Mad Men: "Out of Town": Season 3 Opener Satisfying If Not Scintillating
Be warned, this is a review and not a full recap, which is available at all the big entertainment sites, but there be plenty of spoilers here. So if you are waiting to see the season premiere of Mad Men later during the week on AMC, or waiting for the DVDs, you've been warned.
That said, kicking off season three, the much-lauded Mad Men went in a new direction, with Jon Hamm channeling his inner Steve McQueen as Don Draper moved his existential crisis of late last season from LA and Palm Springs to the City by the Bay in a high-revving car chase through the streets of San Francisco ...
Okay, so that didn't happen. So how was the season three premiere? And how did it fare commercially?
The hype for Mad Men's season three opener paid off, with ratings up by a third.
The very good news for the show is that ratings are up sharply, by roughly a third. Some 2.8 million saw the show when it first aired at 10 PM on Sunday night. And the combined viewership for all three showings that night was four million. The cult is definitely getting bigger.
Betty Draper (January Jones) has convinced herself that she's in a happy place now.
And what about the show itself?
I found it a bit under-wowing.
With our characters having survived the Cuban Missile Crisis at the end of season two, it's the spring of 1963. Out of Town takes Don Draper, and closeted Sterling Cooper art director Sal Romano, well, out of town. To glamorous Baltimore, as it happens. A Baltimore as you've never seen it, and perhaps never will. They were there to reassure a client in the glamour-packed raincoat-making business, an outfit with what turns out to be the incongruous name of London Fog (ring a bell?), that Sterling Cooper will still be attentive old Sterling Cooper, notwithstanding the British invasion.
Oh, yes, the British invasion. By which we do not mean the Beatles. Not just yet.
When Roger Sterling decided to throw over his old wife in favor of marrying Draper's very pert, modern-looking 20-year old secretary, he set in motion a chain of events that led to the corporate takeover of venerable Sterling Cooper by a much larger British firm. Thus occasioning a big round of some very contemporary-sounding lay-offs, and, naturally, some very contemporary widespread insecurity in the once rather convivial workplace.
A third of the staff has been laid off, and the axe has just landed near the top, with the head of accounts -- a character we've never seen before, played by Michael Gaston, who was the villainous FBI supervisor on Fringe -- goes out in furiously bellowing style. With the axe wielded by Sterling Coo's new British overseer, Lane Pryce, played by Jared Harris (son of the great Richard Harris), also from Fringe, on which he played a mysterious teleporter.
The essential milieu of Mad Men is not all that admirable.
In somewhat nefarious fashion, he sets up a cutthroat competition for the accounts position by telling both designated office weasel Pete Campbell and easygoing Ken Cosgrove that he has the job.
Which seems a formula for more workplace chaos, and another echo of current corporate desperation and dysfunction.
Of the old regime, Don Draper is the key man, with Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling in some danger of becoming supernumeraries.
Don and Sal's trip to London Fog (in Baltimore!) is more eventful than anticipated. Of course, as "the new British overseer," as Cooper refers to him, points out, the name was simply illusory. London hadn't been foggy, it had been beset by coal dust, a very different thing.
Anxious themselves about corporate performance, the London Fog execs wonder if they should branch out into new fields of fashion. But Don urges that they stick with their core competence. After all, "There will always be rain."
The show began with Don heating up milk for pregnant Betty, flipping into a reverie about his own far less than immaculate conception as little Dick Whitman. Which I found to be a bit precious. Betty, having taken Don back, resolved to continue in her marriage as she's expecting her third child, is glowing if sleepless with pregnancy, hoping for her House Beautiful fantasy to be real as Don brings her the warm milk and spins up a soothing fantasy tale to further relax her. "You're really good at this," she coos. You don't know the half of it, darlin'.
The episode lived up to the show's billing as "the sexiest on TV," but with a certain twist.
Yet Mr. Family Man is quick to spin up another sort of smoothly seductive tale when, accompanying Sal on the business flight to Baltimore, he meets a pretty blonde stewardess. They end up having dinner together, naturally. Don and the stew end up in his hotel room, while Sal, naturally, goes to his own room alone. But when he needs a bellboy to fix a problem, he finds finds that his closet door is more than ajar. Bryan Batt does some of his best acting here.
Only for both impromptu couples to be interrupted by a fire alarm. With Don, clambering down the fire escape past Sal's window with his playmate in tow, spies the other impromptu couple. And actually looks a bit surprised.
Which surprised me, as I would have thought that Don had been able to read Sal's sexuality.
But he's cool with it, of course. And if anyone understands the need to husband one's secrets, it's Don Draper/Dick Whitman.
Back at the idyllic homestand, with adoring daughter Sally going through Daddy's things, Don's souvenir from the night before -- stewardess wings! -- becomes a quickly improvised gift. But Don is at an unaccustomed loss for words when asked to describe Sally's own birth.
Not so much of some of the other major characters in this season opener.
We didn't see too much of Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) in the season premiere. That's never a good thing.
