Friday, March 21, 2008

Christina Hendricks

What happened to adult female sexuality? Watching Christina Hendricks on Mad Men, I wonder that. On a show filled with outstanding performances, hers pops out with so much fun and so much sophistication. Just watching her walk away is watching a master performance.

In contrast is Elisabeth Moss's performance. Peggy Olson should be a young, smart, naive girl full of ambition. At first she thinks her ambition is to be like Hendricks's Joan -- a woman who knows how to use sex to wrap bosses around her pinkie. Slowly she realizes her talents are much more nuts and bolts -- much more like a man's. She becomes a copy writer, on her way not to her boss's bed but her boss's corner office. But the way Moss plays it, Peggy turns out to have Aspergers. Confusion and awkwardness is played by staring blankly. While the cast around her grows into their roles, Moss has disappeared out of hers.

The only other crinkle is a minor one by Jon Hamm. Playing a younger, hick version of himself wasn't too successful...

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