I don’t know how to start this week’s recap, so I’ll just remind you that every week, I write a Mad Men recap, while Chris Piascik draws one.

-”It’s an idiom. Did you know that?” Don and Peggy are barely able to conceal their disdain in the interview with Roger’s wife’s cousin who wants a job. His book is all one idea and then ads he’s pulled out of magazines for inspiration. “Don’t you ever tear things out of magazines?” We’ve seen Don tear things out of magazines at least once. That fact foreshadows the theme of the episode. Nice to see the Lemon VW ad make another appearance.
-”It’s a relief to see someone worse than me.” Peggy has never been happy for long. She has a chip on her shoulder about her status in the firm and did at Sterling Cooper, as well. This is probably what drives her, huh?
-They’re hitting the Roger not doing anything pretty hard this episode. In 2 scenes he’s rambling about Howdie Doodie and chocolate ice cream respectively. I guess he’s writing a book now? Also, are Roger and Don friends again? They seemed pretty jovial today, even before the award.
-Flashing back to Don selling furs and the story of how it all started. We’d seen a flashback to that time in Don’s life before, but it hadn’t been fleshed out. Roger looked younger, and they changed up the wardrobe. I hadn’t really thought of this before, but it seems that Don made his way to the top of Sterling Cooper in about 6-8 years, and probably less. Mad Men Season 1 started around March, 1960, and the Korean War ended in 1953. Even if Don was among the first wave of soldiers in Korea, there would have had to be some time for convalescence, time to get found by Anne Draper selling used cars, time to work all that out with her, to move to NYC, etc, etc.
-Don was super eager to get a job and included a book of his work in the fur coat to Joan. So I guess she’s been there for a while.
-”Make it simple, but significant.” Indeed.
-I liked Roger ripping on Ted Chaough (”Isn’t that a lot of extra letters” and “Chagagag”). Not really sure why Ted is so uppity.
-”Don’t talk to me right now.” Don is so mean to Pete Campbell. I think everyone loves it!
-Oh, hello, Duck Phillips. Did someone over-serve you?
-”Who claps for themselves?” The addition of an Art Director character was a bit jarring. Sal played such a big role in the firm (and in several episodes) that it seems like we should have heard from this character before tonight. In any case, I like how Peggy puts him in his place stripping for him and forcing him to concede the point. “Win the prize for the smuggest bitch in the world.”
-You all saw that after both Don and Roger were holding Joan’s hand under the table, Don kissed Joan on the lips before going up to the stage, right? She was definitely surprised. It was more than just a celebratory kiss. The victory kicked off something of a bender. During the Life cereal pitch, Don was super-eager and pretty full of himself. He wanted to prove he could close a pitch while drunk (which I’m actually surprised hasn’t been shown before), and kept rattling off lines until he used one he had heard earlier in the day during the terrible interview. Oops.
-”If everyone set?” “That’s my word for it.” Oh, Lane.
-More Mrs. Blankenship comic relief. She wears a wig and was surly. Why hasn’t she been replaced? She’s the Jar Jar Binks of Mad Men.
-”Award or no award you’re still Don Draper.” “Whatever that means.” I thought we might get through one episode without a question of identity. I guess not.
-”You’ve crossed the border from lubricated to morose.” Ladies and gentlemen, your designated moral compass, Joan!
-Good to have Ken Cosgrove back and Pete Campbell feeling threatened. Cosgrove good naturedly dealing with it. Campbell obviously feels threatened, and always has. Would he be Ken’s boss?
-”Then he sucks on Vick’s.” Real subtle, guys.
-Another subtle moment in the episode was Don badgering Roger into letting him buy him a drink. Probably reading too much into this, but Roger didn’t seem totally comfortable with drinking with Don so early in the day. Maybe he was playing it up, but wouldn’t it be an interesting wrinkle if Don was the bad influence all these years? This idea was reinforced a bit with the scene between Don and Doris. He’s obviously been overdoing it for a long time, even before getting to Sterling Cooper. Though Doris called him Dick at during the scene. When could that have been? I thought he ran away from home and went straight into the army. He was Don Draper when he came home. Someone help me with this one.
-Roger > Don > Peggy > Danny. This progression was pretty clear through the episode and is, I think, the main theme from tonight. Everybody comes from somewhere, gets their start somewhere. Roger didn’t remember hiring Don because he was drunk. Don was drunk and used Danny’s line forcing his hire. Roger told Don he forgot to tell Roger he couldn’t have done it without him. According to Peggy, Don wouldn’t have been able to do it without her because it was her idea. And he wouldn’t have been able to seal Life Cereal without Danny’s line. Danny is really, really short.
-Don is still out of control, but on the evil scale, he didn’t really move backwards at all, and you have to consider that a positive. He did forget to pick up his kids, but as long as he’s not hitting on the nieces of dear friends, or sleeping with his secretary, he’s winning, right?

