Tag Archives: Mad Men

‘Man Men’ gets naughty ‘At the Codfish Ball’

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Tonight’s episode of “Mad Men” was called “At the Codfish Ball,” but it might as well have been called “The In-laws.”

Peggy, disappointed that her boyfriend, Abe, suggested they live together rather than get married, asks her mother over for a special dinner to announce their new living arrangements.

Instead of staying for dessert, Peggy’s mom gets up and leaves at the news. Heck, she even takes back the dessert she brought with her.

For all the change the series has been demonstrating as it marches through the 1960s, it was a pointed reminder that social mores had yet to change substantially and young women were expected to get married, or — as Peggy’s mom noted — get a cat. Then another cat. Then another cat. “Then you’re done.”

There was a similarly unpleasant undertone to the visit by Megan’s parents to the Draper household. Sure there were a few moments of lighthearted family fun, particularly when Sally and Megan and her mother went shopping and came home so Don could play Dagwood to Megan’s Blondie.

But most of the time the in-laws were visiting was filled with hate-filled French tirades between Megan’s parents.

Megan’s mother — played by Julia Ormond, who is, needless to say, too young to be playing Jessica Pare’s mother — livened thing up considerably at the ball that the family and Roger Sterling attended late in the episode.

After striking sparks with Roger, Megan’s mom accompanies him into a room down the hall from the ballroom. It is there they are spotted by Don’s young daughter, Sally (Kiernan Shipka) in a thoroughly compromising position. It’s another disillusioning moment for Sally and a shocking moment in the episode.

Random observations:

Roger’s one liners continue to be a highlight of the series. “Maybe Jesus was just pursuing the loaves and fishes account,” he notes during a discussion of motivations for good acts. John Slattery is at his most charming in this episode, partnering with Sally for the business gathering and jokingly calling her a “mean drunk” before giving her a Shirley Temple. And, needless to say, before giving her an eyeful by his antics with her sort-of-grandmother.

Joan (Christina Hendricks) gets the prize for best recovery of the episode. After observing that Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) isn’t wearing an engagement ring, Joan hears about Abe’s proposal and blurts out, “Shacking up?” before she recovers and convinces Peggy it’s really a romantic idea.

For the second time this season, “Mad Men” mines the “Twin Peaks” cast for guest stars. A few weeks ago it was Madchen Amick as Andrea, Don’s old fling.

Tonight Ray Wise, the actor who played Leland Palmer, murder victim Laura Palmer’s father on “Twin Peaks,” guest starred as a business executive who breaks some bad news to Don regarding the repercussions of his infamous ad about tobacco and smoking in The New York Times.

Which “Twin Peaks” vet will guest next? I’m holding out for Peggy Lipton.

‘Mad Men’ tunes in and turns on with ‘Far Away Places’

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This season of AMC’s “Mad Men” is one of the most enjoyable — if hard to predict — because you never know what’s going to happen next. In any given episode, Don Draper might be choking an old fling — at least in the depths of a fever dream — or Lane Pryce might be handing young Pete a beat down.

In tonight’s episode, “Far Away Places,” the plot was appropriately odd and disjointed, especially considering all the sex, drugs and rock and roll.

The show continues its headlong plunge into the heart of the most turbulent part of the 1960s as Peggy (Elizabeth Moss, who is always wonderful) gets fed up with the Heinz beans people and insults them, much to everybody’s shock. So Peggy, who earlier had an argument with her boyfriend, decides to take in a matinee.

Peggy gets offered a joint by a guy (in very loud striped pants) in the theater and doesn’t react with dismay when he makes a pass. As a matter of fact, Peggy administers an “Animal House”-style handjob — minus the Greg Marmalard plastic gloves — right there in the theater.

Meanwhile, Roger (the likewise always wonderful John Slattery) and wife Jane (Peyton List) go to a party and partake of LSD. The middle part of the episode finds Roger and Jane tripping out. When they come around, Roger tells Jane he’s moving out, a decision based on her acid-inspired comments.

