Holy shit. I am so sad that I've had to wait this long before covering the rest of Mad Men's third season. The episode "Wee Small Hours" aired right after my last post in October, and when the episode aired, I had a really good analysis for the episode. It aired on October 11, 2009, which was the date of a large gay rights march on Washington. In the episode, numerous references were made to the Civil Rights movement, including the August, 1963 march on Washington. My favorite line regarding civil rights was when Betty told Carla that, even though she believes in equality, maybe the world isn't ready yet (a total cop-out that I hear too often today about gay rights). In addition, Sal was fired from Sterling Cooper because of his sexuality. Matthew Weiner and co. couldn't have picked a better date to air the episode. However, it didn't go down quite the way we'd expect; when the son of the owner of the tobacco company that owns Lucky Strike (SC's biggest account) tried to put the moves on Sal, he refused. In response, the client told Harry Crane to fire Sal, something Harry had no authority to do. Unfortunately, Harry didn't say anything, and things got out of hand, and Don was forced to fire Sal. Things were made all the more painful when Don accused Sal of being at fault because of the nature of gay men. Even sadder was that, after we saw Sal calling his wife from a phone booth in a seedy area of the city, we have not seen him since.
The next bomb was the Kennedy assassination. That was the event I had been waiting all season for, knowing that the season took place in 1963 and that Weiner couldn't avoid it because it had such an impact on the country. What I didn't notice was that, early in the season, Sterling's daughter made a passing reference to setting her wedding date on the weekend after the shooting (the only critic that I am aware of who did pick up on it was the AV Club's Keith Phipps). The season's penultimate episode showed how the various employees of SC and their families dealt with the death of Kennedy as well as the to the televised shooting of Oswald by Ruby. It was incredible, to say the least. Seeing people stay home from work, glued to their TVs reminded me of the days following 9/11 and how all people could do was watch the news, even though there were never any new developments.
But I wasn't prepared for what happened in "Shut the Door. Have a Seat," the season finale. After about 3/4 of the season under Putnam, Powell, and Lowell (or is it Lowe?), the British agency that bought out SC in Season 2, we learned that the Brits were putting SC back up for sale, despite sinking so many costs into to make it more "efficient." Lane Pryce, who had become used to his life in New York, learned that he was going to be shipped off to the next place PPL was looking to take over, while Don, Roger, and Bert wondered what would become of them. Don didn't like the prospect of having to restart his career, while Roger and Bert would be unlikely to do anything but retire. But, upon realizing that the four of them could make their own company if they were released from their contracts, and that Pryce had the power to fire all of them, they did just that. Pryce was later fired for his insolence (which is what he wanted), and they, along with Pete, Peggy, Joan, and Harry created Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce. After a good, old-fashioned office raid, of course.
So how will SCDP do? How will working in the same "office" affect the already shaky relationship between Pete and Peggy? Peggy is now sleeping with Duck Phillips, Don's nemesis, and I doubt that's going to go away any time soon. Where is Sal? And will Kinsey be on the show anymore? He and Cosgrove were left behind, and while I could care less about Cosgrove, I'm going to miss Kinsey's goofy pretentiousness if he's not around next year. I haven't even mentioned the Draper divorce; Betty is leaving Don after one indiscretion too many to go off with some jackass politician. That's going to end real well (but I have no sympathy for Betty any more). The tumultuousness of the 60s is just getting started, so how will that affect the already strained relationships between the members of this fledgling agency? Season 4 can't start soon enough.
Up next: Sectionals...
No comments:
Post a Comment