Mad Men virgin diary – The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them

by Keith McDuffee

In this entry of my diary, I question Don's taste in women and start to consider when the show may have blown the hatch for me.

Season 1, Episodes 8-10

In my last entry in this diary, we saw the beginnings of Peggy possibly moving beyond her secretarial position, being offered to write copy for an ad campaign. Well well well … it worked! What I question now is where that’s going to take her, if anywhere. Will she slowly work her way into more of this sort of work, or will the fact that she’s a woman make that impossible in this ’60s office atmosphere?

In these episodes we also saw a bit more of Salvatore’s little secret, and how that secret may find its way to the ears of those he’d rather not know about it — namely, the snooping switchboard operators. During that proposal Salvatore was given at the lunch meeting, we saw how completely terrified he is about his secret getting out. This was a very different time, one with a lot fewer understanding people for a lifestyle such as his. Given that and the environment Salvatore works in, it’s understandable he’d be pale with fear at even entertaining the thought of acting on what he truly wants.

Speaking of Salvatore, another great quote: “I think women will hate her. It’s like their better looking sister marries the handsome senator, and she’s going to live in the White House. I’m practically jealous.”

As I said before, Pete Campbell may be a loathsome son-of-a-bitch to witness, but he’s just so interesting to watch. You can’t quite figure out what his deal is, and obviously neither can some of the people in his life, namely the very confused Peggy. He clearly wants something he can’t have, and there are those like Don Draper who just don’t care to see him get it. You just love to hate him.

Don Draper is, of course, a complex character to watch throughout this series as well. I’m really wondering what is motivating him to not only cheat on his beautiful and loving wife Betty, but to cheat on her with some odd choices in women. He’s either truly in love with these other women or completely delusional. He also seems to be rather picky about who he cheats with. For example, he seems to prefer brunettes, while his wife is blond. He also had no problem telling the other twin — during that heat-attack-inducing incident — that he was married and uninterested. Note that she wasn’t a brunette.

During the ninth and tenth episodes of this run, I believe I may have hit the moment when this show “Blew the Hatch” for me. I plan to write up the details of that revelation later, because I’m not really sure how to put my finger on the moment when it happened. It’s somewhere between Campbell’s idea for the laxatives commercial time buy and the aftermath of Sterling’s heart attack. There are moments of both those scenes that really had me wanting to keep watching this series, and that’s what blowing the hatch is all about.

Some quick points:

It sure seems that we see the guys of Sterling Cooper screwing around and partying a lot more than working. I think we’ve seen Peggy actually do more ad work than the men so far.
Was Don being honest when he told Sterling he wouldn’t leave for another ad company, ever? I think so.
Draper and Sterling leaving the office as the fight broke out behind them (pictured above) was just awesome. I have a feeling that’s considered “classic Mad Men.”
I think this is the first time I actually saw the year printed somewhere: 1960. I knew it was early ’60s, but I never noticed it printed or said anywhere until it was shown on a calendar here.
Joan’s an odd one in how she handled the gay crush incident. She seemed completely unfazed by it, then proceeded to go out and grab a couple of unattractive guys to mess around with. Was that just her way of handling her own insecurities with her sexuality, or is she really just that much a floozie?

One last random thought: has anyone thought about who that silhouette in the opening credits is supposed to represent? Is it any “mad man” in general, or is it Don Draper?

(Previous entry: Season 1, Episodes 4-7)