Also meanwhile, Don (Jon Hamm) and Megan (Jessica Pare’) go out of town on a trip to a Howard Johnson’s. It’s ostensibly to check out a client, but Don plans the same uncomfortable mixture of business and pleasure that he’s been practicing with Megan all season. When they get into a fight and Megan disappears, Don’s anxiety skyrockets.

To top it all off, Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) — who’s spent how many seasons wandering in the wilderness of the conference room? — administers a brisk slap across the face to Don. Bert calls him out on how little work he’s done lately. Holy crap!

Other highlights:

I’m enjoying the little glimpses of Ginsberg and his father (“I’m the original,” the elder Ginsburg tells Peggy) but I’m curious where the characters are going.

Has “Mad Men” been employing flashbacks? Tonight we get a glimpse of the past in Don and Megan’s Disney vacation with Sally and the little Draper boy, whatever his name is.

In the preview for next week, Roger says he’s had a life-changing experience. Does he mean the acid trip? At the end of tonight’s episode, he was pretty damn cheerful.

“Mad Men” continues to keep us guessing.

‘Mad Men’ goes for shock value with ‘Signal 30’

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Just when you thought this season’s “Mad Men” couldn’t get any more … out there than last week’s choke-tacular “Mystery Date,” comes tonight’s episode, “Signal 30.”

The title refers to the blood-and-guts-filled, 1960s-era drivers education movie that pompous little ad man Pete sees in preparation for getting his drivers license in time for life in the ‘burbs. But tonight’s episode had mayhem all the way through.

Let’s start with Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), who can be an awfully hard character to take. I take that back. Pete is almost impossible to like, with his grasping, career-climbing ways and pissy attitude. So it was kind of fun to see him squirming and taking his licks — literally — tonight.

First there was Pete’s attempts to seduce the high school girl in his class, only to be outdone by … a high school boy, who ends up feeling up the object of Pete’s jailbait leanings. All the while, Pete watches, frustrated, from one row back in the classroom.

Then there’s Roger and Pete’s partaking of hookers at a high-class whorehouse. That unlikely twosome and Don take Lane’s client, a Jaguar executive, to a brothel. Don — still living the honeymoon life with “zoobie zoobie” Megan — sits at the bar and behaves himself while Pete, Roger and the Jag guy plunge into the beds of what would appear to be high-class 1960s Manhattan call girls.

Then there’s Pete’s comeuppance at the hands of Brit Lane Pryce (Jared Harris, who is just wonderful). When the Jaguar exec’s infidelity is discovered by his wife the account goes up in smoke and Lane throws down on Pete.

The resulting fight, right in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices, shows Lane delivering unto Pete a sound thrashing and is bookended by great quips from Roger: “I suppose cooler heads should prevail, but I want to watch this” and “I had Lane.”

Other highlights:

Pete showing off his wall-length cabinet record player to visitors to his home.

This season’s daring “Mad Men” fashion experience continues as Don becomes the latest wearer of a crazy plaid sportscoat.

This season’s desperation level is high. Roger’s a mess, Pete’s trying to pick up schoolgirls, Lane’s fixation on the wallet a few episodes ago and, tonight, Lane’s passionate move on Joan.

Ad man Ken’s second career as a science fiction writer. Ken’s proud wife brags about it, prompting Roger to tell him to knock it off, saying that a career in advertising is satisfying enough when things are going well.

“I remember that,” Roger says before stalking out.

Madchen Amick fans assemble!

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What do actress Madchen Amick, the newspaper comic panel “The Family Circus” and the giant flying snake thing from the previews for “The Avengers” have in common?

They’re pretty much the most popular topics I’ve written about in this blog.

Since early this week, when I followed up on my “Mad Men” review with an entry noting that Andrea, the old fling of Don Draper who showed up on Don’s doorstep — and under his bed, choked to death, in his fever dream — was played by Amick, hundreds of readers have checked out the blog.

So, in the spirit of cheap plays for page views, I wanted to note the popularity of Amick, best-remembered for most of us as diner waitress Shelly in the cult classic TV series “Twin Peaks.”

