“Mad Men” — Shoot
While watching Mad Men’s always awesome credits sequence tonight I noticed that Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig directed this episode of Mad Men. Mr. Feig has directed countless episodes of Arrested Development and The Office but it seems to me like this is his first foray into drama. Television isn’t really much of a director’s medium, but he certainly seemed to be up for the challenge. If the man deserves any credit it most certainly has to be for the brilliant, hilarious, final shot (pun intended). More after the jump…
This was a fantastic episode. We saw Betty reliving her golden years, by scoring a modeling gig (a modeling gig that was less about her than about getting her husband to switch agencies), and even getting a little pissed off. Betty has until now always been portrayed as a porcelain doll. She never rocks the boat. She stays still and quiet and mannered. After snapping at her therapist for finally saying something, you knew that this woman was going to be breaking out of her shell. This isn’t to say we should have expected to see telling people off, or burning her bra, but suddenly there was some fire in those eyes.
Ultimately, when we see her perfect blond hair placed against that perfect blue sky with a cigarette hanging off her lower lip and her arms clutching a rifle you get the unmistakable sensation that this woman knows she may have lost the battle, but it’ll be a cold day in hell if she’s gonna lose this war (at the very least matters will taken into her own hands).
God I loved that moment. It tops Cooper’s mid-office vomit as my favorite moment from the show.
Pete Campbell, on the other hand, proved to the top brass that he has some brilliant ad-chops, by strategically keeping the Kennedy people form buying ads in battleground states by packing the airwaves with laxative spots. He also threw a fantastic sucker-punch when his coworkers continued to bash Peggy’s appearance (who threw her own sucker-punch of sorts toward Joan).
As for Don, most of the focus this week came from his decision to ultimately stay at Sterling-Cooper despite an offer from a bigger, international agency. Adding another level of monster to an already complex character, it seems that the biggest reason to keep his existing job was to keep Betty from succeeding as a model, though the way he does it makes it seem like the choice was hers and hers alone. You hate to call the guy snakelike because he plays everything so cool (Pete is a character that is snakelike), but his behavior is exactly that.
Matthew Weiner, the series creator, developed this series following a successful run at The Sopranos as most people know. What’s up with these Soprano guys and bird metaphors? First Tony with the ducks and now Betty with the doves. Speaking of, “Betty and the Doves” would make a great surf-rock band.
I don’t know if this is a national thing, or if it’s only available via Time Warner Cable in New York City, but for those interested in catching up on this show you can check out almost all of the episodes via “Free Movies On Demand” (TWC, channel 1008), or of course via iTunes…
December 17th, 2007 at 2:10 am
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