Mad Men Watch: I Went to a Garden Party
AMC
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, grab your copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and watch last night's Mad Men.
I celebrated my first Mad Men night off the clock Mad Men-style--with a cocktail--so for that and reasons of general sloth I will keep my thoughts brief and go straight to the hail of bullets. This was simply one of the most beautiful and moving (and yet also funny) episodes of Mad Men yet, even if nothing dramatic happened in it. (This is the last of the episodes I got in advance, and you may see by now why I was puzzled that Weiner and company were so worried about spoilers in them.)
The episode bounced among several stories, but essentially it weaved together Peggy, Roger and Joan, each trying to find their way to to next stage in their lives:
* "I'm Peggy Olson. And I want to smoke some marijuana." I'm really hoping to find ways to work that into conversation in the coming week.
* That passive-aggressive encounter between Joan and Jane: Joan might as well have been exhaling ice crystals as cigarette smoke!
* By the way, as dispiriting as it may have been to see Joan married to the fiance-doctor who raped her, it's good to see her asserting herself in their relationship. "I don't want to have a fight right now!" "Then stop talking." That said, seeing him starting to be proved not just a heel but an incompetent--and seeing her brilliantly salvage the dinner party playing "C'est Magnifique" on the accordion (after the revelation about Greg's "bad result" on the pneumonectomy), it's that much more clear she's too good for him. And judging by her look at him on the last line, she at some level must know it too.
* Pete and Trudy can cut a rug! One thing Mad Men gets right that shows about the past often don't, is to remember that the past is haunted by its own past. 1963, after all, was no father (in time anyway) from the 1920s than we are today from 1969 (here in the summer of Woodstock nostalgia and Beatles Rock Band). In Mad Men, previous decades are also present: here, both in the innocent Charleston, and Roger's racist serenade.
* Speaking of that dance, it's odd to realize that—as creepy and broken as Pete seemed at the beginning of the series—he and Trudy have what seems, in some ways, to be the most functional marriage on Mad Men. They know each other's steps. And note Ken's reaction to the impression his rival makes on the dance floor: "I've got to bring a date next time."
* It's interesting to go back to that "Old Kentucky Home" performance, by the way, and see the mixed reactions of the guests—most laughing, some heartily, some politely; Pete (of all people) seems disturbed, and the incident sends Don running for the bar.
* Don's Old-Fashioned-mixing conversation with Connie, behind the bar, is one of those classic Mad Men scenes in which nothing happens, but everything gets said. The old man recalls looking in from the outside on rich people's parties as a boy. (In the territory of New Mexico, another part of the haunted past.) "It's different on the inside," he says, which sums up Don's experience in this world.
* Kinsey's showdown with his drug-pusher college mate (who looks and sounds like someone got a time machine and kidnapped a pre-Risky-Business Tom Cruise) was a wonderfully turned scene.
* "Just don't get pregnant..." "If Greg becomes chief resident..." Who thinks Joan's going to get pregnant? And who thinks Greg's going to become chief resident?
* The subplot with Sally, grandpa and the stolen five dollars could be read a lot of different ways, I suppose, but one upshot of it is that Sally and the old man share a secret: that he has more marbles left than everyone else gives him credit for.
* The confrontation between Peggy and Olive—the Feminine Mystique Era career woman and the traditional secretary—is one of those things that could play really stereotypically. So it was a blessing that Elisabeth Moss got to play it high, which complicates our read of it. Peggy's in a state of clarity about her work, but is she seeing Olive's motivation clearly? Is Olive afraid for her? Is Peggy's reassurance of Olive that she'll be fine an act of generosity or self-centeredness?
* In the denouement of the garden party, there were two echoes of the season one episode "Red in the Face"—Jean Jane seems to get overaffectionate with Don (as when Roger hit on Peggy Betty) and gets ill (as Roger did on oysters when Don took his revenge).
* So the Albany aide who put his hand on Peggy's Betty's pregnant belly—flirtatiously, and seemingly with some electricity: was he just there to give the show an excuse to talk about Nelson Rockefeller dropping out of the running for the 1964 election?Or is it true what Grandpa said to Sally about their bedtime reading, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "Just wait. All hell's going to break loose"?
[Update: Sorry for all the typos. Rushed typing. And the aforementioned cocktail.]
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I found myself to be fairly disappointed with the whole "missing $5" bit...in the past Mad Men has dealt with the issue of race relations during the time period in an honest way...but in a way that seemed fresh and new because of its raw honesty (Kinsey's true motivations for journeying to the South with his (then?) girlfriend ("He used to be all Jersey.")) - the whole "suspecting the maid stole money" line just seemed a little too obvious of a tactic for Mad Men to take....equally as obvious was Carla's seeming ability to see through what nearly everyone else considers to be Gene's "lost marbles" (along the lines of the wise black woman).