Joan Holloway is still, unfortunately, engaged to that seemingly perfect yet actually perfectly loutish doctor. She thinks she's on her way out of Sterling Coo, but I doubt it. Her inevitable clash with the head Brit's Brit assistant -- who's diving into the secretarial pool as he explains that, despite his title, he's not that kind of secretary -- had some chemistry to it.
Peggy Olsen has not only her very nice newish office and her very own secretary, who's not paying all that much attention to her.
Roger Sterling is still engaged to his 20-year dreamboat -- the reason for the British takeover in the first place -- and is making wedding plans when he's not distracted by little things like his erstwhile ad agency.
He seems to play a much bigger role in the next episode.
All in all, a certainly satisfactory if not scintillating opener for the third season. The show captures the air of uncertainty that grips today's U.S. economy, and hints at major culture clash ahead.
In the outside world, which is generally interwoven quite well in the show, this season is set in 1963. So we have the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a limited nuclear test ban treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the civil rights movement coming to a head with Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, and of course the assassination of John F. Kennedy all coming up.
Inside, well, we have Peggy moving that glass ceiling upward, Sal taking a step outside that closet, Joan assessing whether her mind is more important than her body, insecurity and corporate upheaval driving the younger guys, Roger testing the limit of charm and a charmed life, and Don seeing whether his incessant journeying leaves him anywhere he hasn't already ended up.
You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com.
William Bradley: Mad Men: "The Gypsy and the Hobo" -- HuffPost Review
"The Gypsy and the Hobo" has significantly stepped up the pace of this season of Mad Men. And it contains the big confrontation we've all been waiting for from the beginning.
William Bradley: Mad Men: "Souvenir" -- HuffPost Review
This episode was a big showcase for January Jones, a stunning beauty who is also a very good actress. Forget Don, this was the Betty Draper show.
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A certainly satisfactory if not scintillating review of the third season opener.
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Is there an echo in here? :)
The Baltimore references were great for those of us from there. London Fog was in Baltimore then. Haussner's restaurant and The Belvedere were considered tres chic at the time -- and 30 years later they looked exactly the same and became known for their kitschy over-the-top gilding. And, of course, BWI was known as Friendship Airport. A nice treat!
Nice review, but I gotta stick up for Baltimore. For those of us from Smalltimore will tell, the references were spot on. London Fog was in Baltimore. Haussner's and The Belvedere looked just like that (faux gilded frames and all) and were considered tres chic at that time -- the irony is 30 years later they both still looked like that -- to the point of being considered kitsch. And, good old BWI was called Friendship Airport. They got the details right.
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No offense meant to Baltimore ...
However, I think I saw something in the Baltimore newspaper saying that the show's references were not spot on.
Yes I agree with that!
Todd DiRoberto
http://www
What is it with HuffPost and all the "Mad Men" blogs? This is advertising, mixed in with news and opinion. It's weird.
That was a joke, right? Because, it was laugh-out-loud funny!
What is it with HuffPost and all the Obama blogs? ... lol
Maybe you should look up the word advertising. Ads don't give a mixed review.
Yeah, because advertising is definitely just one thing that looks the same all the time, right? There can't be any nuance or manipulation in it? Because it's a "mixed review" it can't be advertising? Plainly, I am not the one who doesn't know what advertising is.
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Don't be ridiculous.
Neither the network, the producers, nor anyone associated with the show is paying for this.
Right.
I hope the Huffington Post is!
Too much Thornton Wilder crap.
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Interesting.
How so?
As fascinating as Christina Hendricks is as Joan Holloway, I still think she was better as Saffron/Bridgit in the "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash" episodes of the late, lamented Fox series "Firefly." She really had the chance to shine there!
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She was good in that.
I've watched this premiere episode twice now, and fail to find any reference point that sets the year in 1963. Am I slow? What am I not getting?? It's very annoying to be the only one who missed this seemingly obvious fact.
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The show's creator has confirmed it's spring of 1963. In addition, Betty Draper is very very pregnant now, and first learned she had become pregnant during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was October 1962.
After the Season 3 opener I still think "Mad Men" is one of the finest shows on TV. I was somewhat disappointed that Christina Hendricks had so little to do on this episode, as her story and her acting are so compelling. I also was disappointed in Don falling back into his old, bad habits by hooking up with the stewardess; I would have liked to have seen him struggle longer with his inner demons before giving in to his urges.
After two seasons that captured the early '60's, the writers got sloppy in the season 3 premiere. Betty talks about toolbelts and lesbians, which was anachronistic; connecting lesbians with toolbelts, let alone mentioning lesbians in casual conversation seems more in tune with the '90's and onwards. And when Cooper mentions having a bottle of "Stoli", that seemed also too contemporary. Stolichnaya vodka was pretty much unknown in the U.S at that time, an exotic product of the pre-Perestroika Soviet Union.....
