked some important people out who had a discrepancy with the President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, played by Bradley Whitford. Even though the President was only in the pilot episode for about five minutes, I got the feeling that he takes care of his business – he’s a very likable President.

Another thing I liked a lot about this show is the fact there are some significant women characters that also aggressively take care of their business. This may be irrelevant to touch on since this show came out in the late 90’s and it’s depicting the time it was made in, but I’ve been watching a lot of  “Mad Men” and it’s refreshing to see women in power.

By the second episode, “Post Oct, Hergo Propter Oct,” President Bartlet proved himself to be one of my favorite characters. President Bartlet is a type of guy that I would want to have as the actual President of the United States; however the Vice President, I did not like at all – he is pretty much the total opposite of President Bartley. In this show the role of the President and the role of Vice President appears to be very divided. The President and Vice President were never shot in a scene together.

I think the writers of this show do a great job in reeling the audience in and attaching the audience to certain characters. For example, the character of Morris, a national guard, was on the show for about five minutes and after receiving the news that a fundamentalist group killed him, I practically had tears in my eyes.

A lot of times, the general public has the perception that the people in power are untouchable and that they should not have a life outside of their positions of power. A lot of people don’t realize that in reality the President of the United States has a life to and so do his commanding officers. The West Wing does a good job in showing the tiny cracks that make all of these people in power human. For example, when Sam Seaborn, played by Rob Lowe accidentally sleeps with a prostitute. Seaborn is the Deputy of Communications Director and it wouldn’t look so good for him if word got out that he slept with a prostitute and the show demonstrated this facet very strongly.

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 8: “The Hobo Code”

The only way to get to know Donald Draper is to get to know Dick Whitman, and the only way to get to know Dick is through Don’s childhood flashbacks. After Don smokes some pot at Midge’s house with people he completely does not fit in with, he goes to the bathroom, looks himself in the mirror and completely zones out into his past to a time when he was either seven or eight when a sophisticated hobo showed up on his families rural front yard. I thought that the woman who allowed the hobo into the Whitman home for a meal and work for pay was Don’s mother, but apparently she is not. I wonder what happened to his real mother. Whoever this woman may be (probably his aunt), she was very aggressive and had built up anger towards Don, and this is probably because of the fact that Don is, quite literally, a bastard child. In those days, if you were born out of wedlock you were considered somewhat of an alien, which I never understood because it’s not the child’s fault. Don is clearly unhappy and unloved as a child. His persona is completely different from what it is now.

It’s significant that the hobo, played by Paul Schulze, was well spoken and from New York City, but Don’s father (?) looked down upon the fact that he was from New York because he said he probably doesn’t even know how to pull a weed. Pulling weeds, gardening, and manual labor is the type of life Don came from. He came from getting down and dirty in the field and not from caviar and Mai Thai’s. He grew up in a rural area with almost nothing around for miles and now he’s working a high-end job on Madison Avenue. I think this hobo had a significant effect on Don, even though this man stepped in and out of his life only for a day. This “gentleman of the rails,” (the hobo) reminded me of a lot of Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, from Titanic. Both Jack Dawson and this hobo enjoy their life, moving from place to place, and waking up in the morning and not knowing where the day will take them.

In a late night conversation between the hobo and Don, the hobo tells Don that he had a life back home, a mortgage, and a job, but that death came to find him – and now he sleeps like a stone. The hobo tells Don that he’s got to get out of this place because death is creeping all around it. I thought it was significant how the hobo showed Don the “hobo code” for if the owner of a home is true to his word about paying him for work. Every house has a mark. The symbol for the home being no good and for other hobos to stay away looked something like the communist symbol, minus the hammer. Don’s father did not keep his word and used the hobo for work without paying him. Don found that on his fence of his house someone had already carved in the sickle symbol. Maybe one of the reasons Don goes to New York City is because of the impact this hobo had on him.

After Don spends the night at Midge’s along with beatniks who “wipe their ass with the Wall Street Journal,” he goes home and wakes his son up and asks his son to ask him anything. Don tells his son that he will never lie to him, no matter what. That was a beautiful scene and it made my heart warm. Despite all the lying and cheating that Don actually does, he never ceases to amaze me. He’s also such a smart man. Don is a deep character; although his line of work says otherwise – the rest of the guys like Pete, just skim the surface. This episode exemplified the line between the beatniks of the 1960’s and the corporate world. Don stands in the middle of that line. Midge’s beatnik friend just won’t get off Don’s back for being in advertising – he says to Don, “You make the lie, you invent want, you’re for them, not for us.” Normally I would agree with this statement if it was said to someone like Pete, but Don is different and he responded with an amazing line: “There is no lie – the universe is indifferent.” This man is so good with words.

This is one of my favorite episodes so far. This episode revealed different sides of Don, Peggy, and even Pete, who I cannot stand to watch anymore.

P.S I knew Salvatore was gay!

(Viewed in my room on a Sunday at 7:00 PM).

I rate this episode a 5 out of 5.

