Mad Men – Six Month Leave

AMC

(Season 2, Episode 9)

“If I don’t go into that office every day, who am I?” - Freddy

So here we are with Mad Men’s first new episode after winning two Emmys last week for Best Drama and Best Writing (plus four others). Not sure how many new viewers will check out the show to see what all of the buzz is about, but it has me worried. You can’t just jump into this show. There are too many characters, too many plots, it’s too delicately paced, and it’s so damn layered that it’s hard to penetrate it if you’re new. That’s probably why it was good that AMC ran the marathon the other day, but even that was only a second season marathon. Better to buy the first season DVD set so you know what’s going on.

This week: someone dies, someone gets punched, someone gets promoted, and someone wets themselves.

It was only a matter of time before the show dealt with the death of Marilyn Monroe. She’s been mentioned a few times this season and it is 1962, so you knew it was coming. I wish it was done a little better than this episode though. I wanted to hear more about the death, how people found out, see footage of Monroe on the news, that sort of thing. But we do see Joan affected by it a lot (being a Marilyn and all), telling Roger that he’s going to lose someone close to him one day, and we even see Marilyn’s death mirrored in a way in what happens with Betty. She’s a mess, hanging around the house in her bathrobe, drinking, listening to radio, redoing the shelving in the kitchen, sleeping in the middle of the day while Carla takes care of the kids. I half expect to see the episode end with Betty passed out on the bed with booze or pills around her, but thankfully that doesn’t happen.

The big plot in this episode – Freddy being “let go” – is also something we knew was coming. Freddy always seems drunk, unlike Don and Roger who just seem to drink a lot, maybe come in with a hangover. I loved Don and Roger’s scene with Freddy, taking him to dinner to let him go. This happened to me once. My boss at a magazine had to get rid of the entire staff so he took us all out to a Chinese restaurant and paid for it, thinking it would lessen the blow. We knew it was coming, and it didn’t really lessen the blow, though we did find it funny that the boss left the restaurant as soon as he paid the bill and told us we were goners. I actually went back to the office and went over his head and was allowed to stay. No such luck for Freddy. I have a feeling his six month leave is going to turn into a permanent one.

Other observations:

– I’m really intrigued by Peggy getting the promotion in the wake of Freddy’s departure and her Samsonite pitch. That’s going to be interesting, seeing how far she gets and how she interacts with Pete and the rest of the guys.

– Speaking of Freddy, I still feel uncomfortable when they show a character on TV wetting their pants. I can deal with murder and theft and other things, but there’s something really pathetic and revealing when Freddy is drunk, wets himself, and passes out. His back was turned, he should of just said he spilled some vodka on himself.

– I can only assume that Betty is going to have an affair with Boring Horse Guy at some point, and I’m not looking forward to that.

– Totally didn’t see the ending coming, with Roger and Mona. I don’t think Don meant for Roger to do that when he was saying those things at the bar, I really don’t.

– I like the fact that Don still takes off his hat whenever he enters an elevator, even one in a secret nightclub. Nice continuity from an earlier episode.

– Ah yes, freezers that you had to defrost!

– Don is going through a lot of secretaries.

– I love how they find ways to bring Jimmy back into the picture. The punch? Well that I did see coming.

Clacked by Bob Sassone
on Sep 28, 2008 @ 23:01 EST5EDT