Mad Men Episode #10 (Season 4): Hands and Knees

Why Mad Men Episode #10 (Season 4) Worked:

• Don Draper's panic attack. Wow. He really freaked out coming into his apartment. Great acting by Jon Hamm; he really aired it out. Totally plausible. The neatly constructed lie that is his identity is starting to unravel. What an unexpected and totally fascinating plot development.
• Don getting his daughter Sally tickets to Beatles concert. (Hold on to the stubs Sally....sell them on eBay in 40 years!). Great line: "You won't be mad if I wear earplugs." That shows how tone deaf Don is to the youth rebellion percolating all around him.
• Dinner at the Playboy Club. Very risque and sophisticated for 1965. Mad Men's sense of time and place is impeccable.
• The Feds visit with Betty. Lots of tension....would she sell him out? But she covered for him. She is definitely a Bond girl.
• Roger and Joan's visit to the doctor where Roger showed that he was a stand up guy....after being a stand up guy in the alley.
• Don's secretary's pink dress. Can you say knock-out? Can you say Temptation Island?
• Lee Garner of Lucky Strike firing Roger in a restaurant. Another Mad Men business scene that bristles with reality. It felt like those scenes have actually been going on for decades in the expense account joints flanking Madison Ave.
• All the scenes with Don and Pete. So much going on. But in the end, after all the tension, Pete was a stand up guy for Don (especially in the board room).
• The partners meeting. The place seems like it's going to fall apart. So much was unsaid at that meeting.

Why Mad Men Episode #10 (Season 4) Didn't Work:

• Many of the scenes with Lane seemed far fetched. Lane dating an African-American Playboy bunny. The bunny being attracted to Lane. Lane getting assaulted by his elderly, cane-needy dad.
• Faye's scenes with Don. The actress can't carry the part. It's hard to understand why Don would fall for her.

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode #10 (Season 4):

• A-. Terrific plot developments. Some stunning acting. I can't wait to tune for Sunday's show to find out what happens.

Mad Men Episode #9 (Season 4): The Beautiful Girl

Why Man Men Episode #9 (Season 4) Worked:

• Miss Blankenship dying at her desk. Nice unexpected touch of black humor.
• The artfully directed scene shot from the glassed-in conference room where an important client meeting was taking place while in the background staffers frantically tried tossing a blanket over Miss Blankenship (still dead) and wheeling her in a chair to another room, just so the meeting wouldn't be disturbed. More black humor, expertly served.
• Soundtrack of Petula Clark's "Downtown" during the bar scene. The use of music in "Mad Men" is never overdone, very subtle and always pitch-perfect.
• The way the uncomfortable but necessary topic of social issues that defined the 60s keeps bubbling up in the script. It's not heavy-handed but it keeps reminding viewers of the change that was about to sweep over the country far from the boundaries of Madison Avenue.
• Roger and Joan making love against a wall on a dark street after the holdup. An unexpected development (for me at least....I thought Joan would know better by now).
• Kiernan Shipka's acting as the rapidly unraveling Sally. Well done. This girl will get work. (But let's hope she doesn't turn into the next Lindsay Lohan.)
  
• The last shot of Peggy, Faye and Joan standing wordlessly in the office. Was a very simple scene but it had a lasting effect on me.

Why Mad Men Episode # 9 (Season 4) Didn't Work:

• Scenes with Faye. I don't think Cara Buono (Faye) has the chops to carry the role. And I don't think the role is written well.
  
• Peggy's friendship with her lesbian friend Joyce. Not sure where this is heading and at this point it feels like an unnecessary plot point.

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode # 9 (Season 4):

• B-. Solid but lacking some of the intensity of the office politics that propel this series to great heights.
  

Mad Men Episode #8 (Season 4): The Beautiful Girls

Why Mad Men Episode #8 (Season 4) Worked:

• The elevator scene between Joan and Peggy. Seemed like Peggy got the shaft...or did Joan have a point about being PO'd with Peggy coming to her defense? I really wanted Peggy to get the credit but the outcome was surprise and a bit of crafty screenwriting.
• The "Satisfaction" soundtrack at the top of the show. It really signals that there's a revolution taking place "out there" far from Madison Avenue. (Any bets when or if Don starts wearing sideburns?)
• The mooning of Joan when she was chewing out Joey the copywriter. It was so subtle at first I wasn't sure that I saw it (thanks DVR!) but it really happened.
• Joan chewing out the creative staff.
• Speaking of the mooning, have you ever seen a US tv show supported by advertising with so much foul language and boundary-pushing antics? This is also one of the pleasures of Mad Men and it was on display for Eppy #8.
• The Ray Charles joke.
• The back-seat-of-the-car canoodling and then some. First Bethany goes "downtown" on Don Draper as the cab heads uptown. A few weeks later Don and Faye kiss passionately in another cab leading Faye to invite Don to a more intimate setting. Don declines. (The character is changing his behavior, always an interesting turn in a tv series.)
• Peggy firing Joey. Very satisfying moment. Did most men really behave like such morons in the 60s or was it only Mickey Mantle?