I also wanted to note that most sources online appear to agree that Amick, born in 1970 according to her IMDb entry, looks pretty amazing.

It doesn’t take much Googling to determine that clips of Amick, particularly in a bikini from the cable TV series “Californication,” are out there.

Go ahead and Google. I’ll wait.

Anyway, Madchen Amick is now forever enshrined in this blog’s hall of fame, along with Billy, Jeffy and the the rest of the Keane comic strip family as well as the Leviathan or whatever flying beastie the Avengers will face.

Now if there was only some way to get Madchen Amick, the ghostly grandparents from “The Family Circus” and the flying snake thing from “The Avengers” all into the same blog item.

Hmm.

Madchen Amick all choked up in ‘Mad Men’s’ ‘Mystery Date’

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Last night’s “Mad Men,” besides giving the characters — and viewers — the creeps over the Richard Speck mass murders, presented me with a real brain-teaser:

Who played Andrea, the old flame of Don Draper who showed up in an elevator and, later, in Don’s flu-induced fever dreams in the episode called “Mystery Date?”

The actress looked undeniably familiar but I missed her name in the credits.

Today I discovered the actress was Madchen Amick, one of the most memorable young actresses on TV two decades ago.

Amick played Shelly Johnson, the high school girl and waitress in “Twin Peaks,” the cult TV mystery series that aired in 1990 and 1991.

Considering the nightmarish stuff of “Twin Peaks,” it’s perfectly appropriate — somehow even fitting — that Amick played Andrea. In last night’s macabre episode, Andrea encountered Don on an elevator and immediately went into purring seductress mode … until Don introduced his wife, Megan, who was standing some distance away.

Later, Andrea showed up and offered herself to Don, whose weakened condition on account of the flu apparently didn’t extend to the bedroom.

When Andrea, getting out of bed, told Don that she expected a return visit, he became enraged and choked her to death, stuffing her body under his and Megan’s bed before passing out again.

When Don woke up, however, Megan was there … and the encounter with Andrea never happened.

Part of the fun of seeing Amick again was that I haven’t seen her on TV a lot in the past two decades. According to her biography, she’s worked pretty steadily, with roles in everything from the “Fantasy Island” reboot to “Dawson’s Creek” to “CSI: NY.”

Who can forget this famous 1990 Rolling Stone magazine cover, with Amick and “Twin Peaks” co-stars Sherilyn Fenn and Lara Flynn Boyle?

That’s a lot of hair. But Amick looks great.

If Andrea indeed isn’t stuffed under the Drapers’ bed, maybe Amick will pay a return visit to “Mad Men” this season. Although some have theorized that Don’s hallucinatory choking of Andrea symbolized his efforts to leave his past behind and be faithful to Megan, I’ll believe Don has become monogamous when I see it.

‘Mad Men’ gets freaky with ‘Mystery Date’

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Except for the fact it aired in April, tonight’s “Mad Men” on AMC seemed like a very special Halloween episode. Characters were fascinated — or haunted — with news of Richard Speck’s gruesome killings of several nursing students in Chicago.

And Don Draper, who’s shown more than a little bad judgment during the course of the series, risks ruin with new wife Megan by allowing an old fling to come into his apartment and bed … only to choke the woman to death and stuff her body under his marital bed.

Or did he?

It was that kind of episode. “Mystery Date” showed why the series is one of the most subtle but intriguing shows on TV.

The undercurrent of the episode was the Speck slayings. The staff at Sterling Cooper Draper Price were fascinated by crime scene photos shared by Joyce, Peggy’s magazine photographer friend.

Meanwhile, while Henry and Betty are out of town, Henry’s mother stays over with Sally, who’s curious about the Chicago mass slayings. At first the two don’t get along. But by the end of the episode, they’re bonding over their mutual terror. Henry’s mom has a trusty butcher knife and Sally is sleeping under the sofa. Awww.

