Margaux is back in the fray to talk this week’s Mad Men.
Trevor: Great to have you back! Especially because we have such a good episode of Mad Men to discuss.
Margaux: A decade long of past fuckery is coming back to bite SC&P in the ass, but so much happened in “Time & Life,” I don’t where to start. All I know is, for show a that doesn’t have happy endings, I just want Peggy and Stan to get together and start their own agency. Yes, I know that’s far fetched.
Trevor: On another show, maybe that’d be far-fetched, but this show ran over a guy’s foot with a lawnmower for shits and giggles.
What impressed me most about “Time & Life” was how much actually happened. The chief complaint – from morons – about Mad Men is that there’s “no plot,” so it was fun to read into this episode as a giant fuck you. Looking to the future really suits this show, but I’m glad it’s not a well they’ve gone to many times. But on a more depressing note, the more the show looks forward, the more I’m reminded that it’s ending in two weeks.
Margaux: The depressing note that rung out to me this episode – beyond this show actually coming to an end – was Don Draper officially losing his Draper mystique, he was interrupted by Satan himself – Jim Hobart. And the most shocking of all, Don actually acquiesced, sat and down (and quietly) – it really felt like the end of a lot more than the show, what is in a name if the name isn’t even your own?
As much fun as it was to watch the partners attempt to rally one last time to retain some shred of autonomy, it was a foregone conclusion, they were getting swallowed up, except this time, no one wanted to hear it and no one believed a word Don said.
Trevor: Don is definitely a creature of his time, and the show has done a lot to show him getting passed by. The changing of the guard and all that; children were featured in “Time & Life” in a way that wasn’t exactly subtle.
One small touch I loved: Lou calling Don and attempting to gloat, and Don seriously not caring. Jon Hamm has perfected the art of demanding “What are you talking about?”
Margaux: Lou left Mad Men the same way he came in, like a total dickhead. I did love their utter miscommunication, and mainly Don having none of it, but of course Avery couldn’t help himself in getting one last dig in: good luck with the rest of your miserable life. Basically the Mad Men tagline, if there ever was one.
I’ve been hoping to hear more about Peggy’s kid since she and Pete put their, um, differences asides and started to get along around the office. I didn’t know it was a common fact around the halls of SC&P that Peggy “doesn’t like kids,” obviously foreshadowing a really beautiful heart-to-heart with Stan over the child Peggy abandoned nearly ten years ago. The scene was so perfect, I teared up when Peggy said, “a woman should be able to move on with her life, just like a man does.” Of course Peggy hasn’t truly moved on with her life, she just keeps telling herself the same Catholic-ism that’s supposed to help/justify her actions, “you’re not supposed to know or else you can’t move on with your life.” But Peggy is still Peggy, she can’t allow herself more than a moment or two of vulnerability before she snaps back into work-mode, “I’m fine. I have work to do.”
I felt like Stan watching “Time & Life”: “how did that turn into THAT?!”
Trevor: That was a magnificent scene. It might help that it was directed by a former cast member, Jared Harris, aka the late Lane Pryce. Stan became Peggy’s chief confidant so seamlessly that it’s hard to remember that he hasn’t been on the show since the beginning. It was very smart of Mad Men to circle around to Peggy’s pregnancy, and it retroactively added some poignancy to the scene she shared with Pete earlier in the episode, where he told her about McCann-Erickson absorbing SC&P. Pete was in full-on entitled dickhead mode for most of the episode, but that scene went a long way towards redeeming him and showing that he’s capable of decency. (He even managed to stick up for his ex and his family name! I’m going to start using “The King ordered it!” as an excuse for everything from now on.)
Margaux: When Pete pulls Peggy’s into his office to tell her about the office “merger.” it’s right after Pete sees Peggy being hugged by child who has come in for an audition, almost like he was reminded that he “owes” her after everything they’ve been through. I thought “Time & Life” almost could’ve been named, “Pete Campbell: Not That Bad.”
I enjoyed Pete’s WASP-y brand of outrage; when he and Trudy meet with the headmaster of the Greenwich school, it has never been more clear what sort of father Pete is with the “Draw a Man” test, Tammy only drew a head and tie – absentee Dad much? Oh, and a mustache, which was an eyebrow raiser for Pete, since he can’t grow facial hair. I think of all the split up couples, Trudy and Pete only seem to marginally happier when they’re together, in a fucked up way, they complete each other. And does seem like Pete is finally over Manhattan, “the city’s a toilet.”
Trevor: It’s always nice to see Alison Brie returning. Pete is a partner at SC&P, and as such he wields a not-insignificant amount of authority (remember him snapping at Peggy: “I can fire you!”), but Trudy has always been the one to cut him down to size and really ground him. If Pete has any decency in him, or any motivation beyond striving, it’s because of the people, namely the women, around him, like Trudy and Peggy. I’m in awe of how successfully Mad Men has wrapped up the stories of even its smaller characters, like Trudy and Lou.
Speaking of the “no happy endings” rule you mentioned above, am I the only one who feels bad for Joan? Richard Bergoff obviously cares for her a lot, but it was painful to watch Jim Hobart pointedly not give her an account.
Margaux: WHY WON’T MAD MEN JUST LET JOAN HARRIS HAVE HER FUCKING DAY?!?!
Alright, I have a slightly negative opinions of Joan’s new love interest, human sack of flour Richard Bergoff, but we don’t need to go there. Throughout “Time & Life”, everything Joan has accomplished as a partner seemed to be all for nothing (ahem, banging that gross out dude from Jaguar), and we got to watch her realize this and become more resigned to her fate. I mean, I thought it was very sweet of Pete to tell her in the cab that the fuckwits at McCann-Erickson, “don’t know who they’re dealing with”. But we all know WHO she’s dealing with, some of the most overtly sexist douchebags that treated Joan the worst in her professional career, AND SHE WAS A SECRETARY.
In comparison to Peggy who, earlier in the episode, meets with a headhunter and that tells her that even though she doesn’t have a college degree from an Ivy League, she still has a lot of options out there for her. Unlike Joan, who seems backed into a 4-year contract corner
Trevor: Mad Men does a great job of making us forget that many of its main characters are millionaires. Ennui and existential despair doesn’t discriminate. I do need the show to stop using Joan as its punching bag, though. If Matthew Weiner wants a punching bag he should bring back Freddy Rumsen to piss his pants again.
Loved that last shot, of Don and Roger trying to convince the office that the move was a good thing. Their employees weren’t even listening to them. Their time is over, and now everyone has to think about their futures.
Margaux: Speaking of futures, based on Hobart whispering at the partners about their dream clients (Buick…Coca Cola…WHICH! is the same account Hobart used to poached Don in season one when he used Betty as a model), did Draper hand in such a vision-less speech that Hobart whispering “Coca Cola” could start to change his mind? I mean, Pete was 100% right of Ted, he’s a sheep – he likes letting others “drive,” but Don?! Is he sick of “driving” too? And Roger, you’ve got a son, Joan just refuses to acknowledge it, which is actually sadder. Good luck with Marie though!
Trevor: Yeah, but I think the crazy is what Roger likes, post-acid trips.
You wanna talk stars? I’ve implemented an exciting new system, we can use .25 or .75 now! (Okay, it’s pretty much only exciting to me.)
Margaux: Oh great, math! Trevor, you understand that I’m a writer…right?
I’m gonna shit all over your dreams, now that you’ve written it down, and give “Time & Life” 4.5 stars. I’m holding onto my five stars till the end, which might be a mistake, but two weeks left, FUCK IT.
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