Why Mad Men Episode #8 (Season 4) Didn't Work:

• Don's voiceovers. Pretentious and contrived.
• Almost any scene with Henry (although the dude is ripped as evidenced by the gratuitous scene at home without his shirt). The show slows to a crawl with him.
• Miss Blankenship, Don's secretary. The joke is wearing thin.
• The restaurant scene where Don and Betty bump into each other. Felt stagey and didn't hit the right notes.
• Don's date with Faye. Another slowwwwwwwww scene.

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode #8 (Season 4):

• C. Weakest episode of the season. My feeling is that the politics of the office anchor the show; most everything else is a sideshow.

Mad Men Episode #7 (Season 4) The Suitcase

Why Mad Men Episode #7 (Season 4) Worked:

• The betting on the Liston-Clay fight. Another nice period detail.
• Duck's birthday flowers to Peggy with the business card showing her as a creative director. The man can sell! But then the pitiful phone call where he's sitting home in the middle of the day hitting the sauce. In this show, booze comes across as public enemy #1 in 1960's advertising.
• Don Draper's anti-Clay rant. It really shows that he's not really in touch with the new cultural realities of the mid-60s. I wonder if this will foreshadow some future business failures.
• The fight between Don Draper and Peggy over creating advertising and who gets the credit. Best scene of the year (possible ever on Mad Men? Weigh in please.) The writing started going into Mamet territory. High praise indeed!
• Peggy admitting she had never been on a plane. (A small moment but another great detail about the mid-60s. Airplane travel was a novelty for most Americans back then.)
• Don Draper and Peggy drinking at the bar. At first I was getting nervous that this was going to take a sexual turn (and it was hanging in the air). But then it got to the baby she put up for adoption while the Liston-Clay fight was on in the background. Lots of interesting things happening all at once. Masterful.
• Duck showing up in the office later that night and attempting to defecate on Don's furniture (even though it was really Roger's). And then the fight with Don. And Don puking. And then Don passing out in his office. OMG! So much happened. And all written and acted so perfectly.
• And Don looking fresh and clean cut the next morning like nothing happened. What else did we expect? (Well...we are expecting him to really hit bottom at some point, right?)
• The Simon & Garfunkle song at the end of the episode. The perfect ending to the perfect episode.

Why Mad Men Episode #7 (Season 4) Didn't Work:

• Peg's mom had a botoxed forehead (during the dinner scene). A rare blown period detail. They couldn't find a middle-aged actress who had some age-appropriate wrinkles that would be standard in 1965?

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode #7 (Season):

• A. Best episode of the season.

Mad Men Episode #6 (Season 4): Waldorf Stories

Why Mad Men Episode #6 Worked:

• The under-the-table hand-holding scene during the Clio Award ceremony. Wonderful shot of Joan holding Roger's hand and then Don Draper's hand. Kinda sexy. Expected someone to get fresh. But it shows that Joan is both literally and figuratively holding the company together.
• Lane's scene with Pete about his interview with Ken. It felt like a real corporate snapshot of how it really works at an agency. And all of Lane's scenes are pitch-perfect and Emmy-worthy. Restrained yet powerful acting.

Why Mad Men Episode #6 Didn't Work:

• Don Draper's loss of mojo. I know this is a necessary plot development, but he was a more compelling and believable character as a slick Mad Ave. huckster not the out of control, drunken cad (although I did like the sequence when he went to bed with one woman Friday night and woke up Sunday afternoon with someone else). And I'm not sure Hamm is pulling off his descent that well. Not as nuanced as I'd like.
• Flashback sequence. This was a hard call. It definitely fills in the back story but I really couldn't swallow Don Draper making the leap from fur coat salesman to ad copywriter.
• Peggy's scenes with Stan the art director. OK....I get it that women were treated poorly but now the message is getting drilled relentlessly into my head.
• Peggy's nude scene with Stan. Good idea that really needed to go through the word processor one more time. Lacked sexual tension or shock value or cleverness. Basically fell flat.