+++
Update: The first 2 comments below bring up an interesting point that I had considered, but decided to interpret differently. Basically they suggest that at 2 points in the episode, characters got into situations where they blacked out. Roger either agreed to hire Don during a blackout, or Don convinced him that he had. Also, Don blacked out and picked up a waitress as Dick Whitman. I don’t really want to believe that Mad Men would resort to blackouts as a plot device, which is why I interpreted it differently. I read the Dick Whitman waitress pick up as a flashback to some time in the past. On the other hand, there’s too much to imply if we’re to believe Don made up the story about Roger hiring him, hoping that Roger would forget. Lots to speculate on this week.

Update 2:
On having occasion to watch the episode again, I’m thinking that it is the same weekend and Don was so wasted, he did tell Doris his name was Dick… Also, I didn’t realize this before, but the Life Cereal pitch had notes of the Kodak Carousel pitch. Nostalgia. It was funny to hear the Kodak Carousel pitch drunken and rushed.

Each week, I write a recap of Mad Men, and Chris Piascik draws one.

I’m going to watch Mad Men until the series ends. It’s my favorite show right now. I’m not giving up or anything, but in a couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised if people refer to this episode as the one were Don Draper water skied over a shark. From the first scene with Mrs. Blankenship wearing the silly magnifying glass and providing general comedic relief, to the Italian Job-style montage when they hoodwinking an up-and-coming agency into blowing a pitch, this episode just seemed to have far more fluff than usual. I like the hoodwinking and I’m tired of Blankenship, and this episode was different.

