What I’m Watching: Mad Men

Mad Men: Season 4, Episode 4 “The Rejected” (B+)

There’s nothing like being told you’re not a good man to really get you to examine the way you treat people. Even though Don next takes out his anger on the woman running her experiment by telling her that her results mean nothing and can’t predict how people will behave, he does take the time to try and draft some sort of letter to his very hurt secretary to atone for what he did wrong. His offer to have her write her own letter of recommendation and have him sign it was absolutely the wrong thing to say, and it’s good to see someone actually take action for once and tell him off, even if he is the hero of the show despite his extremely chauvinistic practices. It’s especially interesting to see Joan be the first person to come and talk to him after the incident because she likely has the most insight into the situation. Lane does seem to have an attitude problem, yelling at Pete and barely even congratulating him on the good news about Trudy. Watching how the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce functions, especially handling a lengthy phone call from Lee, is completely riveting. The spotlight on Pete in this episode worked well because it showed him in shock about not having been told of his wife’s pregnancy before her father, genuinely happy about having a baby, and sticking the knife in his father-in-law’s back when he rather rudely told him what would have to happen next. Vincent Kartheiser really deserves an Emmy. Peggy also had an eye-opening episode as she let a different person than she thought make a move on her and experienced some of the budding counterculture of the 1960s. The interposed shots of Pete being welcomed into the boys’ club and Peggy going out to lunch with her free-thinking friends were brilliantly done, not that such excellent camerawork is anything of a surprise on this show.