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode 6 (Season 4):

B. Some interesting plot developments but episode marred by some overthe-top acting and writing.

Mad Men Episode #5 (Season 4): The Chrysanthemum and the Sword

Why Mad Men Episode # 5 Worked:

• The opening partners meeting about the dilemma of representing a Japanese auto manufacturer (this was only two decades after the end of WWII). The writers got the tone down perfectly and the scene wasn't too long or short.
• The very subtle scene where Don's neighbor/nurse/potential lust interest asks Don where he was taking date that evening. The answer: Benihana! Excellent. That was probably the swankest joint in Manhattan in 1965. This series gets those details soooooooo right.
• Betty slapping Sally for cutting her hair. That woke up the usually sleepy and depressing scenes featuring Betty. She is sooooooooo out of control.
• Pete's showdown with Roger on the Honda vs Lucky Strike accounts. It felt like you were watching an actual confrontation at an ad agency between two executives.
• Don's phone fight with Betty. Another short, pitch-perfect piece of dialogue.
  
• The scene to create a fake Honda tv commercial featuring the intercutting with scenes from the rival ad agency. Clever!

Why Mad Men Episode # 5 Didn't Work:

• Sally's scene with the babysitter after she cut her hair. Fell flat.
• Scene with Betty and the shrink. Too inconclusive. (And I'm not a fan of most of Betty's scenes.)
• Roger's scenes. I usually his biggest fan. His scenes in this episode felt overwritten. At first I thought it was clever how he insulted the Japanese ("I know how some people loves surprises," he sniffed in a veiled reference to Pearl Harbor.) But it kept going on and on. And his apology was not realistic.
• The running gag with the incompetent secretary. Went too far.
  
• Lane's congratulatory scene with Don after they won the Honda account. I had to look at the scene twice (thank you DVR!) to be certain that they won the account. Every now and then Mad Men lapses with some weak expository writing. But I did like Lane's description of a Honda: "a motorcycle with doors." And that's exactly what they were in 1965

Overall Grade for Mad Men Episode 5 (Season 4)

• B. Overall nice job. Good plotting. But some scenes could have been tighter.
  

Mad Men Episode# 4 (Season 4): The Rejected

Why Mad Men Episode # 4 Worked:

• The bar scene with Pete and his father-in-law where he went to boot his account from the agency. Good twist with his in-law blurting out that Pete's wife was pregnant. Can't believe Pete lacked the guts then to tell his in-law that his company couldn't handle the account any more...but it was believable. And nice set design.
• Peggy trying on Faye's wedding room while watching Faye's focus group. The scene said everything you wanted to know about Peggy. Good touch with Don noticing Peggy staring at the ring. Double good touch with Peggy noticing Don looking at her.
• Faye's focus group when Allison breaks down....and Don looks like he ate a shard of glass. His sin keeps coming back to haunt him.
• Peggy's scene with Allison where Allison implies that Peggy became a copywriter because she slept with Don. (Or at least that's how I interpreted it.)
  
• Allison's resignation (bummer!). Best scenes of Mad Men Season 4 have been with Allison and Don.
• Pete's play to get more business from his father-in-law. It's fun to watch him grow his shark fins.
• Shortest scene of the night. Don typing his "I'm sorry" note to Allison. He strikes a rare chord of compassion.
• Don's new secretary. Good comic relief (maybe a touch over the top but message received).
• Peggy getting high at party with pot smoking lesbian.
• Peggy not signing the card congratulating Pete on his wife's pregnancy and the subsequent congratulatory scene in his office and the subsequent scene of her banging her head on the desk (I'm not sure why she did this but it worked) and the subsequent scene of her lying down on her couch and the subsequent scene of her going out to lunch with her downtown friends and exchanging a meaningful glance with Pete.

Why Mad Men Episode 4 Didn't Work

• The scene in the office when Don and Roger were on the phone with Lucky Strike. Pacing and staging were off. A rare mediocre scene in the office.
• The steakhouse lunch scene with Pete and Ken. Who cares about what Pete said about Ken? Yawn.
• Last scene in Don's apartment hallway. The old man yells to the old lady, "Did you get the pears?" Not sure what it meant but it felt pretentious.
  

Overall Mad Men Episode 4 Grade

• B. Nice solid effort. The pacing is always faster and more upbeat without Betty. The focus group scene bogged down the show. Let's hope Allison returns.