Thursday, May 17, 2012

What I’m Watching: Mad Men


Mad Men: Season 5, Episode 9 “Dark Shadows” (B+)

With Megan out of the office, Don has gotten pretty mean again. He had two particularly cruel lines in this hour, telling Pete not to call him on a Sunday morning to tell him about his failures, and, in response, to Ginsberg’s remark that he feels bad for him, “I don’t even think about you.” Taking on Manischewitz as a client was a way for Roger to connect with two different Jewish people in his life, one at the office and the other from his former home. Peggy’s jealousy at Roger hiring Ginsberg to do side work for him was interesting, and Roger’s reaction wasn’t exactly comforting. I loved how Cooper checked his watch when Roger told him that he was getting a divorce, from Jane rather than from Mona. Buying Jane an apartment in exchange for her presence at the dinner was quite the gesture, but, as she later pointed it, he had to come ruin it even though he has already has everything, something for which he half-genuinely apologized. The spotlight on Betty showed her time at Weight Watchers but more importantly her loneliness, and the overwhelming reaction she had seeing Don’s new apartment and watching Megan get dressed. Telling Sally about Anna was a bold move, and both Megan and Don handled it very well, and Sally seems to have done extremely well on her report. Perhaps the episode’s most intriguing moment was when Megan was teaching Sally to cry on command, something that is sure to prove terribly destructive sometime in the future.

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