Monsters of Television

“With you or without you I’m moving on. And I don’t know if I can do it alone. Will you help me?“

I ignore my epiphanies for the sake of dramatic conflict

This, for those who want to manage their reading, will be significantly shorter than my season 1 recap. Part of this stems from the fact that I just have very little to say, on the whole, about both seasons. A large part of this lack of thought goes back to the issue of quality I discussed during season 1, and seem little need to recover that ground.

Of the two, I’d rather watch season 3 than season 2. As Jeremy Mongeau pointed out, season 3 at least remembers to be entertaining, whereas season 2 is very much about how much QUALITY and IMPORTANT MESSAGES and SYMBOLIC WALKING INTO THE BEACH TO CLEANSE AND BE REBORN can be squeezed into 13 hours of television. Season 3 has some of this (could Betty’s couch have been any more symbolic?), but it also has a guy’s foot getting lopped off by a riding lawn mower, complete with excellent blood splatter reaction shot, so it balances out.

There were things I did like about season 3, including Sally Draper (the only truly interesting character on the show), “My name is Peggy Olson and I’m here to smoke some marijuana.”, and all the scenes of “Shut the Door, Have a Seat” that didn’t involve Don and Betty’s relationship. But, all in all, I’m kind of glad I’m not reviewing Mad Men for the site.

My main problem with the show throughout season 2 and 3 was a lack of stakes. Don has self-realization at the end of each season (including season 1), normally in relation to his marriage. And each realization is undone by Don taking up with another woman. Season 2 waited a bit for Bobbie to appear, and acted as the catalyst for the tail-end of the season, leading to Don facing a new addition to the family. It was a bit frustrating to see Don just decide that his little cry at the end of “The Carousel” was forgotten (and for little to no reason).

Season 3 flung Don into a flight attendant’s arms quickly, and then the school teacher (in a painful bit of obviousness). The school teacher made a bit of sense, as Don was looking for an escape from the pressures of work and family, but it still undermined a lot of Don’s supposed “rebirth” in California at the end of season 2. On top of that, I have no idea why the school teacher took up with Don. There was no motivation for her to do this, apart from Don’s mysterious charisma, which I find lacking when he’s not pitching ideas to clients.

It doesn’t help that Betty, despite showing promise in her development in season 1, quickly and continually falls back into lacking narrative agency. Some of this is characteristic of the time she lives in, but if her neighbor can do it, so can she. As a result, I’m not sure what’s stopping Betty from leaving Don three times over. It weakens her even more that she, essentially, has another man rescue you her from all this. Thank goodness for Peggy (what happened to her baby in season 3?) and Joan (who is on her way to heartbreak because of her idiot husband).

On the upside, Sally remains the reason to be engaged in the domestic melodrama at the Draper household. Where Betty refuses to ask questions or respond to things, Sally can and does. If the rest of Mad Men were about Sally’s development, including running off with Peggy to Woodstock, I would be all for that (it won’t happen, but still). I could say more, but this excellent essay does it for me, so go read it.

As a result of all this, Mad Men suffers from being two shows, one very boring (Don’s personal life) and one very interesting (Sterling Cooper, and the occasional glances into the employees’ lives). I find no reason to care about Don (I struggle to really to care about, well, any male on this show) and Betty as a human beings, and that they continually, unnecessarily, regresses makes them, and their seasonal arcs, dull.

At least things at Sterling Cooper are interesting. (Well, at least in season 3. I barely remember anything interesting happening in season 2.) The sale of Sterling Cooper was exciting, and injected some much needed life into the show. Jared Harris, in particular, manages to integrate Lane into the cast without so much of a hiccup. The stakes, frankly, in Sterling Cooper make sense to me, and due to the colorful set of characters that surround it, it becomes interesting. Whereas I enjoyed Paul’s pompous nature in season 1, I increasingly found Harry’s butt monkey status in seasons 2 and 3 to be utterly endearing, and I’m glad he was with the absconding members of the staff.

Indeed, I never enjoyed the show more than when the episodes took place at Sterling Cooper. “A Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” is terrific, and the season 3 finale is impossibly riveting as they plot and plan their escape. This is where the character of Don Draper is interesting, when he’s an ad man first. When the melodrama is applied to these types of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying-esque situations, the show is exciting and interesting.

But since these storylines are often strangled by Don’s personal life, the show itself becomes uneven. I feel that half the time I’m watching lazy reinventions of Douglas Sirk (who was more prolific in the 50s, than in the 60s, but it’s hard to watch the Drapers and not think of Sirk) and then skipping to Ernest Lehman-inspired scripting (I’m thinking of Sweet Smell of Success and Executive Suite here).

So as it goes into season 4, I’ll be watching to remain relevant in conversations (much as I do with Glee), but thankfully I don’t have to write about it every week. And, you know, to see what happens at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• I haven’t talked about Pete or Peggy, who do get considerable development over these two seasons, but theirs are shifts in character I’d rather think about more. Their developments, compared to the Drapers’, feel more nuanced and slow simmering. But what the hell happened to Peggy’s baby?! When is Pete’s gun going to go off?
• The historical events in these two seasons, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy Assassination, felt less grounded than the Kennedy/Nixon election. Part of this stems from the fact that the election was a main concern for Sterling Cooper (and produced a terrific episode), but the suddenness of each event also plays into this.