This Week in Mad Men: Season 5 Premiere (A Little Kiss)
发布时间 2012-03-27 22:09:55 来源
摘要
TIME JUMP
We left the characters in October of '65 and rejoin them just after Memorial Day weekend, 1966, about 7 months later.
Betty was totally absent; we see the outside of her new home and that's it. (Echoes of the pilot, in which Betty also wasn't featured.)
Does this feel a bit like a reboot? A lot of the big concerns of last season - Don's relationship with Dr. Miller, Betty's crumbling marriage, the potential for SCDP to go under entirely - are no longer a pressing concern. Now we're exploring new relationships in a new era.
BIG THEME: WE'VE SHIFTED FROM '50s TO '60s MODE
Evident in everything from the clothes (much more mod, especially now that the younger Megan is a main character) to the musical references to the cultural references.
Pete's new anti-smoking shift and exclamation of "no more drinks!"
Roger now completely out of place, but refusing to leave.
Hints of civil rights playing a larger role this season. (Perhaps with no Carla on the show, this is Weiner's way of introducing a new black character?)
THE SURPRISE PARTY
Ken goes to "smoke some tea" on the terrace with the band. Reintroduction again of pot as demonstrative of characters exploring outside their comfort zone. Ken, the eternal optimist, isn't threatened. (Implication that the whole party may have got stoned, in Slate Magazine's blog post. Leading to Harry's paranoia, Peggy's loose tongue, etc. Thoughts?)
Megan gives "her own present" to Don: a rendition of Zou Bizou Bizou. The song was popularized by Sofia Loren in English, but Megan's performance was inspired by this 1962 French version by Gillian Hills. (Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vFOzG3GYqo)
DON AND MEGAN'S WEIRD POWER DYNAMIC
A lot of power plays and a sort of uneasy shift in power from the office to home environments
Don at the office: "I could make you go home right now, you know. I have that power."
Megan to Don: "You're a dirty old man."
Are these two characters just entirely incompatible?
LANE AND THE WALLET
Episode opens with him finding wallet in cab. He insists on keeping the wallet and ensuring its safe return. Gives cabbie his business card.
Lane and his wife fight over their son's private school fees. Lane's clearly in some amount of financial trouble. Lane's wife is oblivious.
Girlfriend of the guy who owns the wallet calls; he shamelessly flirts with her, tries to get her address.
What does the wallet represent? Lane's financial difficulties? His fantasies of escape? Both?
BIG THEME: IS ANYTHING EVER ENOUGH?
Everyone got what they wanted over the last two seasons, yet everyone is sort of unsatisfied. Don's obviously a bit jealous of other men giving his wife attention, and threatened by her youth. (Also still angry at Betty.) Pete feels frustrated and under-appreciated, and is worried about slipping into embittered suburban dad-hood. (He also misses the city, clearly.) Megan is out of her element. Roger and Jane are now miserable. Joan is stressed and lonely.
HARRY CRANE
Harry: "My god, is he queer." We're once again reminded how out of step SDCP's crew is compared to other people at the same time, but this may also be a plot point in showing Harry as increasingly inappropriate socially.
Harry: "She's such a sex kitten." Megan walks up behind him as he fantasizes about her. When did he become so gross?
ROGER STERLING vs. PETE CAMPBELL
Roger generally being a childish bully this week "I say we step outside... I didn't think so."
Crazy tension between Pete and Roger at the Mohawk Airlines meeting, Pete trying to get rid of him, Roger drinking it up. Fucking awesome sequence. Roger eventually relents.
Pete on Mohawk Airlines: Don tells him "it's a good idea." A change in their relationship... Is Pete now favored over Roger.
JOAN AND THE HELP WANTED AD
Joan's Mom shows her a SCDP help wanted ad, implies that it's for her job. Just being cruel.
Lots of hostility with the new front desk girl. Transparently threatened.
Roger: "Well, well, well, there's my baby." Joan makes a point to call him "Uncle Roger."
Lane explains the ad wasn't really an ad, just a joke by Roger. They can't function with Joan. It's actually a very sweet scene, with Joan missing work and Lane comforting her. ("There would have been a cake, but you weren't here to arrange it.")
Does Joan have postpartum depression?
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