And in the end it turned out they were simply showing us that Gene isn't really as crazy as he seems...and pretty much skirted the race issue entirely...which was simply frustrating.
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Don't you mean when Roger hit on Betty at Don & Betty's home that night ?
I think that Olive's motive is almost that of a mother perhaps ? She is an empty nester with a son in college. She needs someone to mother and Peggy could be the fit for her she believes ?
My husband and I were SO SURE that was Tom Cruise doing a guest stint. God, that guy looked just like him.
The one liners were great last night.The depth of meaning to them.
Anyone notice the awkward moment however for Pete and Trudy at the beginning of the party when children were being discussed ? There seemed to be a bit of tension.
I love how Betty told Don she wanted to stay so they could dance later when he wanted to leave. Then at the table when people commented they had not danced, she made some comment about how she must be disappointing Don by not dancing. She is torturing him in domestic hell and I LOVE it !
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Here I was thinking that Sally Draper was adorable and then she pulls a fast one on Gramps. Too much Gibbon, methinks. Also I thought the way that plot ended, that Peggy's father should have apologized to the maid and upbraided Sally rather than that sentimental ending.
Peggy and Paul getting high was such a cliche, but we hadn't seen it in the refined world of Mad Men and, more importantly, it ended with that sweet scene between Peggy and her secretary. (Did anybody else think that Peggy was going to sack her at first?). Oh and the drug dealer looked a lot like a young Christian Bale. But Peggy's story, among a very packed episode that included Roger in minstrel blackface, made this the best episode this season so far.
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[...] reviews: Alan Sepinwall, The A.V. Club, Maureen Ryan, James Poniewozik, Tim [...]
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Credit where it's due: The captioning on last night's "Mad Men" was almost spotless. Except when Pete referred to Peggy, Paul et al. as "gentles" (as in gentlepeople) and the caption said "gentiles." Which, come to think of it, ....
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Am I the only who didn't think Gene was accusing Carla of stealing the $5? That just wasn't my impression at all. I kind of thought he knew it was Sally all along--particularly when he chastised her for quitting the hunt for it too soon.
That minstrel face thing--I said "oh my god" out loud. Oh, Roger. Unbelievable.
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totally agree...especially with the "are you done looking already?" line.
i thought carla THOUGHT she'd get blamed, but it never actually happened. it actually turns our pre-conceived notions on its head, but hints at the truth nonetheless.
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Connie at the bar is Conrad Hilton. I stopped off the interstate to see the ruins of his birthplace in San Antonio NM about 10 years ago. Guess Don is gonna land Hilton Hotels later.
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[...] of course have extensive commentary, and there are posts on Jezebel, the NYTimes Artsbeat blog, TIME and already three posts about it on slate.com. I didn't fully appreciate just how appealing Mad [...]
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I was going to correct your other character name typos, but I see you already have, so I'll move on to my complaints about the interface here. Most importantly, I cannot comment in Firefox (I'm on a Mac). Every time I log in to WordPress, it pretends that I'm not logged in. I can log in using Safari, and I see that first it sent me to a URL that includes /remote-login.php?login=bunchesofalphanumerics. I don't believe that's happening with Firefox--perhaps that's the problem? Please please send this on to whoever deals with stuff like this? I'll be watching this post's comments, so feel free to comment back with questions about what I'm seeing, if that would help. I can't be the only person with this issue, can I?
Secondarily and much less importantly, there is no way to click on the trackbacks. Isn't that kind of the point?
Sorry about being so complain-y, but I would be more likely to post an actual comment if I were able to comment like a normal person in my preferred browser.
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9.1
Have no idea what's causing the issue, but sent your comment to our techs.
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Allison, can I please direct you to http://sadtrombone.com/
jeez, get over yourself.
great recap, typos and all.
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I don't think it's rude to ask for help if the page isn't working. I use Firefox also, but it works for me... It makes me sign in quite a bit, but it works.
I loved this episode. I told someone that and they said "But nothing happened!" Nothing ever really does, but it doesn't matter. It's just brilliant.
@texbo: That's very interesting. Nice catch
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I thought it was clear that Don's dismay at the blackface performance was because it celebrated Jane, not for the same reason we find it startling today.
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@James: Thanks. (Complaint #3, by the way: you can reply to a specific comment, but only one level in? That's...weird.)
@any techs who would want to troubleshoot a solution: Seriously, I'm leaving this comment thread's feed in my RSS reader so I'll know about any updates, and I'm willing to try any suggestions or tests you may have.
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[...] of course have extensive commentary, and there are posts on Jezebel, the NYTimes Artsbeat blog, TIME and already three posts about it on slate.com. I didn't fully appreciate just how appealing Mad [...]
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