-The mention by Roger Sterling of Selma probably puts this episode at the first week of March. “You still think they don’t need a civil rights law.” It was interesting that Sterling was the one to say this to Cooper, as he doesn’t seem the most liberal of all the characters. On the other hand, Cooper, while appearing conservative, doesn’t seem like a total dick.
-A lot of Sterling’s appearances this year have been littered with one liners and jokes. The poop puns at the beginning of the partners meeting is no exception. “Lucky Strike is great, meeting adjourned.”
-Who is Dr. Lyle Evans? Seems like it isn’t a real historic figure, which… Well, no reason not to make up historical people and send your viewers to Google, right?
-Sally was obviously a big part of the episode, acting out by cutting her hair so Don would like it, and then being an adolescent at a slumber party. (Uh… I don’t even think I can write about it, but when was the last time you saw THAT subject matter covered on TV, even on, gasp, cable?) Is there any connection to how Sally is acting out and how Roger is acting out. Sally wants to make a statement about the divorce, and if Pete is right about Roger, Roger wants to make a statement about not being the top dog at SCDP. “The rest of us are trying to build something.”
-Oh, Ted Shaw / Ted Chaough, Good luck, champ. “Well, if it isn’t the inscrutable Don Draper.” He looked like James Spader didn’t he? Don played him pretty well with his misdirection. Additionally, the scene where Don goes in to resign the motorcycle campaign was Kodak Kodachrome-level Don Draper… There hasn’t been a ton of that energy yet this year.
-”Do you know the river of shit I’m gonna get from her mother.” Is Betty Draper the coldest woman on TV? If not, she’s in the running. Interesting that both Don and Henry push back on Betty slapping Sally. “That was impulsive, I’ll apologize.” Don used to call Betty a child pretty often. That got addressed in tonight, as well. When talking to the school psychiatrist, Betty started talking and couldn’t stop, and she got that creepy smile when looking at the doll house. Betty needs help. “I feel like Sally did this to punish me.” Damn it, Betty, it’s not all about you.
-Remember when Carlton slapped that other dude’s son and the other dude got weirded out?
-Did you see the sigh Henry Frances let out after Betty went up the stairs? There is a lot of regret in that sigh.
-All of the scenes with Honda were funny. Mostly because of Pete Campbell or the translator, “I don’t know what this room is for.” “It’s a cantaloupe.”
-”I’m still wondering what makes you work.” Love it.
-The auteur commercial director, is there anyone more annoying? Besides Ted Shaw / Ted Chaough, at least. It’s hard to tell if Ted will be a recurring character or not. It makes sense to give Don an external competitor, it seems a little late in the game to introduce a new agency to play that role. We’ll just have to wonder, though I’m glad they didn’t just the easy way out of using an ex-Draper employee. “And give me 20 different words for pimples.”
-”Why does everyone need to talk about everything?” Don started by talking about not seeing the value of talking, and then shared a lot with the good doctor, an “interested stranger”. On the other hand, she must find Don pretty irresistible to let him in on her fake marriage act.
-”And when I drop them off, I feel relieved. And then I miss them.” Unlike Don regressing into eternal badness, if last week he was neutral, I’d have to say this week he moved forward, towards the light. If only for showing concern after Betty slapped Sally and opening up about missing his kids. The theory that Don was going to continue to spiral downward with each irredeemable act is not looking good right now. Not saying he couldn’t continue to fall, or that there were any great reveals this episode, just that the trend was reversed.
-”Since when is forgiveness a better quality than loyalty?” It’s hard to know what loyalty means on Mad Men. Sterling is probably the worst philanderer than Don.

Every week, I write a recap about that night’s Mad Men episode and Chris Piascik draws one.

