Grid Effect

And so here we are, two episodes in and I haven’t talked to anyone about anything else all week. Is this a pathetic waste of time and energy for someone in their mid-twenties? Probably. But the good news is we’ve curtailed all ambition solely for the purposes of writing about TV on the internet to a daily audience of roughly 10-15 people. It’s rewarding in its own right.

I hate to say it, but I think this might be the season that someone is murdered. Don couldn’t be more undermined, or some might say “emasculated” in these two episodes. Don Draper doesn’t strike us as the type of guy who is accustomed to being put through the ringer, and its showing in his temperament and health. If episode one was to show his increasing irrelevance, episode two served as evidence that it wasn’t an anomaly. Evidence:

-Increasing issues with his wife and subtle, indirect jabs between the two. If it weren’t for the kids he probably would have left in 1961.

-The standard way of doing business is becoming more cruel and modern, causing him great stress and a depression that seems to have set in about two years ago. I don’t think we’ve ever seen him so deflated as when he conceded defeat to avoid an argument with his wife. Basically this guy is a shell of his former self.

-A man without a country. we watched Cast Away and it has always reminded us of Don in a metaphorical sense, but now it the metaphor is almost literal. While he does engage in daily human interaction, he is either being scoffed at or ignored in all of them. That might as well have been Wilson he was talking to at the diner. His underlings who once looked up to him for guidance, now seem to resent him for one thing or another (sans Peggy and even after this episode, Pete still has great admiration for him, if not a need to please). Christ, even amongst the fab four (in this order: Bert, Roger, Duck, Don) he is the only one who still drinks (at least without a guilty conscious), which probably has something to do with why he is low man on the totem poll. Roger actually had to verbally halt him from attacking Duck in one way or another.

Speaking of which, Roger just seems over everything. Sure, he wants to make his money and not always in the most practical ways (see the American Airlines gamble). But he doesn’t seem overly pre-occupied with it. He also seems more human and relatable than he was all last season. Having a near fatal heart attack will do that to a man, I suppose. “Can I just fire everybody?” was only a half joke, and kind of the antithesis of, “why the fuck am I still here?”, but with the same implication.

Pete’s waffling on how to react to his father’s death was eerie, but managed to evoke sympathy from the viewer for the first time since probably “New Amsterdam”, the first and last time we saw Pete’s father (the episode was dedicated to the actor who died in an avalanche on a ski trip). It seems that for all Pete’s worldly privileges, one of them wasn’t grace, as he sells out his father seeking approval from Duck, who’s his third choice of mentor after his biological father and Don. It’s a proud moment for the Duck.

Weiner said one of the themes to this season will be the inability in people for change, and this was illustrated in “Flight 1″. Pete reacted to his father’s death, but the remorse was short term. It was basically Tony Soprano’s, “Everyday is a gift” pledge. It took him (maybe) five days to put his tragedy up for auction? And even then his primary concern seemed focused on his will, which was empty. Pete’s line to Roger, “everything is still the same”, really summarized his mixed feelings about the incident. And for whatever reason, that summarization really managed to creep me the fuck out. Probably because it was coming from Pete.

One sleeps with Joan Holloway at his own peril.

The mystery of Peggy’s child was brilliantly unveiled. It was surprising to hear that she had to be committed for some modern day bullshit, antiquated reason, hence her three month absence. I’m sure most of the audience assumed the time missed could be equated to child rearing, but if you unknowingly have a child in 1960 out of wedlock, you probably had a straight-jacket coming. We usually root for her so this was no different. We will not be phased by the medical bureaucrats of the early 60’s.

Her totally exploiting Paul’s friend in the hallway was uncalled for though, even if it was funny. It’s interesting to see how much she is like Don, especially now with a past that she wants to hide from everyone. Still, someone at Sterling Cooper had to be covering for her for the three months she was gone. Our guess is still Don, especially with how discrete he was about Pete’s dad. While he may be dying a slow death in a number of ways, that man can keep a secret like nobodies business.

Speaking of Paul, while he was a tad pretentious and fake at his beatnik party, we didn’t really see the motivation for Joan to be so incredulous about everything, especially towards the girlfriend. At this point she is nothing like Don in personality, but she is just as tragic of a figure. She’s living a life that she doesn’t want to meet everyone’s expectations of her. Glad to see the comeuppance though as everyone now knows she is 31, which is apparently ghastly if you’re a woman. The series kind of toyed with us in the sense that we felt bad for her that no one thought to remove the evidence.

Still no evidence of slipping from season one to two, nor do we expect to see any. We just wrote a thousand words on the episode and barely touched on the party, Duck, Francine or the Draper’s kids or the incredible historical accuracy of the episode (we wonder if someone remembered the tie in to the crash and John Glenn’s parade, or if research had to look it up). We’d say they are trying to pack too much into each episode, but the episode doesn’t appear jumbled or cluttered or hurried or sloppy, it flows with great ease making each scene more memorable than the last. Brilliant. Fucking. Episode.

Links to finish the week.