There’s a lot of discontent going on. Joan’s military doctor hubby returns from Vietnam with plans to go right back. Don is sick with the flu and irritated by Ginsberg, the new young ad writer. Peggy takes Dawn, the new secretary, home with her but succumbs to the prevailing thinking of the day.

And Megan, understandably irritated when Don’s old girlfriend comes onto him in an elevator, stakes her claim on Don.

But will Don’s philandering ways end both his marriage and the old fling? It sure looks like when Don — in a scene mirroring the “angry housework in lingerie” seduction from a couple of episodes ago — gets a little rough, killing the fling and stuffing her body under the bed.

Does Don Draper have to choke a bitch? (With apologies to Dave Chappelle.)

While I thought “Mad Men” had choked the shark there for a moment, it was all apparently a fever dream. But holy crap, it seemed real.

Other memorable moments:

Roger is a walking ATM machine (well before ATMs existed) this season. A while back he paid out of pocket to settle Pete’s complaints about his office space. Tonight Peggy shook him down for extra work she was doing for him. How long before Roger’s world blows up?

Peggy has always been a great character but her moments tonight were among her best ever.

Joan’s mom is like a character plucked out of a 1960s sitcom and set down in this very bleak situation. And it works.

‘Mad Men’ exploring the ’60s with ‘Tea Leaves’

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Tonight’s “Mad Men” episode, “Tea Leaves,” pushed the AMC series further along into the shank of the 1960s, with drugs, rock and roll and well, not as much sex as last week’s naughty lingerie cleaning bout.

Surprisingly, the episode put Don’s ex, Betty, in the spotlight as the character, played by an unrecognizable January Jones (who was pregnant for much of the filming of the fifth season), gets a real health scare.

Betty is gaining weight and wonders if it’s due to dissatisfaction over her life with Henry. But a doctor tells her he’s found a lump.

Jones, who has been handed an icy, unlikable character for much of the run of the show, gets to play sympathetic tonight. Even after she learns the tumor is benign, we feel for Betty. Especially when she reaches for daughter Sally’s unfinished ice cream sundae at the end. Don’t try to eat your way out of unhappiness, Betty!

Some other observations:

Pete continues to be a total ass. Admittedly, Roger is a jerk. But Roger’s a funny jerk. Pete’s prima donna complaining about his office space last week and his public pissing match with Roger this week over the renewed Mohawk Airlines account is like Betty’s tumor: It makes Roger sympathetic.

And what about Roger? I’m worried that he’s gonna off himself before the season is over. The silver fox seems increasingly desperate and alienated.

Harry continues to be a comedic highlight of each episode. Last week he was going on and on about his attraction for Don’s new wife Megan … while Megan stood behind him. Tonight Harry and Don go to a Rolling Stones concert to try to talk to the band about singing a TV jingle for Heinz. Harry breathlessly tells Don that he’s just talked to the band. But the Stones are elsewhere in the building. “Who were you talking to?” Don scowls, prompting Harry to eat 20 White Castles. Now Harry knows how Betty feels.

The 60s are here! The 60s are here! Don and Harry get offered a joint by a cute young woman hanging out backstage waiting for the Stones. The new black secretary is on the job. A new young copy writer who’s quick with his wits — and a good match for Peggy — joins Sterling Cooper Draper Price and single-handedly shakes up the Protestant-skewing makeup of the office.

Clients say the darndest things. Last week the bean makers wanted to see their beans carrying picket signs. Tonight the Heinz people asked for the Rolling Stones. Aren’t they cute when they don’t have a grasp of reality?

 

‘Mad Men’ returns strong after long absence

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It’s been about a year and a half since the last new episode of “Mad Men,” AMC’s drama about life — and incidentally, advertising — in 1960s New York.

With the return of the series tonight, creator Matthew Weiner gives us an episode that surely must have been designed as fan service. The two-hour premiere hit a lot of sweet spots for fans of the series.

Roger’s still a funny jerk, Pete’s still an insufferable brat. Some things don’t change at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Chief among them is the relationship between those two antagonists, silver fox Roger and boy wonder Pete. The two competed over office space and needled each other over which is the rainmaker.