Whereas last week, the episode was slow taking a lot of time with what happened, this week seemed to jump around. There was less of a focus on “What I want to do” vs “What’s expected of me,” and more of a look at the advertising world. These are nice episodes, too.
-”Brief nudity.” Well, now!
-”Why is this empty?” “Because you drank it all.” There are more and more references each episode to Don’s drinking. Is this building to something? Later in the episode, Alison calls him a drunk.
-Clearasil needs to be moved, putting Pete in an awkward position, which everyone seems to love doing. This is similar to Don having to fire the airline when Duck Phillips thought they had a shot at (Pan Am? US Air?).
-”Lucky Strike noticed they’re being billed for all the work we do for everyone else at this agency.” I’d happily trade Lee Garner for Sal at this point.
-Peggy seems to work really hard at not feeling awkward in unusual situations. Being hit on by a woman in a dingy loft party? No problem! Let’s be friends. It did lead to some of the best dialogue of the night, “I have a boyfriend.” “He doesn’t own your vagina.” “No, but he’s renting it.” “You’re not working on something else,” because everyone in advertising has a novel in their bottom drawer. “Art in advertising? Why would anyone do that after Warhol.” “Sorry, for someone to sell their soul, they’ve got to have one.”
-The moment when Peggy was trying on Faye’s engagement ring, Don saw her, and she saw him notice her… It’s almost like Don and Peggy still share something between them, deeper than having slept together. Peggy doesn’t know about Dick Whitman, right? She’ll eventually find out.
-And then Peggy and Alison. Alison assumes Peggy had slept with Don, as well, and that they could commiserate. Peggy pushes back hard on this. What they shared is deeper than a one night stand. Interesting that Alison couldn’t hack it, though. This is why you have rules, Don. Don’t break’em.
-Pete also had some great moments in the episode. I had the sound off and I watched the scene with his father-in-law while I was writing this. You could tell what was being said, just from the expressions. Great acting. Then Pete goes home and seems genuinely excited about having a baby. Did you catch the, “How would you know how this feels?” line?
-Pete and Ken was funny. It’s nice to have Cosgrove back, he looked a little heavy. I liked how he went after Pete for stuff he may or may not have said, and some stuff he definitely didn’t. Ken looks heavier and seems down on advertising. Though he’s happier now than when he was at McCann. The writers don’t think too highly of McCann, do they? Just for old times, Ken says something ridiculous without any sense of irony at all, “Another Campbell, that’s just what the world needs.”
-And at the end of the episode, Peggy and Pete had a moment. It seemed like recognition and forgiveness? They smiled. Did the cut to the old people, “Did you get the pears?” mean anything, or was it just a cut? Did you get the pears? Pairs?
-Alison and Don’s confrontation was great. This time, however, Don didn’t seem to be trying to be cruel. He wasn’t hurting her because he was being selfish, he just didn’t know what to do to fix the situation. Don thought it was nice to let Alison write her own recommendation. Alison was furious because she thought it showed Don cared even less about her. If he cared, he would have been able to write something nice.
-Cooper. Hanging out in reception eating an apple. Why not?
-”Every time you jump to conclusions, Tom, you make me respect you less.” That’s a burn!
-What seemed to be a relatively recurring theme this episode, new vs old advertising. Science (Faye Miller) is telling them to stick with what’s work, but Don rebels against this, and to a certain extent, Peggy trying to get the artist involved, does, as well. Don’s argument is that people don’t know what they like. They don’t say what they want and how they want to be marketed to and the good advertisers will tell them. This has come up before, though usually in regards to clients. Don and Peggy work well together because, not only do they think of new messaging, they think of new angles. This goes against what the “science” says. “A new idea is something they don’t know yet, so of course it’s not going to come up as an option.” “You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved.”
-Part of Don’s aversion to Faye Miller’s science is his passion for privacy. He doesn’t like market research and all the tricks Faye uses to get her information.
-Don was less of a bad guy in this episode. In conversations this week, I mentioned I thought it was possible Don would last the series without ever becoming redeemable. What if he was just a bad guy, a cad, who just kept getting worse? He’d certainly be interesting as a protagonist, and Matthew Weiner would have experience with that type of character from The Sopranos. In the previous 3 seasons, there was always a charm to Don. We hadn’t seen that in the first 3 episodes, and, in fact, he went in reverse. I’d say Don was stayed in neutral in this episode, what with the lack of hitting on secretaries and nieces of very close friends.

What did I miss?

Every week, I write a recap of Mad Men, and Chris Piascik illustrates something from the episode. Here’s week 3.

