Mad Men Season 5 episode 1

Mad Men Season 5 Episode 1

It’s been nearly a year since we had the chance to watch Mad Men. In preparation, I watched a few minutes of the final episode from Season 4. Note: I’m still a season down, no worries for spoilers. Anyhow, I remembered one of my favorite scenes occurred when Don delivers the news of his engagement to Peggy and Joan, with a beaming smile on his too handsome face. The two of them say their polite congratulations and step away quickly, where, in the privacy of Joan’s office, they trade a few barbs at his expense like, “They are all between wives,” “I suppose she’ll get promoted now,” and “He looks so pleased as if  he’s the first man to marry his secretary.” This private little scene of interrupted domestic bliss sets the stage for the opening of season five.

The first episode of the season, when watched alone is one of the weaker episodes of the set. It begins with the crew at another ad agency dropping water bombs on people agitating for equal rights, which is  a typical Mad Men cultural nod, as the men are actually chastened when the people from the street come upstairs to confront them. However, from there the episode is light. However, what makes Mad Men such a brilliant show is the subtlety with which it operates. Yes, not much happens when we watch Pete ride the train. However, he points out that, Trudy, isn’t losing her baby weight as he thought she might. He laments the spit up on his jacket and is told by his fellow passenger that he can ride the later train home. In this brief scene, even though Pete denies it, we can see the seeds of unhappiness and probably infidelity simmering just beneath the surface. The show is the master of that simmer, letting things slowly accrete, and then having the shark’s fin rise at the last moment to keep you interested.

The show also revolved around the rather nasty relationship between Joan and her mother, which, paging Dr. Freud, no wonder Joanie didn’t find a better man. The two of them carp and bicker at one another like sniping sister rather than a typical mother and daughter. Interestingly, we see the conflicted woman of the latter half of the 20^th century beginning to be depicted in Joan, how does a person remain a good mother and a good worker? I’m interested to watch this continued development as it acts as a nice counterpoint to Peggy’s giving up of her child in order to pursue a better life, a choice which the writer’s did a wonderful job of highlighting by having her briefly hold the baby in the next episode while no one else is around. It’s those sort of moments that make the show so good.

However, the meat of the first episode is spent on Don’s relative happiness, and subsequent disinterest in work, and his wife’s interest in her new work and desire to please him. What follows is Don’s surprise birthday party, complete with booze and a group of sixties stoner types delivering live music to the bemused party goers. Though many of the scenes at the party seem strange and out of place for Mad Men, they keep the sub plots rolling, highlighting Roger’s unhappiness with his secretary marriage, an excellent counterpoint to what we’re seeing with Don and Megan. Relevant dialogue after Megan’s sexy song and dance: Roger: Why can’t you sing like that? Wife: Why don’t you look like him? Yes, it’s another carping marriage, but it is also a nice mirror or prism through which to view the new marriage of Don and Megan.

Megan delivers a special birthday surprise to Don, in the form of a burlesque French song and dance number that would leave any office staff gossiping away. Don, plainly pleased and unhappy both, watches bemusedly as his wife seduces the whole room.

And, if I was going to say that the first episode had one moment of something approaching real truth, it happens in the party’s aftermath, when Don goes to lie down on the bed. His wife, wanting his approval, climbs into bed next to him, trying to rouse him from sleep. He awakes long enough to tell her not to ever throw him another surprise party, even after she reminds him that she knows his true identity, Dick Wittman, and loves him all the more for it. This is a key line since it is precisely this information which caused baby to finally call it quits with him. Here is his new wife, planning him a surprise party, loving him for who he is, and yet, dammit, sometimes you’re still unhappy, and so he lies on the bed and wonders what he’s got himself into. And Megan wanders out onto the balcony and stands in the wind and wonders precisely the same thing. And in this way you’re given a very real moment. This is a bit of what marriage might be like, but life in general. It is full of a kind of disappointment, not only because we don’t have access to one another’s thoughts but also because we often misunderstand ourselves, or are such contingent creatures that what makes us happy is a variable thing on a day to day or hour to hour basis. I’m glad the show is back on.