As for Sal's coming out seduction in the hotel with the bell hop, I can't see why some viewers thought it "icky" or over the top. Perhaps being a gay man gives me a different view on things, but I found the scene very well played and realistic. If it had been a man and a woman furtively trying to tear off their clothes, with the woman resisting at first, no one would have said a word.
jg - I'm glad that someone else found Bets' comment about lesbians jarring - I'm not being prudish here, the problem was how out of character it seemed - this is a criticism of the WRITERS. bad bad BAD...
Disagree with you about the Sal scene, though - maybe you enjoyed it because you're gay? It was pure fantasy and again, not in line with the tension of that subplot, one of the best on the show IMHO.
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I enjoyed the scene and I'm not gay. That sort of furtive sexuality was common then, according to my old sociology class ...
at Lippsister
The Stoli was clearly contraband as were the Cuban cigars.
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The Cuban cigars were contraband in 1963, as they are today. Not that I don't have a few here in the office.
Incidentally, just before JFK signed the trade embargo, he bought over a thousand of his favorite Cuban, H. Upmanns. He later received more as a gift from the Soviets.
Stolichnaya vodka was not commonly available in the US in 1963, but a Russian friend tells me that it was in private circulation. There was no embargo against it.
Agree an all points. I was there in the 60's....lo
Ditto!!!!!
I don't know... my grandma's told me about her experiences as a young lady growing up before the 60s and I got the distinct impression that most people knew what was going on when two spinsters with cats were shacked up... Grandma told me the ladies in her neighbourhood were mostly welcome and were more than capable of taking care of themselves and their houses.
And of course there were always scandal-ridden pulp fiction novels you could buy at the local dime store...
http://en.
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Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn starred in The Children's Hour in 1961.
That was the year after Shirley starred in The Apartment, which is very big in the world of Mad Men ...
I was so happy at the thought of Sal getting some that I actually jumped and down, but then that persnicky fire came along :(
As for the rest of the episode, I was actually angry at Don for being himself once more. For once, I would love for him to not cheat. Oh well, on to the next episode
Good review but Weinart has already said that Joan had her Christmas wedding and Roger is back from his honeymoon in Greece (thus Cooper's throw-away line about unpacking ancient Greek art being the reason for Roger's tardiness).
I don't know that Don approves or disapproves of Sal's orientation, he just advises that Sal keep it to himself in a fairly transparent manner. I still have my fingers crossed for Sal to run into Ken in a towel at the baths and finally get the one he clearly wants.
The flashbacks make no sense if you are not a devoted fan.
I thought the fact that Draper gave him an idea for a sexy ad pitch indicated that he was helping Sal cover it up, not because he disapproves, but because Draper is a realist and at the same time, defending his friend without judgment.
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Good catches. I completely missed the Joan and Roger wedding references. I haven't read Matt Weiner's comments on the background there.
I didn't particularly care for the flashback sequence, not because I didn't get it, but because I did. I found it too obvious. (Gee, so that's how he got his real first name ...) I didn't like the Sopranos flashback stuff much, either.
Disregard that last comment - delete it if you can, even! I just re-read your Mad Men Returns piece. In future, I'll try to pay better attention. :(
***We didn't see too much of Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) in the season premiere. That's never a good thing.***
Very true.
Christina Hendricks is woefully underused in MAD MEN, which is a shame considering she's got the most interesting character.
Yes, she is woefully underused. She's also *gorgeous* and a really good actress.
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If Christina Hendricks were simply a babe, and her character a one-note, I wouldn't be disappointed. She makes her character, who is very well-conceived, quite intriguing.
Of course, it's quite and ensemble, so not everyone can get their full due.
This makes for a terrific season to come...
>>>> All in all, a certainly satisfactory if not scintillating opener for the third season. The show captures the air of uncertainty that grips today's US economy, and hints at major culture clash ahead.
In the outside world, which is generally interwoven quite well in the show, this season is set in 1963. So we have the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a limited nuclear test ban treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, the civil rights movement coming to a head with Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, and of course the assassination of John F. Kennedy all coming up.
Inside, well, we have Peggy moving that glass ceiling upward, Sal taking a step outside that closet, Joan assessing whether her mind is more important than her body, insecurity and corporate upheaval driving the younger guys, Roger testing the limit of charm and a charmed life, and Don seeing whether his incessant journeying leaves him anywhere he hasn't already ended up.
The spot centering on Joan reminds how much zest she brings to the show. That was one thing missing the other night.
The "sexiest show" ad is great, and that "certain twist" you mentioned was great, too.
I was surprised to hear some people complaining about "gay sex" on "Mad Men," tho...
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Yes, that was somewhat disconcerting. There were even complaints on the Mad Men blog on AMC. Although some of them seemed suspiciously repetitive ...
It was hardly a porn moment, more a rather touching depiction of the Sal character breaking through a self and socially-imposed barrier.
This is a great video.
>>>> The essential milieu of Mad Men is not all that admirable.
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I will probably keep running it, as it captures much of the essence of the show.
The spot featuring Betty Draper is good. Any time she is on screen... :)
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