You know the drill by now – this review of Mad Men is brought to you by myself and Margaux Poupard.
Trevor: “Field Trip” felt like two episodes. It was neatly divided into half-hour pieces, and I have to say, the latter half was nearly flawless.
Margaux: “Field Trip” felt like an uncomfortable trip to Judgement Town, where one is being judged and the other is doing a shit ton of judging. Looking at you Don and Betty. That being said, it was the culmination of every Don fuck-up, nothing was off-limits when it came to shit getting thrown in your face.
Trevor: Let’s talk about the titular field trip, the one “Bobby” ruined. Yeah, Betty, it sucks that you can only have cigarettes for lunch, but A, gumdrops aren’t that bad, and B, you don’t need to be mad about the sandwich for the whole fucking day. Jesus, the amount of shade she threw at her own son.
Margaux: It’s sad how Betty fails to see all the ways she’s quietly succeeded as a mother; Bobby “traded” his sandwich cause another snot-nose forgot his. Where does he get it from?
Trevor: That’s a good point, I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t know where Bobby gets it from either.
A lot of the first half of “Field Trip” was people being really, really bad at things they’re supposed to be good at: Megan acting erratic and desperate after a failed audition, Lou Avery being the worst in general, Betty being the world’s most dismissive lunch guest, and Harry flat-out lying to the clients about a computer.
I actually really liked Harry Crane tonight. Jim Cutler is becoming a bigger presence, and has the old-guard mentality of guys like Lou and Ted (maybe not quite as uptight as Lou though), so it was nice to see Harry stand up for himself. Dude just straight-up ended a conversation cause he was done talking to a partner.
Margaux: Cutler is becoming a big-time instigator. I did agree with him that most of Crane’s behavior is tasteless, at best. But I love how Roger, later in the impromptu partners meeting, instinctively throws Crane under the bus, “he’s fired!” It was so refreshing to see Roger DO SOMETHING
Trevor: I love how dismissive Roger is of Harry’s job – like, constantly. He doesn’t even ask why Jim wants to talk about Harry. And then he straight-up KILLED IT in that partners meeting. And he did it while drunk! I wonder what chapter of Sterling’s Gold covers that. It’s very telling that Roger praises Don as “a genius,” while the most enthusiastic praise Jim can muster for Lou is that he’s “adequate.”
Margaux: And because of it, they’ve become invisible in a field they once dominated, without question. Beautiful little call back to Ginsberg’s “Invisible Boy” Mountain Dew spot that let us know, they got a pitiful SINGLE nomination at the Clios. Wasn’t it last season that everyone was uncomfortable AT THE CLIOS cause they had like, I don’t know, a zillion nom’s when Don was at the head?
Trevor: Roger even said, Lou didn’t submit anything that he couldn’t put his name on. I seriously cannot get over how much I hate Lou.
Margaux: I could spend this entire post hating all over the mush-mouth, jerk-off. But I’ll save it because he’s not even that interesting, he’s boring and safe. Which, even though Peggy currently hates Don for the dumbest reason of all time, especially considering ALL OF THE THINGS HE’S DONE TO HER (throwing money at her, by far and away worse than sending your turtleneck lover back into the arms of his family). Peggy must miss at the at least, being challenged instead of arguing at a brick wall. AKA Lou. Girl is frustrated.
Trevor: And cold as ice, too. “I can’t say we missed you.” I had to put aloe vera on my TV cause of the BURN.
I’m still thinking about Megan’s death…part of me thinks Weiner is still just fucking around with us. But it’s hard to ignore signs like Megan saying “This is how it ends,” while in a house similar to Sharon Tate’s. And also, when on the phone with Don, she says “Goodnight,” and the next thing we hear is police sirens.
Of course, Mad Men has occasionally focused on death. It just seemed really prominent this episode. Jim Cutler says “We can all learn something from the funeral business,” and Don is reinstalled in Lane’s old office, where Lane hung himself.
Margaux: That definitely creeped me out, that was as close to exposition as Mad Men gets too. Megan’s freak out after her audition for Brackens Place, which was written by Dorothy Kingsley – who co-wrote Valley of the Dolls (just sayin’), was actually sort of surprising to me. After the first episode, it seemed like Megan’s low source of self-esteem was doing well, her agent taking on Don’s begrudging “encourager” role. But wherever you go, there you are. A struggling, nearly 30 year-old actress, whose marriage – if you can call it that anymore, was the last thing seemingly holding her together. She’s the one who yelled at Don, “are you supposed to save me from slitting my wrists in the bathtub?” That’s like, foreboding behavior.
Trevor: Yes! Excellent point. I’d forgotten about that. A few things stuck out to me: one, Don’s alias when he calls Dave Wooster is Clarence Birdseye, who according to Wikipedia is “the father of frozen food.” I wonder if that’s relevant. Also, I think Mad Men might have been poking fun at their hilariously vague promos; when Don was told to open the check he said “That’s coy,” only to be told “That’s drama.” Loved that.
Margaux: Ha! I knew that had a familiar ring to it, damn you Weiner! Speaking of Don’s dinner with Wells, Rich, Greene – the aftermath of that was nice example of Don’s brand of honesty working out for the better. Kind of. Him sitting in the copy writers den, Don looked like sexy, foreign dignitary they didn’t know what to do with. And the intercutting of checking his watch and his “first day” jitters was palpable.
Trevor: That was really well-edited. It’s weird to see Don nervous, but Jon Hamm is playing it really well. I want to talk about the ending, namely Don’s three conditions for return (no meeting with clients alone, no drinking in the office, report to Lou). It seems like he’s being set up to fail; look at the way the partners are arranged: Don and Roger on one side, Bert, Joan, and Jim on the other. Very adversarial. And reporting to a guy like Lou would have been unthinkable to season one Don Draper, but I loved the glint in his eye when he said “Okay,” and then we cut to a Jimi Hendrix song. He knows that making Lou look like a shitheel is going to be the easiest thing he’s ever done.
Margaux: I was quite literally shocked when Don actually agreed to those terms. Draper don’t do terms. At least, that’s what we’ve been told for last six seasons. That and, people don’t change. Which is what Culter, Joan and Bert are obviously banking on. But clearly, Don has bigger things at work, or else he WOULD be sitting on Mary Wells lap right now. Also the partners argument leading up to reinstate Don, really shows how fucking all over the map they are all, more so than ever – how could it of not occurred to someone yet that he’s a fucking partner? Joan can shove her “this is working.” It aint. Everyone’s open bitterness towards Don is going to make the path paved to redemption pretty interesting. Well, it’ll probably pave it right to California.
Trevor: Or he’ll meet up with Paul Kinsey to write Star Trek spec scripts for a while. So what are you thinking in terms of stars? I was leaning towards four and half, if only for the amazingly well-executed back half.
Margaux: I agree with you, my only (and longstanding) complaint is as always, MORE NOW PLEASE THANKS.
Trevor: Four and a half it is. I wonder if Ken Cosgrove will switch from sci-fi stories to pirate stories. I’m never gonna get tired of that fuckin eyepatch.
Margaux: How does he not terrify that poor child of his?!
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