Mad Men: Spoilers

[oselle]

Last night's Mad Men was a textbook example of how good a TV show can be. There are very few shows that can go so completely out of their own element while still producing a sterling (no pun intended) episode.

Taking Don out of NYC is always a little surreal but you can do it with Don because his character is so surreal to begin with. There really isn't a Don Draper at all -- when he's out of his Madison Avenue element, he's a completely different person. But I have a question...I sat out a lot of Season Two, so I don't really know who Anna is. I have some recollection that she was Don's (aka Dick Whitman's) first wife, but then in the episode he told her niece that they'd never had "a romantic relationship." So what DID they have? And why is she so important to him?

I was not on board with the episode at first since most of it took place so outside of the agency world but it just got better and better as the hour progressed. There were some really breathtaking moments -- like Don telling Anna that he knew that as soon as Betty saw the real him, she'd never want to look at him again, which is why he'd never told her the truth about himself. In many ways, Mad Men is a show about illusion, so when a moment of real honesty breaks through, it's just searing. Another brilliant (and absolutely hysterical) bit was the hapless Lane Pryce telling Joan, in no uncertain terms, that he was completely immune to her many charms. I get the feeling Joan hasn't heard that too often. Fried chicken my ass!

Speaking of hysterical, there are very few shows that can balance drama and comedy the way Mad Men does. Overall, it is not a funny show. And yet they manage to pull giant laughs out of two really lonely guys hanging out together on a dismal NYC New Year's Eve. The scene of Don and Lane at the movies was absolutely brilliant, and it just kept getting better from there. This is a show where all of the characters are so real that even the bit players stand out -- a couple of hookers wind up being more resonant than any of the women I've ever seen on Supernatural, including Dean's implausible "wife."

Nevertheless, at the ending I was so happy to see the team back at their staff meeting. It felt like the world was falling back into place -- which, I suspect, is exactly how it was supposed to feel.

I've talked about "trust" issues with SPN in the past and a show like Mad Men really illustrates what I mean. This was an episode that showed a very different side of several characters, and yet I trust that the writers know exactly what they're doing. One important factor is that, for all that they push the envelope on their characters, they still never take them out of character. California Don was Dick Whitman to the core...but he was still also Don Draper. You knew he wasn't going to confront Anna about her cancer because he of all people understands the need for falsehood. They could have turned Lane Pryce into a laughable caricature but they made him poignant and believable instead. Joan's outrage over the mixed-up roses was seemingly not in keeping with her usual office cool, and yet totally understandable under the circumstances. The dexterity with which the show handles character and plot is so artful that it's almost dizzying to watch. I honestly don't think there's anything else like it on television.

Comments

[pearlette.livejournal.com]

It's a marvellous show - superb. Season 4 has yet to start on UK TV - they're repeating the first season at the moment.

[jeez-louise.livejournal.com]

Anna is the real Don Draper's widow. After Dick Whitman assumed the identity of Don Draper she tracked him down and confronted him about pretending to be her husband. She didn't know that the real Don had died, and the two of them actually become friends. Don bought her that house in California and when he wanted to marry Betty he had to go and get a divorce from Anna. She is the only person that I see Don ever being completely open with. So the fact that he's decided to go along with the sister's idea of not telling her about the cancer is especially hard on him.