. . . and my wife says . . . ‘duck . . . and cover!’
Pete, Ken, and the client burst into uproarious laughter, one of them even raising a glass, and then the scene starts as the call-girl approaches the table. I want to know that joke. This week, our unknown funny-man was walking into work with Mr. Draper and finishing this number . . .
. . . so he’s walkin’ in the park after lunch and he sees these birds pickin’ seeds out of some horse shit, and he says, “move over, fellas, that’s my job.”
Even the affected Don Draper starts to laugh and is only interrupted by the hen-type laughter coming from the break room as everyone is fawning over Joan and her immense engagement ring. Point is, on a show so serious as Mad Men, the comic relief could never be too over-the-top, and these scene transition, scene opening punch lines are another technique that make this show worth the price of admission. Every line and every scene in Mad Men is important and amazing. With the fall television season quickly approaching, I’m very nervous that Mad Men is going to ruin me for the more pedestrian, sophomoric shows the networks have to offer. Then again, if every show were Mad Men, I’d lose some years from my life.
EJ (above) touched on many great points. Peggy, if she hadn’t had a baby and denied its existence and refused to raise it, would be my favorite character, by far. It wouldn’t behoove the guys at Sterling-Cooper to play poker with her – she’d clean them out. Peggy is the female version of Don, and he sees that in her. She wants her privacy and she respects his. She wrestles with her own demons, but won’t dump those problems onto other people. She gets nothing out of the office gossip circles, name calling, and back stabbing. And though everyone wants to give her advice, Peggy isn’t really looking for it or asking for it. Though Peggy did take Bobbie Barret’s advice in the end. Time will tell if Peggy will make use of her femininity, but she leaped at the chance to treat Don Draper as an equal in calling him ‘Don’ where she’d only referred to him as ‘Mr. Draper’ up until this point. This episode’s title was “The New Girl” and you probably think it odd to title an entire episode around the new, super-ultra hot assistant, right? The ‘new girl’ is actually Peggy and this episode should prove to be a huge shift in her character. In the fact that she now will act like ‘Don’s’ equal, Peggy is a ‘new girl.’
I can’t wait until Joan overhears Peggy calling him ‘Don.’
And in case you haven’t picked up on the theme of Mad Men, Matt Weiner and his brilliant writing staff gave it to you on a silver platter, courtesy of Bobbie Barret. While driving out to her beach house, Bobbie and Don were carrying on like young lovers on a first date. Discussing things they like to do and revealing things that make them happy. As you know, happiness is a serious problem on the show. Don reveals he likes movies and Bobbie lobs back that she especially likes French movies (hopefully you all remember Don Draper sitting, alone, in a movie house watching a French movie earlier this season). Don says a title of a French movie that he particularly enjoyed and Bobbie Barret’s face just goes doughy. The she says it . . .
