Season Three, Episode One

As Season Three of Mad Men opens in a nativity scene-type flashback, we see Don stand in his own kitchen warming milk for his pregnant wife while watching his own birth take place. Are we surprised that he’s the accidental son of a whore? Not really. More surprising is his loving gesture of bringing the milk up to Betty, then coaxing her back to sleep with cuddles and gentle whispers in her ear. Maybe I’m naïve, but it made me feel like maybe he wouldn’t cheat on her this time when he went on a business trip. Not even with a stewardess. Not even with a Southern-accented blonde stewardess who comes onto him like a frat guy three beer bongs into a keg party. But alas, Don Draper is riddled with issues that keep him from being the best husband he can be. Hence, the flashback.

Back at the office, Sterling Cooper is going through the growing pains of a giant merger. Those of us in advertising know it all too well. Merger equals layoffs. And nobody knows day to day, for quite some months, if they’ll be shit-canned or promoted. Peter, our favorite villain, gets promoted to head of accounts as his predecessor is still trashing his office. Peter is thrilled with the news, until he learns that he is to share that title with Kenny Cosgrove, who is adorably non-competitive about the whole thing while Peter whines and kicks as we cackle inwardly.

Joan, office manager and resident vamp, sashays through the office trying to do her best Mother Henning. She even tries to make the assistant to the “limey vulture” of their new parent company feel better by giving him Burt’s old office. But when this assistant asks her to call him Mr. So and So, instead of John, she quickly puts him in his place by reminding him that he is “just a secretary.” Oh the beauty of the role reversal. Oh the beauty that is Joan.

Meanwhile, Sal’s homosexuality peeks out of the closet again as he accepts a proposition from his bellman. And when a fire alarm in the hotel has Don and his stewardess shimmying down the fire escape, they find themselves outside Sal’s window bearing witness. Don and Sal exchange a look, but nothing is ever said, save for Sal’s pained look of guilt. All while Don Draper never bats an eyelash about the stewardess under his arm. I love this show for showing us a world where it was okay to drink and smoke all day, but I’m sure glad we now live in a world where marital infidelity is more shameful than being gay.

I also love this show for the attention to detail it pays to that era. Maybe it’s because our own little agency is in the midst of a pitch about evolving technology, but did anyone else notice the crappy quality of the room-to-room intercom system? When Don’s secretary lets him know someone is there to see him, her words are hilariously indecipherable.

Regarding attention to detail, the show is usually spot on when it comes to the ad biz. More so than any show we’ve ever seen. But I have to say that the scene where Peter and Ken were being read their list of accounts went on for days. I didn’t count, but it seemed like Sterling Cooper, supposedly a mid-size agency, has 40 some odd accounts?

I don’t think so.


--Stefani