Wednesday, April 25, 2012

What I’m Watching: Mad Men


Mad Men: Season 5, Episode 6 “Far Away Places” (A-)

This episode felt like a dream, and mainly a bad dream given that no one really ended up happy after the events that transpired. Starting with a focus on Peggy was nice since we rarely get to see her outside the office, and she’s always magnificently interesting when her personal life is spotlighted. Fighting with her boyfriend about how she’s too obsessed with work wasn’t much of a surprise, but her activities at the movies with her new male friend were quite shocking. The fact that Michael revealed that he was told that he was born in a concentration camp really seemed to disturb her, and it’s intriguing to see the show explore that. Roger taking LSD and deciding that he’d get a divorce while he was high was rather extreme, and it’s clear that he so wanted to go up to Howard Johnson’s with Don without their wives. Don’s trip with Megan wasn’t terribly fruitful, at least not in a positive way, as he forced her to try orange sherbet and set different expectations for her than for him. What’s so fantastic is that she talks back, and even took a bus home to the city while he drove around looking for her. The next day, everything seemed fine with them, though the usually absent Cooper chastised Don for leaving Peggy in charge and allowing her to screw up an account because she couldn’t take the abuse from the client. The intersecting chronology of the episode worked well, allowing for three vacations of very different kinds from the office.

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