Grid Effect

Let’s Twist Again, indeed. I’m going to be honest: I am downright giddy to have this series back. As far as I know a twenty-six year old male isn’t allowed to be “giddy”, I think it’s against state law in Ohio. But its hard to contain my elation for something else I can respect on television besides a miniseries that will end its run at the end of the month. There essentially wasn’t anything we didn’t like about Sunday’s episode. The pacing, direction, writing, acting were all top notch and we love the potential for the multiple storylines. Read about the season one finale here.

Of course the man of the hour takes precedent, for what is this series without Don Draper. It’s still fantastic, but there is really no replacement. If we ever feel the man is in peril to the point that his life is at risk, rest assured that he’ll live.

Anyhow, it appears him and Betty have switched roles. Don is now the passive one, seeking approval and eager to please his now indifferent wife. Couple that with growing insecurity at work and you have a bitter old man forcing twenty-somethings to take their hats off in elevators. We’re not certain how this will work out for Don, given the youth movement that is just getting underway. One would think that for all his talent and power he wields at Sterling Cooper that more of these issues would fall his way. But you can go all the way back to “New Amsterdam”, when Bert Cooper usurped his firing of Pete Campbell, he occasionally gets the short end of the stick. He’s probably rethinking that agency with Pan-Am after Duck got all uppity with his whole “adapt with the times” approach.

But yes, we are witnessing the opening stages of a midlife crisis. Remember, Don Draper is 36, Dick Whitman is quite likely in his early forties. Interviewing entitled twenty-four year olds and coming up impotent with your wife on Valentines day only to be replaced by an avocado stuffed with crab can create a certain amount of anxiety in a man. Especially when you’ve sworn off strange for the betterment of your marriage, even though it still seems mired in strife and seething resentment.

Betty has her own bed of issues but seems incapable of coping. She’s, uh, got an itch that her husband can’t scratch and she’s been conditioned to ignore. As indicated by riding the horse, envying her courtesan friend and misleading the car repair man, she’s in quite the pickle. Not only does she seem to be resenting her husband, you can feel the disdain pouring out of her while her slightly obese daughter practices Ballet for Don. If she doesn’t call her “stout” by the end of the season, then its only because she’s (the daughter) too young.

So yeah, a dysfunctional fifties marriage trapped in 1962 seems to be what we’re watching, and it is bursting at the seems with everything left unsaid. I guess the most obvious cliffhanger is who did Don send the book and poem to. I think it’s safe to assume it is Rachel, but ruling out Midge seems shortsighted, as she would obviously go for something so sentimental.

That is indeed mildly intriguing, but the question of the day for Grid Effect is the same one on everyone’s mind at Sterling Cooper: What exactly is Peggy’s backstory. I mean, we all know she is hiding the fact she had Pete’s baby from everyone (including Pete), but what exactly did she do with him/her, and who is covering for her? In a way she’s an entitely new character. A new position, a pioneer of sorts of SC, and a something of a mystery. Essentially, she’s the Don Draper for season two. All we are waiting for is Harry to say, “No one’s ever lifted that rock, she could be Batwoman for all we know”.

What's with mouse ears over here? She looks like she might eat her coworkers spouse. That would be odd.

Peggy even has her own Pete Campbell in Joan, who asserts her authority over the administrative employees like Bert over the creative department. We love how she handles herself on the business floor, especially in the face of one employee abusing another (Peggy-the woman with her old job), but she seems to be over-compensating with the copier and authoritarian tone she takes with everyone. Clearly she isn’t terribly infatuated with this new spousal prospect and we suspect she dislikes Peggy outranking her just as much as potentially marrying some doctor.

She does seem a little tempermental, thought. Something you could seldom accuse Don of. Of course, she has more reason to be. As seen when she was in close quarters with the other copywriters for an extended period of time and they all still see her as a secretary. She seems to hold back with them and take it out on the female underlings, mainly because she can but also to possibly be accepted by her peers.

Joan and Peggy isn’t the only office rivalry taking place. We seem to be witnessing one develop between Don and Duck, or potentially Don and Roger, and somehow Pete will be thrown into the fold. Duck seems to have the communication skills of Don and the foresight of Pete, but lacks the clout to exert any control. Everything he fought for on Sunday came way of Don’s begrudging “generosity”. This, more so than anything, has the potential to really be a highlight of the series. Exemplifying the shifting times through the employees of an antiquated Madison Avenue Ad Firm is the staple of this series, as we shift further into the 60’s, it is only going to get better.

Other notes from “For Those Who Think Young”:

-Paul seems to be taking to the Bohemian crowd, I can’t imagine anyone with such unkempt facial hair in 1962 isn’t. Also, sporting a beard? Salvatore. But his is in the form of a mistakenly adoring wife. I feel bad for the lot of them.

-Harry has reconciled with his wife, much like Francine has with her husband. You can kind of understand why Helen Bishop, the divorcee from last season, was such an outcast: She actually has a backbone.

-The White House tour really seemed to draw everyone’s ire, didn’t it?

-One note about the copier. In the pilot episode when Pete stole Don’s report from research out of his trash and presented its findings in the pitch meeting with the tobacco company from North Carolina, Don called him on it by saying, “…And its not like there is some magical machine that makes exact copies of things”. This was almost as good of a callback to season one as the usage of “Let’s Twist Again”.

Seeing the evolution that is about to take place in the pitch room between Duck, Don, Peggy & Pete should be fascinating, and that is a small fraction of this series at this point. We have an array of multi-faceted characters and themes that could last well beyond the thirteen episodes we’re about to be privy too. Stay tuned.

Probably it for today, maybe some links later.