Mad Men Blog – Season 3, Episode 1

And we’re off. I don’t think I’ve been so excited about a season premier since The O.C. season 2. (Entourage Season 5 is up there too, if for no other reason, the full year wait was brutal. But Entourage has such weird seasons they shouldn’t count anyways). There are 3 reason for my otherworldly anticipation :

1. It’s a kick ass show, and season premiers of kick ass shows are always ‘events’.

2. I don’t know of another show where I LOVED season 1, but it had an even better second season. Not only was it better, but season 2 was significantly better, and completely re-watchable (I re-watched all of season 2 a couple weekends ago, just because I was so geeked out for the season 3 premier).

3. General Mad Men buzz. Maybe it’s just my circle, but I went from, “I don’t even know anyone else who has even heard of the show”, to “everyone I know and even moderately respect as a TV watcher is watching this show” in six months. The DVD era has officially hit its stride. Mad Men season 3, absolutely shatters the old record of number of people “watching the show live for the first time”.

As for the episode itself, I loved it. If you’re not hard core, the beginning may have thrown you, but the (not so subtle) point of the flashback was to further establish where Don/Dick literally came from. Don is not normal. He doesn’t know how he fits fit into his own life, no matter how idealistic it is. The fact is, he doesn’t fit into his own life because it is idealistically normal. That’s the rub my friends. You have to get that if you want to really enjoy the show (especially if you consider yourself to be a moral person).

I told everyone that they could (and should) just jump in because the complexities of the show are episodically contained. Admittedly, I may have overstated that fact. This premier was for the fans, not the newbies. It was vastly more enjoyable if you knew that Don was going to ask Salvatore a creative question when they were on the plane. I never for a second thought that Don would take issue with what he saw in the hotel room. There are two reasons for this. The obvious one is that Don does not judge. The casual fan picked up this. The less obvious, and more important reason was this: ability and achievement trump all in Don’s world. His entire existence is tied to the this idea. It is the core of his being. At the end of the day, all that matters is getting the job done and coming out on top. This is the reason Don promoted Peggy, and why in his own life, he lives to validate his decision to take on a new identity (a fact punctuated when Cooper doesn’t care about Pete’s exposure of Don’s past at the end of season 2). If he can win enough, then the ends justify the means.

The more basic storyline of British and American culture clash will be a great one. I wanted to wrap it up here but I must make one point regarding Pete and Ken. Pete is one of my favorite television characters ever. I hate him for who is, but I have sympathy for the fact that his crazy family made him that way. In one episode I can be happy for him that he got the promotion, and hate him for being such a whiney baby. He is a fascinating character. It will be interesting to watch that play out.

I am sure my future blogs will be longer, but I have been so swamped this week, I just wanted to get something up. I’ll be back on Monday for Episode 2.