Kudos to Mad Men

Does Mad Men have an expert on all things British?  I was so impressed by the way they told Lane Pryce's story.  Here's this British guy, sent all the way to America by his British bosses just to do dirty work.  No matter how well he does his job, he'll never get ahead —he's basically stuck as the corporate henchman — and if you're British, you knew that the second he opened his mouth.  It's all in his accent, a nice upper middle class accent, an accent that tells his superiors that Pryce is not one of them.  No wonder Pryce loves NYC.  No wonder he jumps ship.  The Americans appreciate what he can do; his British bosses only appreciate his background — or lack of it.  You see, his bosses have aristocratic names like St. John (and if you're from the right background, you know that this very plummy name is pronounced Sin-Jin) and speak with Oxbridge accents.  They belong to clubs that Pryce would never be allowed to enter, except as a waiter.  Not only do they understand this at a subconscious level, but they expect Pryce to understand this and keep to his station.  Remember that little punk who came to take over Pryce's job?  The one who got his foot chopped off?  No experience, but right accent.  That's why he was getting Pryce's job.  And remember how explosively angry St. John got when he discovered Pryce's betrayal?  It was like his butler had walked into his bedroom at three in the morning and told him to fuck off.  It simply isn't done.

What I found so wonderful in all this was that the writers never tell you any of this.  If you understand the British class system, great!  If you don't, it doesn't really matter because all this is played seamlessly into the plot: Pryce isn't appreciated so there's the subtext for his actions.  I also love the fact that the American characters in Mad Men don't understand any of this either — and they don't care (a comment on American insularity and perpetual near-sightedness?).  This kind of sophisticated storytelling is unheard of on TV.  You don't even see it very much in "literary" novels.  So just who do these writers think they are, anyway?

Mad Men, Season 3 Opener

The season opener was fairly quiet. We begin with Don's squalid birth, the scenes of his beginnings a phantasm around the present. But everything else is really business as usual, bland domestic life, office intrigue, sex wherever people can find it, London Fog the latest ad campaign. Still, I liked it. It seemed more like the first season, the dialog sharper, the melodrama of Don's past life less syrupy. I felt that in the second season, it wasn't just Don who was lost but the entire season. Here, in the season opener, all the old deftness comes back:

Don catches a glimpse of Salvatore's homosexuality through a hotel window. Salvatore is mortified and scared. On the long plane ride home, he waits in agony for Don to say something. Maybe not to him, but surely, to everyone else. Don understands. Especially about secret lives. He wants to reassure Salvatore, not as a friend, but as a fellow conspirator. So he gives Salvatore a warning in the guise of an ad campaign. London Fog. A man on a train, a girl dressed only in a short trench, the slogan "Limit your exposure." "Tell me honestly what you think," Don says, but of course, honesty is the last thing he wants from anyone. And certainly not a confession.

It's interesting that because of his secrets, Don is the most compassionate person on the show, guiding lost souls who lack his strength, like Peggy before she became Super Bitch, and now Salvatore. Will Salvatore fall in love with Don? Peggy didn't, but let's face it, she's more man than Salvatore.

Mad Men?

So I've watched four episodes of season two and I'm exasperated. I'd like to say it's just lost a little momentum, but I can't, because it's like the show's a completely different show. I know the writers are attempting to portray morass but that's no excuse for putting people to sleep. And I mean, literally putting people to sleep. And not just people, but insomniacs. And look -- we get the ad business now. We get that Don is brilliant at his job. That was all in season one, so what's the point of making 80% of each show the JOB? You want to make this Bewitched without the laughs? (BTW, there are some pretty scary similarities between bosses Tate and Sterling. Actually, now that I think of it, there are a lot of similarities between Mad Men and Bewitched: the chiseled, dark features of Draper and Stevens, the cute blonde wives, booze, booze, and more booze, nice period cars.)

The first three shows have been like very dull John Updike short stories, with a good dose of bad Mary McCarthy. Speaking of Mary McCarthy -- where did all the interesting women go? Swinging girl artist, Midge? Department store heiress Rachael, S&M inspired Dr. Guttman? And where the hell is Joan? How and when did she become the latest victim of the Body Snatchers?

There are some good developments but are they developments or just moments? Like making Don a bit more dirtier. His sexual assault on tough broad Bobbie in "The Benefactor" was shocking. And having him send a book to Rachael was interesting (although it isn't clear that it is to Rachael -- could be a red herring -- but that's what I'm betting). I guess being married to a woman you can't relate to is tough. Especially when she's a nutcase like Betty.

Okay. Maybe Betty isn't a nutcase. But what a control freak. Her cold mother act gives blondes a bad name. And what's with the sexual power plays? Are the writers going to reward her and turn her loose in the big city as a Cosmo Girl or are they going to punish her with rape? Well, the creator is male so I have a feeling it's not going to be Sex and the City for Betty. Maybe the best we'll get is Betty Does Boston.

So you get the feeling I don't exactly like Betty? Okay, again, I get the part about Betty being a little girl in a woman's body. Maybe it's just January Jones. I think that if a better actress were in the role, an actress with the power of Juliette Binoche or Judy Davis, I'd be able to enjoy the Betty development more. You just don't get much inner-life moments with Jones. She just does "I'm so unhappy". Well, so am I! At least you have a nice kitchen. You should see my 1970s disaster. And -- you have a maid! This is about as much sympathy as Jones solicits. Sorry.

Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Don, Joan, and Mr. Boss Sterling will get their lives back. Soon. Please.

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...

Mad Men

I've watched so much TV, I pretty much know what's going to happen on a TV show after seeing the first five minutes. I finish sentences for TV characters, to the amusement of my husband. That's why I really like Mad Men -- it trips me up. The writer has watched as much TV as I have, but instead of copying templates, he uses all the decades of film and TV in the way our brains use memory to create a separate, distinct universe. I like the way Mad Men is more like a film, in color and atmosphere, tone and conversation. I like the way it incorporates the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies, with punches of Jack Lemmon and Billy Wilder. It's our historic romantic ideas of the fifties and early sixties, post Sex and the City, Six Foot Under, Sopranos, Blade Runner. And I loved the first episode punch line: he's married, viewers. Melancholy and poignancy equal hopeful anticipation.