Women are still second-class citizens. Joan, still on maternity leave, is told by her mother that surely she doesn’t think her husband will let her work. Secretaries are scolded and sent for coffee. Peggy continues to grow but still gets dismissive treatment from Don.

The mad men are restless. Besides Pete’s bitching about his office, we get Brit Lane Pryce’s fixation on a wallet he found in a cab — and the voice of the wallet owner’s wife or girlfriend. Lane is behaving in a twitchier than usual manner, which is fun stuff.

Don is settling into married bliss. Kinda. Sorta. After his whirlwind courtship and proposal to secretary Megan, Don seems to be settling into domesticity in a groovy apartment. But we know what happens with Don settles into anything. That’s right, Don the Moody lashes out at Megan for throwing him a surprise birthday party and singing a sexy French song. The “cleaning up the apartment in black lingerie” scene near the end of the episode is an eye-opener. Yikes.

The 1960s are about to close in on our protagonists. The episode opened with a protest by African Americans outside rival (and real life) advertising firm Young and Rubicam and ended with a big turnout of black job applicants at SCDP. And surely even the partners know they can’t treat Joan and the other women in their lives like second-class citizens forever.

“Mad Men” gets criticized sometimes for the glacial pace of its seasons and tonight’s episode, while packed with wonderful character moments, was typically low-key. Having said that, however, I have to note that the series continues to make the most of its leisurely tone. If the rest of the season is as strong as tonight’s premiere, it’ll be a great one.

Can’t wait: Upcoming TV shows to watch for

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Back in the day, TV networks threw all their season premieres into the same week in September. It made for a fun issue of TV Guide but was fairly suicidal. Even though there were only three or four networks back then, it was impossible to check everything out.

With the splintered and factionalized TV picture that came with the explosion of cable, TV series premiere virtually throughout the calendar year. Shows take mid-season breaks, stay off the air for months and years (I’m looking at you, “Mad Men”) and pop up whenever.

There’s something to look forward to in the coming weeks, however: The return of several new favorite dramas.

First up is one of my favorite shows, FX’s “Justified.” Based on characters created by crime novel legend Elmore Leonard, the show features Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, back in his home state of Kentucky and, with cool Stetson and even cooler demeanor, running roughshod over lowlifes and bad guys.

“Justified” returns at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17 on FX.

Not long after comes Feb. 12 and the premiere of the second half of season two of “The Walking Dead” on AMC.

The survivors of the zombie apocalypse, traumatized by the loss of young Sophie, forge ahead with their efforts to find their way through the wilds of Georgia and the end of the world.

I’m hoping — really, really hoping — that Rick, Lori, Daryl Dixon and the rest get off the farm where they’ve been all season so far, and get out of there quickly once the second half of the season begins.

How many years has it been since we last saw Don Draper and the rest of the cast of AMC’s “Mad Men?” Two? Three? Less than that? Really?

Well, the deliberately-paced 1960s character drama will finally return on March 25, if you can believe star Jon Hamm’s recent announcement.

Speaking of great characters: One of my favorite episodic dramas of the past couple of years is “Sherlock,” the modern-day retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes tales. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the brilliant detective and Martin Freeman makes for one of the most satisfyingly irritable John Watsons ever.

Just three episodes aired on PBS’s “Masterpiece Mystery” last year and three more are coming in May. Best news: Three more episodes are now in the works.

I wish I could tell you with some certainty when A&E’s “Longmire” series will premiere, but I haven’t seen a date other than “sometime in 2012.”

I also wish I could tell you that the series is faithful to Craig Johnson’s wonderful mystery series about Walt Longmire, an old-fashioned modern-day Wyoming sheriff dealing with an odd assortment of characters and crimes. I wish I could say that it is — and it very well might be — but the casting is a little young and a little off.

The best bit of casting? Katee Sackhoff of “Battlestar Galactica” as Longmire’s funny, profane deputy, Victoria. The actress is perfect for the part.

Of course, there are other shows to look forward to. But that’s a pretty good start to any year.