Are you as excited as I am (and Kona too) about the return of Mad Men? I’ve been waiting all summer for this stupendous show to get back onto the air, and the first episode of the season didn’t disappoint. Everything I’ve grown to love was here in this premiere installment: Don was sexing up the ladies, Pete was being a weasel, Peggy and Joan were sniping at each other, people were drinking and smoking in the office, and secret lives were being exposed. Good times are back again!
At it’s heart, though, Mad Men is really about one thing: Don Draper. I thought this episode did a great job of re-establishing the enigmatic man that we’ve spent two seasons getting to know. It started us off with a glimpse into Don’s humble beginnings, the discarded son of a hooker. We were then reminded of the man that Don wishes he could be: the loving husband and doting father-to-be (for the third time).
However, all it took was a plane ride for all of that to be forgotten. Heck, the plane hadn’t even landed yet and Don was already shamelessly hitting on the flight attendant (and making up a new identity in the process). Old habits die hard. He is Don Draper though, and we love him because he can have just about any woman he wants. As they say, women want him and men want to be him.
Then the episode ended with Don back home, laying in bed with his daughter and pregnant wife, assuring the little girl that when he leaves, he will always come back. It’s going to be real interesting to see just how committed he can be to his wife in this season. In the past there was at least a little romance to his flings. In this episode, he showed that he’s ready to woo any cute young thing. With Midge, Rachel, and Bobbie there were real connections. Is that a worse way to cheat on your wife than with a meaningless fling with a stewardess? I guess we’ll have a whole season to find out what Don is thinking.
Somehow Don always seems to know everyone else’s secrets. As a man with a life full of them himself, maybe this shouldn’t be a big surprise. This week Don caught Sal in a compromising situation with a male bellhop. It was nice to see Sal finally allowing himself something that he really wanted, but from the look on Don’s face I’m not sure how it’s going to go over. Of course, this show is so impeccably written, that Don was able to give Sal a wink and a nod while at the same time coming up with a genius marketing slogan for their client London Fog: “Limit your Exposure.” Enough said, now let’s see if Sal can listen to Don’s advice as well as Peggy did last season.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Aug 18, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
