Chinese Wall
The first rule is that you have to love the characters you create. It doesn't matter how much effort you put into creating them if you don't treat them like human beings.
Even though they're pure fiction.
That's what this episode was about. After the last episode, in which the characters were moved about as if they were chess pieces, the creators had to show some love. And love we got. No matter how flawed they all were, and we had flaws all over the place this time, the show treated everyone charitably. If they hadn't, they would have lost viewers. (I'm sure that is what their audience research has been telling them.)
So we had a lot of people in tense situations making bad decisions. Yelling at one another, making harsh judgments of others, abandoning their ethics but always seeming very human and lovable as thet did so.
It's just nitpicking to worry about realism right?
Look, outside of college campuses, groupies and the casting couch, no one puts out as easily as the women on this show do. And it's not just that they tumble right into it, it's that they tumble right into sex and then love. Maybe Weiner and company really think this is the way it happens, but it doesn't. Yes, it happens sometimes and I suspect most women a few times in their lives just tumble but all the women on this show are coming across all the time for no good reason. Except maybe in Hollywood and for rock stars but ....
Raymond Chandler once joked that at it's most ridiculous crime fiction operated on the rule of, when in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand. The writes in Mad Men use sex that way.
We had some character development and that gets me nervous. Any time Weiner lets characters develop it's usually because he is easing them towards the exit. Pete Campbell showed real growth this episode but he hasn't been much in evidence otherwise lately. Vincent Kartheiser has a contract. I wonder if he has one for season 5 though? Pete Campbell has little to worry about but if I were the guy playing him I'd be on the phone to my agent.
The interaction with Roger and Joan was poorly handled. They acted more like people who had continuing their affair all along than like people who'd broken up quite some time ago and then had a lapse back into it.
Megan's seduction of Don was poorly handled. That was fantasy sex, not something that this series lacks in.
Don's complete inability to apologize to anyone about anything and his complete inability to question his own behaviour was unconvincing. Presumably he does that starting next episode.
I suppose we're sort of set up for the rest of the season. The writers seem to have very deliberately go out of their way to make sure we don't know what the principals were thinking. No one knows what Don is thinking. No one knows what Joan is thinking. No one knows what Roger is thinking.
Other than that I can't think of much to say. This was one awfully thin episode. Past seasons, the show has started strong, gotten weak in the middle and then pulled it out with a big finish. This year, it started strong, kept getting stronger and then lost something last two episodes.
Season 4 blogging begins here.
For anyone crazy enough to go even further :
Season three blogging begins here.
Season two, if you are interested, begins here.
Season one begins here.
It almost seemed like an extension of the man tumbling downward that opens every episode. I thought the closing music "Welcome To My World" of the last scene was very apt.
ReplyDeleteNot only do they have people tumble from sex into love, once they do its a disaster! Faye's feelings for Draper caused her to abandon whatever ethics she had by breaking the Chinese wall. If you think about it, over the course of the series, no one who has come into contact with Draper has become a better person as a result. They've either been terribly hurt or lowered themselves to his level. When I was younger I used to believe that I could "save" people or bring them "up," invariably they always ended up dragging me down. That's what Draper does. When you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas. As far as Megan is concerned, I guess the question of her sexual orientation has been settled.
Roger showed himself for what he really is, a spoiled rich kid who inherited everything. Cooper was right, "Lee Garner didn't take you seriously because you don't take yourself seriously." Yet Jane seems devoted to him. I agree, the Joan/Roger thing was poorly handled. Is she finally seeing Roger as he really is, after how many years, duh! It still left the question of "did she or didn't she" up in the air. Didn't notice any extra padding on her this episode like they did with Peggy in Season 1.
Abe seems like a good influence on Peggy. His idealism might cause her to take Draper down from the pedestal she's put him on. She even lightened up when she realized Rizzo's "gotcha" moment with the lipstick on her teeth.