I guess we need to start expecting weekly lines of dialogue like, “Is that what you want? Or is that what people expect of you” show up in the episodes. That is the theme of Mad Men, struggling to live within the expectations people have for you. Right now, Don is living it up right on the edge. Should we start 1965, everyone?
-Oh, look, there’s Joan’s creepy doctor. She’s wrestling with the expectation that she start a family. I don’t get the sense that she really wants to, but she does seem to want to fulfill expectations. 2 procedures, hmm? “Whatever will be, will be” is not usually how it goes on Mad Men. We’re talking about people who need control.
-Harry Crane looks a lot better this week. Not sure what his appearance was supposed to convey in week 1. I couldn’t put my finger on something about him since the middle of last year, but the character plays with a subtle confidence. He’s not arrogant, but he also doesn’t let Draper and the others push him around. He takes the abuse, but he doesn’t seem so neurotic anymore.
-Guess Don IS going to Acapulco, but first a quick stop in LA. He’s going away, running away, but stopping at the one place he feels at home, Anne Draper’s house. His familiarity with Anne’s sister and niece lead us to believe he’s spent a lot more time out in LA than we knew before. That wasn’t the 2nd time he’d met them, or even the 3rd.
-After Lane wishes Don a Happy New Year, Don says “Enjoy your family”. Kind of a weird thing to say, but in retrospect, it foreshadows trouble.
-”Consider me the incorruptible exception”. The Lane/Joan plot-line was fun, starting with this quotation leading to an epic florist screw up. Too bad Lane couldn’t FaceTime with his wife to smooth things over.
-More on Don in LA. “Are you sitting in?” Don’s conservativeness seems to be less about a personal belief structure, and more about a fear of change. Going to have to think on that one some more.
-”You’re in charge. Trust me, I work in advertising.” Indeed.
-Jan and Dean is who brought you Stephanie’s bathroom break.
-”Have you been there?” “No, but every time I hear this song, I want to go.” Don’s always wants to go. Somewhere. He likes the idea of the place, any place, but can’t figure out where it is.
-Oh, so it’s Breyer’s time in the fake Mad Men commercial world. This makes me want to buy your product less. Just know that, Breyer’s.
-Don making a move on Stephanie was something of a plot device to show us he’s still a cad. It was telegraphed as soon as she walked into the house in a bikini top. It’s meant to contrast his not caring about anything with his caring for Anne.
-”But no one knows what’s wrong with themselves and everyone else can see it right away.” It’s all so obvious that everyone is unhappy, but if we all ignore it, it’ll be fine. Anne doesn’t know she has cancer, but everyone else can see there’s something wrong. Don doesn’t know he’s in a downward spiral, but everyone else can see it.
-Anne’s sister sets Don straight. “You’re just a man, in a room, with a checkbook.” This is what Don has been in his family’s life for a long, long time, and I think hearing it was something of a shock. He sat Anne down to tell her she had cancer and then did the right thing by not. This is another interesting contrast because Don runs away from this problem, too. In this case, however, he did what was best for Anne and her family at the expense of the thing that would have made him feel better (commiserating with Anne).
-No idea what the discussions of UFOs means, though it did bring out the conversation about how thin reality is.
-Just noticed this Helvetica poster in the break room at SCDP.
-Is Joan a cutter? She certainly seemed to purposely cut herself to get attention of the doc. It worked for the time being.
-”Although things are precarious financially, it’s been a magnificent year.” SCDP really has done well in the last year to go from the hotel to 2 floors at the Time Life Building. It is part of the thin reality mentioned earlier. Don and Lane are having terrible years!
-When they go to the movies, they have a courtesy seat between them. Guess that’s not new. In fact, almost everything about Don and Lane on the town was funny, including Lane’s outburst in the restaurant. “Is that what you want? Or is that what people expect of you.”
-Did the comedian introduce Paul Simon or Rudy Jensen?
-This episode didn’t seem to move time along as fast as some of the other episodes, and I think that contributed to it seeming a bit slow. What’d you think?

My friend, Chris Piascik, and I thought we’d do something different for this season of Mad Men. We meant to start last week, but forgot. In any case, every episode this season will have a recap from me and a daily drawing from Chris. If you’re looking a this and there’s no daily drawing, it’ll be here shortly. Hope you enjoy!