 

“Mad Men,” Season One, Episode 7: “Red In The Face”

This episode definitely exemplifies sexism of the 1960’s. From the get-go of this episode when Don calls up Betty’s therapist up to ask him what she has been talking about, one sees that women have absolutely no privacy. Don has no respect for Betty’s personal feelings and is shocked when he finds out that there may be deeper issues troubling Betty, because how could a housewife of the 1960’s possibly have a deep thought in her head, right? But Betty’s therapist concludes that Betty is just overwhelmed with the daily chores of being a housewife. “We’re dealing with the emotions of a child,” he said. And it seems as though that concept of Betty as a child runs throughout this episode – especially later on in the episode when Don said to Betty, “Sometimes I feel like I’m living with a little girl.” Clearly Betty’s therapist got inside Don’s head.

Don’s boss Roger Sterling is clearly unsatisfied with his life. At first I thought he just couldn’t bare with the realities of his dull home life, which led him to develop real emotions for Joan, but now it just looks like Sterling, an older man with a head of white hair, is just looking for an attractive woman much younger than he and his standards seem to be much too high.

Don and Sterling were pretty chummy with each other over the course of this episode – some parts made me laugh and some made me very disappointed. Don was basically forced to invite Sterling over for dinner after an after work drink and Betty was clearly not too pleased since she had only cooked enough food for her and Don. Betty sacrificed her piece of steak for Sterling and as an alternative Betty nibbled on some romaine lettuce, which was sweet of her. Over the dinner conversation, numerous glasses of vodka, and dozens of cigarettes, I could tell that Sterling was going try to make a move on Betty. It disgusts me how the majority of the men on this show just think they can get any woman they desire, and how they expect even married women to give it up so easily to them. But what shocked me was the way Don reacted to Betty after sensing that his boss just hit on his wife. This was the first time Don got physical with Betty and roughly grabbed her by the arm. Don isn’t the type of guy to beat his wife so he immediately backed off, but he even blamed Betty for Sterling making a move on her, which I didn’t think was right at all. Betty wasn’t flirting with Sterling, she was just interested in his war stories because Don never talks about that part of his life with Betty, which is why she was so fascinated.

The next day Sterling walked in to Don’s office with a bottle of liquor and basically gives Don a cheap apology – “We’ve all parked our cars in the wrong garage.”

This episode was just chock full of sexism and the great divide between men and women, especially when Pete goes to return a $22.00 “chip-and-dip” wedding present he and Trudy received. The fact that the “chip-and-dip” was mentioned so many times in this episode was just comical. It was odd how Pete bragged about the gift so much, but yet he was going to return it. The sexism truly came out when at the store Pete gave the name Campbell for the registry in order to return the gift and the store clerk said nothing was under that name. The clerk told Pete it would probably be under his wife’s maiden name, and Pete abrasively responded, “Why would you do that?” He was completely shocked to find out that his wife’s maiden name would be on anything at all. It is a man’s world and that was clearly unfathomable to Pete that a woman can account for anything. I guess it just wasn’t Pete’s day. When he found out he couldn’t return the chip-and-dip for cash he tried flirting his way for cash back. Like I said these men on this show just think they can get anything they want. They really should get off their high horses. Pete winds up exchanging the chip-and-dip for a classic man-toy – a 22-caliber rifle, and Trudy is not pleased at all.

It was odd how after Pete got that rifle in exchange for the chip-and-dip he clung on to it everywhere he went. He even aimed at the women secretary’s in the office and they didn’t so much as move a muscle. If that was today’s times and someone brought in a rifle to work and pointed it at anyone they would probably go to jail. It was odd how Pete went on his hunting/hunger fantasy to Peggy and it was even odder how to reacted to such a weird fantasy – it looked like it even turned her on a little. I don’t think Peggy and Pete’s love affair is over.

This episode definitely wasn’t my favorite, but there was definitely a lot going out and a lot of character developments that played out through Sterling, Don, Pete, and Betty and I appreciate the effort and thought that went into this episode even surrounding the tiniest scenes. This episode was full of a lot of faults by the means of Sterling and the episode even ends with him throwing up on the office rug in front of Nixon’s men.

One scene that I actually laughed out loud at was when Sterling and Don went out to dinner and made gluttonous pigs out of themselves – inhaling four dozens of oysters, dozens of martinis, and to top it all off, cheesecake. It must be nice to live such a glamorous life.

Another scene that stood out was when Helen runs into Betty at the supermarket and Helen confronts Betty about the lock of hair she found in her son Glen’s drawer. I knew it was only a matter of time before Helen would find that lock of Betty’s hair and be completely appalled. It’s odd how Betty doesn’t see the fault in what she did, and how weird it is to cut a piece of your hair and give it to a 9-year-old boy. I was shocked when Betty actually slapped Helen across the face in the middle of the brightly colored supermarket. The slap Betty gave to Helen definitely gives Betty a new image, because apparently everyone in the neighborhood thinks she’s such a delicate flower. Betty’s therapist is right – she does have some deeper issues to be dealt with, but definitely not the everyday struggles of being a housewife.

One more thing – usually every episode has an account that Don and the other men work on, but this account was unclear to me – I wasn’t sure what they were selling but it has to do with Nixon versus Kennedy. This storyline will definitely be developed within the episodes to come.

(Viewed at 12:00 PM on a Friday in my room).

I rate this episode a 4 out of 5.