The Life of Donald Draper-AMC’s Mad Men

What are the common signs of pregnancy? A big (or slightly enlarging) belly, food cravings, forgetfulness…the list goes on and on, but in Episode 8 of the second season, viewers got a slight glimpse into the possibility of a bun in the oven for one of the show’s characters.

Who, you ask? Well, the hardworking, flirtatious, and rarely overlooked Office Manager, Joan Holloway- according to my careful calculations.

A few observations…

After arriving home from work one evening to find Joan reading “As the World Turns” soap scripts (during her short stint with the television department reviewing scripts for appropriate advertising spots), her husband, Dr. Greg Harris mentions that she “should be watching those shows, not reading them, with a box of Bon-Bons on your lap to soothe your cravings.” Cravings? What cravings? The kind of food cravings women typically get when they’re pregnant? Hmmm…

In the same scene, Greg is once again in the middle of this suspected pregnancy plotline. When the two sit down for dinner, Joan asks if he would like a drink and he requests water. At his point, Joan simply grabs her drink from the coffee table and sits down at the dinner table. As they begin to eat, Greg casually asks where his water is, and Joan realizes she has forgotten it. Seemingly, a very simple and inconspicuous event, but nevertheless an example of forgetfulness, a key ingredient during most pregnancies. Again, hmmm…

Upon first glance, the previous observations may seem a bit hasty and not necessarily cause for my assumption, but when coupled with Joan’s recent weight gain around her midsection (I’m not judging- it’s just the truth), it seems fairly obvious that this is the case.

So, any guesses as to how and when the show will reveal this plotline? Possibly upon the actual birth right there in the offices of Sterling Cooper? I can see it now, Don using the forceps while Peggy coaches Joan in Lamaze- style breathing…

I must admit that last night in my brief and unsettling sleep, I dreamt of Don Draper reciting portions of my pitch to the constituents of Sterling Cooper.

He was discussing successful display advertising strategy and impression theory.  His words sounded confident coming out of his mouth, even moreso than I could ever hope to deliver.

This opening episode of season 3 is a critical one for the future success of the show.  If Don succeeds from Sterling Cooper and opens up shop at a new agency, we can expect to loose some important and interesting characters that we have grown to love.  We’ll quickly learn what actors contract negotiations didn’t go so well.

If Don sticks it out at Sterling Cooper; my hope is that a refocus is placed on the daily business dealings of the crew.  The last half of the second season smelled a bit ripe of a soap opera.   If Mad Men leans to far down the romantic drama, a base of it’s followers will be turned off (I imagine).  Give me board rooms, hard-nosed closed door meetings, power plays and politics!

Don’t let us down, Season 3.

Congrats to AMC and the entire employed staff at Sterling Cooper!

Mad Men made short work of House (which jumped the shark several years ago), Lost (name says it all) and Boston Legal (anything from Bean-town is suspect), to win the Outstanding Drama Series Statuette, while Bryan Cranston, best-known for his role in Malcolm in the Middle, won the award for best actor in a drama for Breaking Dad, another AMC series, about a father who turns to the drug trade to support his family.

Creator Matthew ‘Don’t-call-me’ Weiner also won the Best Writing award for the pilot, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” The series garnered four Emmys last weekend for hairstyling, art direction, cinematography, and main title design for a grand total of six wins. 

All-in-all a terrific night for the show and an even better night for mankind as the exposure and awareness of this masterpiece is disseminated further.

A critical, but possibly lost-over-the-head theme in this episode is the reference to Frank O’Hara’s ‘Mayakovsky’ found in the collection, ‘Meditations in an Emergency’.  Not very much attention is paid, in this early season episode, to the significance of this recitation:

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.

All that we can discern from the collective scenes involving the book is that Draper appears to be going through a period of evolution.  We are cued that he is acting somewhat out of character (or by perception) when the fellow bar mate responds “I don’t think you’d like it,” when questioned about the Frank O’hara collection.  The so positioned straight-laced businessman, stubbornly picks up his own copy and reads against the non-reccomendation of the bar mate.  Don Draper finds himself drawn to a significance in his life by the readings and mails the copy to an unknown reciever (to the audience). 

Spoiler:  This is too obvious to even subnote, but in case you had any shadow of a doubt, Don must be sending this piece to Midge Daniels (played by Rosemarie DeWitt).  If you remember the last interaction they had was when Don attempted to invite her to Paris with his newly obtained lump sum and she turned him down for the group of anti-establishment losers.  What other beatnik could he be reminded of?  Why is he interested in this two-bit gypsy in the first place?  He is clearly drawn to women of confidence and inner-strength.  Two traits that poor Betty Daper severely lacks.  Midge signifies the freedom, courage, and self-confidence that Don envies. 

Quick notes about the book ‘Meditations in an Emergency’ and the poem ‘Mayakovsky’

 -The book’s title is code for a pre-20th century definition of the word “ejaculation.” (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139871.Meditations_in_an_Emergency)

-At the height of his fame, in the nineteen-twenties, the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was arguably the leading figure in Soviet art. In 1930, at the age of thirty-six, Mayakovsky, disillusioned and trapped by the government that he had virtually represented, put a bullet through his heart. It was Mayakovsky who taught Frank O’Hara to talk directly to the sun, and the book includes O’Hara’s beaming account of their conversation.  From The New Yorker

-Meditations in an Emergency was published in a limited run: 90 hardcover and 900 paperback copies.

This blog site will host analysis, insight, and presentation of very particular scenes taken from each weekly episode of Mad Men starting from the season 2 premier.  All feedback, comments, and debate is very welcomed.  Please feel free to bookmark and RSS.