Christmas, 1964. 2 new characters (Phoebe, the nurse neighbor, and Dr. Faye Miller, the product marketing scientist) and 2 old characters (Sketchy Glenn and Ready Freddie Rumsen). Tonight’s episode seemed, more than other episodes, to contrast old fashionedness with the new way of doing things. I can’t remember men typing before (except for maybe Roger at one point), and tonight we had Don (who is quite adept at the typing, he’s no hunt and peckerer) and Freddie tapping away. Peggy also had a typewriter at home, which seemed to be in the middle of the scene. There’s also Freddie’s old fashioned thoughts on how to market to women contrasting with SCDP’s hiring of a market research firm, Motivational Research Group.
-It’s weird the Christmas episode airs in August. Subtle how Don gets Bobby a drum set for Christmas. That’ll make Betty very happy. I imagine she’ll never let him play it.
-”Suffice to say, we’re in a fraternity together.” Freddie is back and he’s in AA. Did a pretty good job staying clean this episode.
-It was pretty clear that something is going to happen between Faye Miller and Don just based on the first scene, they were eying each other pretty heavily. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a couple episodes before she pops up again. “I’m disappointed, I thought you came in to flirt, but you came in to fight.” During their last scene, Faye also expressed her advertising philosophy: “It all comes down to what I want versus what’s expected of me.” This calls to mind Don’s explanation from season 1, “Advertising is based on 1 thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? It’s the smell of a new car, it’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard, on the side of the road, that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.”
-Another contrast in this episode was Lee Garner’s overt sense of entitlement compared to Don’s less explicit. Lee acts like spoiled child, petulant and needy, forcing SCDP to re-plan their Christmas party. “I trust you’ll make the necessary improvements.” He genuinely seems pleased with his gift. “Reminds me of when I was a kid. Remember that? You ask for something and then you get it? Makes you happy.” Don gets what he wants, but does it a little quieter. Having Allison bring his keys to him is one thing, making a move on her, and Phoebe to boot, show Don as a cad, taking what he wants. At least Lee Garner is paying a lot of money for SCDP to tolerate his boorish behavior. “Put it on, Roger. Put it on.”
-Sally Draper really does seem happy that Sketchy Glenn trashed her house as a way of showing his love. I don’t know what’s going on here. “Don’t turn on the lights, shithead.”
-So, er, Don’s going to Acapulco by himself?
-Last week, Don mentioned his floor wax commercial was supposed to make viewers feel like it was a part of the show they were watching. Dove did that on this week’s episode of Mad Men, and I’m a little surprised Mad Men went for it. More gimmicky then I expect from them.
-At the Christmas party, Bert Cooper and the market research dude are railing against socialism and Obamacare. Good times! “If they pass Medicare, they won’t stop until they ban personal property.”
-Pete and Trudy in the front of the Conga line. They love to shake it.
-Peggy almost certainly doesn’t think her boyfriend is marriage material, otherwise she wouldn’t have slept with him.
-Which leaves us with Don and Allison. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point, Don sleeping with someone from work, but he’d always been so careful before. We know he likes being taken care of. After last episode’s prostitution scene, I was concerned Don would give Allison her Christmas bonus after giving her a Christmas bonus (wink, wink), he did the next worst thing and gave it to her the next morning. “I just wanted to say thank you for bringing my keys.”
-What else?

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It might take a couple episode for me to get all analytical again, but let’s give it a whirl. Last season ended with endings and beginnings, this episode did the heavy lifting of telling us where we are this season. We’re almost exactly a year after last season’s finale. Henry Francis and Betty are married and living in the Draper residence. Don’s living in an apartment, and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce have moved into two floors of the Time Life building.
-Everyone is going to start these recaps with the first line of the season. “Who is Don Draper?” I don’t know if that’ll be a theme to the season, but it is consistent with the series’ theme of, “What do you want me to say/do?” which Don hints at in the next line, “What do men say when you ask that?” Finally copping out of the interview with, “We were taught that it’s not polite to talk about yourself.” This scene, a failed PR ploy, is instructive to Don’s idea of the agency. He thinks he can create good work and the clients will come.
-However, Peggy and Pete’s PR campaign, a couple of women fighting over a canned ham in the grocery store, was successful… “until it wasn’t”. Don’s frustrated with this. It’s a stunt, and it’s not the image he wants for his agency. These stunts don’t have value as work (and you can’t charge for them, anyway). It must have struck a chord with him, though, because that combined with throwing the Jantzen prudes out of the office, convinced to be the Don Draper the agency wants/needs him to be in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
-”Next time just have one meeting.” Pete Campbell is convinced that SCDP’s size will be an asset. The small upstart. I wonder if this will be a theme of the season, small vs big.
-Don’s in a rush, seems grumpy (with the maid), tired (sleeping in his office), and tells Pete how it’s not worth having meetings they don’t have a chance at because every hour is accountable to the growth of the agency. I wonder if time, Don wanting more of it, will pop up again.
-Even in an apartment, Don has a maid.
-Not much to say about Don’s date except she wants to come off as sophisticated. Let’s use this to talk about the prostitute Don hires on Thanksgiving. TO SLAP HIM! That was sort of a “Sal in the park” scene, wasn’t it? I forget exactly what she said, but I’m hoping it was, “I know what you want me to do.” That would be a perfect counterpart to Don’s question (I swear, it’s tattooed on his back), “What do you want me to do?” I don’t think anyone saw the slap coming because Don has been more dominant in the past.
-Harry Crane looks terrible. Why is that?
-Just going to mention Sally Draper. I’m so glad she got made a series regular so she can be in more episodes. She really adds a lot.
-Peggy’s “fiance”. OK… “All we want to do is please you.” Peggy wants Don to know that she’s learning, he wants her to know it’s not happening fast enough.
-Two anachronisms things to ground us in 1964 today, John and Marsha and The Murder Andrew Goodman. (If you’re scoring from home, that’s one point for Paste Magazine and their list of 16 things about 1964 that could be featured. 15 to go.)
-”Believe me Henry, but everyone thinks this is temporary.” That’s a zing for Don. I also liked Henry Francis’ mother getting in on the Betty hate, mentioning that the kids are terrified of her, and that Henry could have gotten what he wanted without marrying Betty. Is Betty holding onto the past by not looking for a new house to move into? It wouldn’t surprise me. Henry does want to move, though, so we’ll see what happens.
-I’m happy about the pitch in this episode. The office scenes and actual business of advertising were something that were lacking in season 2 and 3. Of course, Season 3 had a pitch in the first episode, too, so we’ll see if that keeps up.
-There was a lot about image and appearance in this episode, what’s the image of the agency, how does Don come across in an interview, women fighting over a ham… I think there’s going to be more of this.

