Television
Eric Freeman
Sunday’s Mad Men was about the way that people’s best laid plans don’t always work out the way they want. As usual, we saw all sides of the situation: plans in their inception, as seen in Peggy’s belief that Don’s life is exactly what she wants; plans on the brink of being realized and all the terror that comes with standing on that precipice, as seen in the case of prison guard Dennis Hobart; and plans that have already been realized but haven’t worked, and yet they still get trotted out again in the hopes that this time will be different, as seen in Don and Betty’s hope that little Eugene Scott Draper will make everything better.
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.
Television
Darren Franich
I know logically that kids shouldn’t wear the helmets of dead Prussians on their head, much less helmets with bullet holes in them. I also know that adults shouldn’t let pre-teens drive their car. But the problematic thing about Gene Hofstadt is that, despite all the times we thought he was going to turn out to be a racist, an abuser of children, an incestuous pedophile, or a dementia-ridden wreck, the more the episode went along the more I found myself … I don’t know if “admiring” is the right word, but the man deserved respect.
Television
Eric Freeman
Last week, I complained that Mad Men was entering into third-season doldrums where the show’s typically strong thematic connections fell by the wayside in favor of goofy plot developments. I wrote some standard prescriptions and proclaimed that Matthew Weiner had to regain some focus, even if that focus changed from episode to episode. Then they went and proved me terribly wrong this week with “My Old Kentucky Home,” one of the best episodes in the history of the series.
Television
Eric Freeman
I’m not sure I want Mad Men to do more episodes like “Love Among the Ruins,” but I think it’s almost necessary for a show to become a little less focused in its third season. The third season is an odd period between initial success and the homestretch, a time when writers realize they don’t have to use all their best ideas in order to get renewed. I don’t mean to suggest that people only write well to ensure their show keeps getting picked up, but there’s a natural tendency to start stretching plots out a bit more once everyone realizes the show isn’t at risk of dying any minute.
