Television
Eric Freeman
I’m not sure “The Summer Man” was a great episode because things happened. Instead, it was an hour full of aesthetic risks. Mad Men has always existed primarily from Don’s point of view, most clearly through flashbacks, but we’ve rarely been guided through an episode by his words. Until “The Summer Man,” that is, where we were basically treated to a series of variations on the justly praised “Carousel” speech from the first-season finale. These were some of the best scenes the series has ever done.
Television
Eric Freeman
So SCDP acts like they’re making a TV commercial to bankrupt the rival company, except they’re not, and Don brings a motorcycle into the office to show the commercial director, and the commercial director reports back to the rival company, and they make an ad, and the Japanese apparently don’t like it, but they do like Don because he’s handsome and honorable and doesn’t want to be part of their bake-off. Everything turns out great for SCDP in the end! Someone call up Ari Gold so they can hug it out!
Television
Eric Freeman
Pete Campbell has always been Mad Men’s most enigmatic character. That may seem like an odd statement given that Don Draper’s whole character is structured as an enigma, but there are key differences between Don and Pete that make the latter much more difficult to pin down. Don, for all his mystery and deadpan stares into the distance, remains a relatively easy character to place into the larger Mad Men world. Pete is complicated in a way that suggests Matthew Weiner and Co. don’t really know what to do with him.
Television
Eric Freeman
At the beginning of the fourth season, every character on Mad Men finds himself in a new situation, but with little indication that there has been substantive emotional change in their lives. As befits a show about advertising, the packaging is different, but it’s the same product.
Television
Eric Freeman
In retrospect, there was no way Matthew Weiner was going to spend an entire season having Don battle wits with Gene in some dramatic version of Everybody Loves Raymond. Gene never really acted like anything other than an old man losing his mind more and more everyday. I mean, is Gene not supposed to show Bobby his old war helmets and let Sally drive cars? That’s the whole point of grandparents! When parents neglect, they go way too far in the other direction.
