Quick Take: Mad Men, "Waldorf Stories"
Where's the bottom, you ask? There's further to go down this lowball glass, I fear.
Review: Mad Men, "Waldorf Stories"
(S0406) Well, that was a hell of a ride. Painful, hilarious, insightful, absolutely entertaining.
Hilarious at times, yes, but a lot less fun than we've ever had before with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and company, I dare say. The rose-tinted lens of seasons past are now long gone, here in the late winter or early spring of 1965. The delight and allure of kicking off cocktails at the office at 4 pm followed by kicking off clothes with a willing accomplice some hours later have transitioned into something else, something more self-destructive. Particularly when played out over a series of years now, as we've followed the tale from what I like to think of as the Golden Era of Don Draper, Master of the Universe, and Sterling Cooper (now Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) back in 1960 to this strange new landscape of alcohol-driven blackouts, lost weekends, sloppy ad pitches, and fraying relationships. Where's the bottom, you ask? There's further to go down this lowball glass, I fear.
It's more than a little bit telling, for example, that we saw the return of Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) this week, though in the form of a sad cameo performance (sad in a number of ways, but it should not go unnoted that we've now likely seen a great character for the very last time). Duck has been fighting a long term battle with the bottle, we well know, but seemed to have his demons mostly under control throughout Season Three and his tenure with Gray, which included an affair with Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss). But if Duck ruined his chances at running Sterling Cooper after the merger with Putnam Powell & Lowe because, in part, "he could never hold his liquor," he opened a whole new front of drunken embarrassment by incoherently interrupting the MC at the Clio Awards ceremony, which caused him to literally be dragged out of the room.
The object lesson is as clear as a telephone call that has a pissed off ex-wife (that would be Betty, played by January Jones, who had only a cameo of her own this week) on the other end demanding to know why the kids have been sitting around for two hours waiting to be picked up: Don is on a similar trajectory, and he's nudging closer to a place where he has to coast on past glories, lean ever more heavily on his staff (and we saw a lot of that involving Peggy this week), steal ideas that are derivative in the first place (more on that and the welcome addition of actor Danny Strong as Danny, below), and keep more plates spinning in order to maintain the illusion of a life not in tatters.
Most of the office can see at least part of what's going on (Pete, Faye, Allison, Peggy… the list is growing of those who have made mention of Don's drinking), and you have to think that Don could be a major disaster away (Lucky Strike, anyone?) from being next in line to be put out to pasture.
We also got our first extended flashback of the season, wherein we learn that Don and Roger Sterling (John Slattery, who simply bangs out a brilliant performance week in and week out) have a relationship that was forged over booze. It was exciting to head back to the '50s if but briefly and see a younger, more optimistic Don (with less product in his hair) working a contact with an "important man at an important agency" in Roger into an eventual job and career in advertising. Don worked at a fur company at the time (and we know he met Betty during this era of his life as well) and sold a mink stole to Roger, who we later see present it as a gift to Joan (Christina Hendricks). Not only do we get to see Joan in full on Marilyn Monroe mode, but we also learn that Roger's affair with her went on for some number of years.
We also see a Don that is friendly, persistent, and mightily ambitious. He has the moxie to slip his "book" into the box that contains Roger's purchase, and then starts showing up in the lobby of the Sterling Cooper building to bump into him, for example. Roger is annoyed at first, but allows himself to be talked into a drink. At ten in the morning. Which then turns into multiple drinks.
By the time Roger wakes up from his latest bender, he literally discovers that he has hired Don. Or did he? I have a feeling we'll never know, but it's entirely possible that Don engineered Roger into the kind of drunken state where he wouldn't remember what he said any which way.
So great work, 1950s Don. And ironic and telling that Don Draper 1965 is ripe to be played as the same kind of mark. Which, indirectly, he has been already with his drunken appropriation of the Life cereal line and the consequences that stem from that.
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Video: Mad Men, "Waldorf Stories"
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