What I'm Watching: Mad Men

Mad Men: Season 2, Episode 7 "The Gold Violin" (B+)

I'm always a fan of embellishing and fleshing out the stories of supporting characters, especially in the case of Bryan Batt, who has created a wonderful and amusing character in Salvatore. It's extremely entertaining and at the same time sad to see him try to court his clearly oblivious co-worker, all the while not realizing that he's offending his poor wife who's woefully unaware of his sexuality. I hope to see more with Joan and the new jailbait secretary who went above Joan's head without her knowing about it. I was very impressed with Jimmy Barrett this episode, hitting on Betty and then decrying and belittling Don for making himself feel good about his affair with Bobbie. Cooper's painting makes for great conversation, and it's fascinating to see a glimpse into his life. I'm slightly disappointed that there was only that one mere flashback to the woman telling Don that she knows he's not Don, but I can only assume that means there's more to come in that department. This show really knows how to use imagery and paint a portrait of life in the 1960s, and that picnic scene was really quite amazing. Long live this show!