Mad Men

Wow. Pretty damn good opener.

Spoilers below:
































* Don just doesn't have it in him to be the good guy. I think he can find a way to become a better father, but he'll never be a faithful husband. Too many years of bad behavior, too much just intrinsically stamped in his brain. I thought he was trying to resist the stewardess for a bit, but when she threw herself at him, he had no chance.

* Sal. Wow. I mean, we all knew he had teh gay in him, but the way he reacted when the bellhop jumped his bones showed just how deep seeded of a fantasy this was for him. Loved the drama of Don seeing him, and the consistency of Don not calling him out on it. Don has skeletons that he wishes to keep hidden deep away from his co-workers. He'll give Sal that luxury ... for now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used against him further down the line.

* God, I fucking hate Pete Campbell. WHY ISN'T EVERYTHING JUST GIVEN TO ME??? Waaaaaaah. Man, I love watching him get shit on. And it's clear everyone thinks he's a brownnosing piece of shit joke.

* Does anyone believe Betty really thinks Don has changed this much? She's kind of acting like everything is normal, which would go completely against her character at the end of season 2.

 

Don't think they gave us all that much, tonight. Sally, you knew. Not enough Sterling. The good, snotty stuff surrounding Campbell was the
highlight of the episode.

 

Don is as enigmatic as ever.

His advice to Sal about London Fog while they're on the plane was pure Draper.

To me Pete Campbell is both the most ambitious and the dumbest person in the agency.

And Joan rocks

 

"...kinda slow in parts, but it sets the rest of the season up nicely..."

 

What to make of the opening?

 

Needed more Peggy. "Well when he gets to S, call...."

She's going to end up owning that company.

 

Yes. The way Peggy goes from sweet and innocent to cutthroat in the snap of a fingers is one of the underrated parts of this show.

 

I've been thinking about that, too. Is Don omniscient? Was that his whacked out "fantasy" of his birth?

 

Don buys him a T-shirt that reads, "I went to Baltimore and all I got was half a handjob from a dude."

 

"I've been thinking about that, too. Is Don omniscient? Was that his whacked out "fantasy" of his birth? "

No fantasy at all, that's exactly how it happened, as he's said in the past. We already know that he knows exactly how he was born, and how that haunted him. We also learn later on that it's his birthday (his real one; note he tells the stewardess it wouldn't matter what his driver's license said because that one would have Don Draper's birthday, and not Dick Whitman's). It's Draper/Whitman reflecting on the darkness of his life in the darkness of his house as he ponders bringing another kid into his effed-u- world ...

 

Yeah, I know, but something about the sequence seemed, I don't know, embellished. I'm very glad the show's back. I can't wait to see what else happens with Sal, more bons mots from Peggy and what, if anything, happens with Joan's fiance.