I was happy with this episode. A couple surprises (the prostitute and the slap), good dialogue, an ad pitch… Glad Mad Men is back.

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Season 4 of Mad Men starts tonight and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be doing the weekly episode recaps again this season, but before we get to that, here’s a round up of what some on the internet are saying about Season 4 of Mad Men, along with some more general Mad Men links.

-The NY Times previews season 4 and has a paragraph or 2 about what happens in the opening episode.

-Here’s the WSJ with a look at how Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator, and Jainie Bryant collaborate on the clothing for the show.

“Matt has a very strong opinion of what he wants in terms of clothes and he’ll write it into the script,” says Scott Hornbacher, the executive producer of “Mad Men.” “But Janie is one of the only people on set who can wear him down. She’s got that Southern aspect to her—where everything is said in a very polite way with a smile—but deep down she’s pretty tenacious.”

-Alan Sepinwall’s preview with more info about what happens in the first episode. Also on the potential for pushback from fans this year.

The press has spent much of the last three years raising “Mad Men” up, and the show is entering the age at which critics’ darlings start to get knocked down. What once felt fresh begins to seem tired, and there’s usually a shiny new toy to distract you from the old reliable one.

-On Language on anachronisms and un-anachronisms.

-Flavorwire and the periodic table of Mad Men.

-Esquire’s 8 lessons from Don Draper.

-Postmadern Men from the New Yorker is dumb.

-Everything You Need to Know to be Ready for Season 4 of Mad Men

-Playboy finally scores one of the women from Mad Men, and it’s… Lois from the switchboard.

-2 posts with the title, ‘The Times They Are a Changin’. Newsweek and
Zap2it.

-16 Significant 1964 Moments Mad Men Might Tackle in Season Four. Not sure how many of these will make the cut. For one thing, I understand this season to be taking place about a year after season 3. That would put us in November/December 1964. Of course, the reported timeline has been wrong before. The other thing is the Kennedy assassination was THE defining moment of that generation… These 16 things don’t have the same stature.

-How “Mad Men” transformed pop culture this slide show is off in some respects, but on in others.

-There isn’t much to James Wolcott’s blog post except this: “Having seen the episode, I will say this, however–I severely doubt that anyone will find the season opener a letdown.”

I didn’t really expect this, but Joey McIntyre and crew are back with another Mad Men parody, Ma Men. Awesome. Perhaps even better than last year.

July 25th, you guys.

Via The Daily What

Olly Moss posting a Mad Men design? If you didn’t know I’d post this, you don’t know me very well. At all. That Don Draper quote at the bottom of the poster that’s hard to read? “You know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is OK. You are OK.”

You guys, the new season starts July 25th.

Via SeattkePI news that Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sally Draper on Mad Men has been made a series regular. Not sure how I feel about her being on more episodes next season.

Last season was really hard for Sally, and next season is going to be even harder. It’s really going to be about Sally growing up and reacting to whether her parents get divorced or not.

Via TV Tattle