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It has been the subtle messages delivered in "Mad Men" that have made the series so interesting. Subtlety was absent in last night's episode. The show's creator/producer/writer Matthew Weiner may have had reasons for that. But the shift from subtle to an over-the-top, heavy-handed, obvious, in-your-face style was not well-received by either of us last night.
In our household, episodes of "Mad Men" usually generate emotional responses. This one just didn't stir emotions.
First of all, for whatever reason, neither of us could even remember Richard Speck's name though we both remembered the murders. That puzzled us until I reviewed Speck's Wikipedia entry. It was one of those "oh, that's right, that sad life" moments for me:
I prefer to remember that this episode focused on Joan and Peggy and Sally, plus Dawn and Megan and new-grandma Christine and creepy step-grandma Pauline "The Knife" Francis.
And the episode did subtly juxtapose the impact of war and violence on three generations of American men.
The most significant event in the episode is Joan ending her marriage with the hapless doctor, Captain Greg Harris, who failed to achieve any goals as a civilian doctor but is getting recognition in Vietnam. For Joan, his lying about signing up for another tour was more than she could accept. And his previous violent predilections were obviously there.
There is a dark theme here - male violence towards women. But there is also a stated recognition that properly directed male violence was encouraged by proper American society, even surrounded with opportunity for recognition for swell guys like Greg, and if the encouragement didn't work - well, we'll just conscript our guys and teach them to kill.
In the feverish dream Don has, imagery of violence, the single red shoe (think Wizard of Oz), all offers an impression of sex and violence. Don, however, has nothing positive to say about his experience in Korea. Don/Dick would never have volunteered to go back to war.
But getting back to Joan who seems to be taking control of her life, one of the three best images of this episode is this one:
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I don't know what Weiner intended here. But what we have is a male child trapped between two strong women, his mother and grandmother, a boy not acknowledged by his biological father, and his legal father doesn't even know he's not the biological father.
The other image of the episode with strong, life-impact predictive meaning was this one:
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That's "Seconal Sally" Draper lying beneath Pauline "The Knife" Francis, having just learned a "valuable" life lesson from grandma. Are you fearful, upset, having trouble sleeping? Grab a butcher knife and take a barbiturate derivative drug with sedative and hypnotic plus fairly addictive properties. Also called "dolls", widespread misuse of these pills was a play on words in the title of Jacqueline Susann's 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls, whose main characters use secobarbital and other such drugs.
The fascinating Hitchcock-like development of Sally's curiosity about the murders, Sally watching a commercial for the Mystery Date board game being marketed to young girls while weird grandma talks on the phone about the nurses being murdered (talk about psychosexual trauma), leading to a somewhat less than thoughtful explanation from Pauline resulting in Sally's fears. and then grandma gives her a barbiturate - this was perhaps the amusing and disturbing part of the show IMHO.
In addition to the drug's real side effects, we can easily imagine Sally using drugs in her college years which will occur in the late 60's to early '70's. We can also imagine Don lecturing her while smoking like a chimney and drinking his eighth drink of the day before 5 pm.
Peggy is having a bit of a problem with gender roles as evident from these scenes:
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She's different, she wants to be just one of the guys. Or does she? She certainly has no problem negotiating aggressively with Roger, from $10 to $400 as she could see her absolute advantage in this game and moved in quickly for the kill. But she tells Dawn, just before unconsciously behaving in an insulting manner, she doesn't think she can be like a man.
As usual, there's a whole lot more in this episode. But I can't ignore the song at the end (sorry but I couldn't find it without a commercial):
Here's everything you didn't even know to ask about the song.
In our household, episodes of "Mad Men" usually generate emotional responses. This one just didn't stir emotions.
First of all, for whatever reason, neither of us could even remember Richard Speck's name though we both remembered the murders. That puzzled us until I reviewed Speck's Wikipedia entry. It was one of those "oh, that's right, that sad life" moments for me:
It's clear that Weiner chose to shadow this episode using the murders and Speck. I don't know whether Weiner included in his bits of historical research the ironic fact that five days before the murder Speck was to ship out to Vietnam as a merchant marine, but lost out to a more experienced seaman. Anyway....
I prefer to remember that this episode focused on Joan and Peggy and Sally, plus Dawn and Megan and new-grandma Christine and creepy step-grandma Pauline "The Knife" Francis.
And the episode did subtly juxtapose the impact of war and violence on three generations of American men.
The most significant event in the episode is Joan ending her marriage with the hapless doctor, Captain Greg Harris, who failed to achieve any goals as a civilian doctor but is getting recognition in Vietnam. For Joan, his lying about signing up for another tour was more than she could accept. And his previous violent predilections were obviously there.
There is a dark theme here - male violence towards women. But there is also a stated recognition that properly directed male violence was encouraged by proper American society, even surrounded with opportunity for recognition for swell guys like Greg, and if the encouragement didn't work - well, we'll just conscript our guys and teach them to kill.
In the feverish dream Don has, imagery of violence, the single red shoe (think Wizard of Oz), all offers an impression of sex and violence. Don, however, has nothing positive to say about his experience in Korea. Don/Dick would never have volunteered to go back to war.
But getting back to Joan who seems to be taking control of her life, one of the three best images of this episode is this one:
I don't know what Weiner intended here. But what we have is a male child trapped between two strong women, his mother and grandmother, a boy not acknowledged by his biological father, and his legal father doesn't even know he's not the biological father.
The other image of the episode with strong, life-impact predictive meaning was this one:
That's "Seconal Sally" Draper lying beneath Pauline "The Knife" Francis, having just learned a "valuable" life lesson from grandma. Are you fearful, upset, having trouble sleeping? Grab a butcher knife and take a barbiturate derivative drug with sedative and hypnotic plus fairly addictive properties. Also called "dolls", widespread misuse of these pills was a play on words in the title of Jacqueline Susann's 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls, whose main characters use secobarbital and other such drugs.
The fascinating Hitchcock-like development of Sally's curiosity about the murders, Sally watching a commercial for the Mystery Date board game being marketed to young girls while weird grandma talks on the phone about the nurses being murdered (talk about psychosexual trauma), leading to a somewhat less than thoughtful explanation from Pauline resulting in Sally's fears. and then grandma gives her a barbiturate - this was perhaps the amusing and disturbing part of the show IMHO.
In addition to the drug's real side effects, we can easily imagine Sally using drugs in her college years which will occur in the late 60's to early '70's. We can also imagine Don lecturing her while smoking like a chimney and drinking his eighth drink of the day before 5 pm.
Peggy is having a bit of a problem with gender roles as evident from these scenes:
She's different, she wants to be just one of the guys. Or does she? She certainly has no problem negotiating aggressively with Roger, from $10 to $400 as she could see her absolute advantage in this game and moved in quickly for the kill. But she tells Dawn, just before unconsciously behaving in an insulting manner, she doesn't think she can be like a man.
As usual, there's a whole lot more in this episode. But I can't ignore the song at the end (sorry but I couldn't find it without a commercial):
Here's everything you didn't even know to ask about the song.
