Mad Men Season Finale: Great Leaders Don't Blink

Mad Men on AMC ended its second season Sunday night, and as usual, I recorded the episode. I watched it tonight, and I wish I hadn't. There is a terrible hollow feeling when a series this brilliant ends, and there is nothing left to console me in its absence but the long wait for the boxed set on DVD, and even longer drought until Season Three.

Episode 13, "Meditations in an Emergency" had all the hallmarks that have made this series great, weaving the real life drama of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis into the Sturm and Drang of Sterling-Cooper's takeover (so relevant 40+ years later) and the timeless angst of betrayed families and broken promises. This final episode was all about power, leadership, and the redemption of confession.

The amazing and always riveting footage of JFK on TV in the background served as a litmus test and catalyst for Mad Men's characters, who always seem on the brink of something. A power grab, a nervous breakdown, a furtive and hopeless tryst in the back room of a dark bar. The looming nuclear apocalypse causes different reactions for our cast of mad men and women. Panic for some (who cares about the bomb...what about my JOB?), indifference for others. Peggy the budding star who gained a new office after landing the Popsicle account, fears for the loss of her soul. She confesses, finally, bringing last season's cliff hanger full circle. But the truth is told to a bewildered Campbell, and not to her weasel faced priest.

JFK draws a line in the sand for the Soviets, on a fuzzy black and white television. Don Draper draws a line in the conference room at Sterling Cooper after Duck (the darkest character of all to be sure...who could forget what he did to his beautiful Irish Setter) says creative will no longer be a part of the agency's primary directive. Don Draper, back from his A.W.O.L. Southern California sojourn, wants no part of it. He's gone. "I don't sell advertising", Don says, cool and measured as a fighter pilot. "I sell products. If the world is still here on Monday, we can talk".

This final episode was a poem to the subtle but essential qualities of leadership, at a time when we all yearn for its example. Don't blink. Don't stand down. Watch Mad Men.

And for heaven's sake...don't forget to vote.

Below, JFK's address to the nation in 1962.

Don Draper is the Most Interesting Character of this TV Season

Thanks to Lisa for pointing out that the fabulous Don Draper was featured on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately I did not see the post until Sunday afternoon! Woe is me! Surely NBC.com must stream entire episodes of SNL somewhere, after the live episode has aired!

I am particularly devastated because Mad Men's Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the most intriguing character on television these days. He has more layers than my Aunt Lorene's chocolate cake and not all of them are angel food. There is the dark side of Don who shunned his own brother causing the poor kid's suicide. There is the amazingly compassionate side of Don who gave co-worker Peggy the heart and bravery to become one of the fast track stars of Sterling Cooper. He treats his wife like chattel, but he has lovingly maintained a long term friendship with the real Mrs. Draper, a sweet soul from San Pedro with a bad leg. Don is menacing, enigmatic, and sometimes cruel. But at the end of the day, his innate decency as a human being always shines through. The only other TV character I can recall being this fascinated by was Nate Fisher (Peter Krause on Six Feet Under) who had the same amphibious, emotionally remote dark exterior, but hiding inside was the nicest guy you ever want to meet.

No doubt about it, Sunday nights are the best night of the week for TV. After tonight's Mad Men season finale, we will still have True Blood, Entourage and Dexter to enjoy for a bit longer. Then Christmas, then New Year's and then....mercifully....a new season of American Idol. Life in the TV lane goes on!

Mad Men: Deeper, Darker, Better

Time for a Mad Men update. We are three episodes into the new season and it is better than ever. More of the dark machinery driving the ad business, more of the hidden lives and shenanigans in the 1960's. This week's 3rd episode (The Benefactor) finds our mysterious hero Don Draper in a weird power struggle and really steamy sex tryst with the wife/agent of a loose cannon comedian who stars in one of Sterling Cooper's big account commercials. Meanwhile, Don's ice queen spouse spends her days riding horses at the country club where she has become MILF eye candy for a rich young college boy. My favorite moment of the night? Don breaks out of his passive indifference and (literally) applies the pressure to get Bobbie the agent to make her crazy husband apologize to important clients at ritzy NY restaurant. It's a surprising and red-hot moment for basic cable. Keep your fingers on the DVR rewind for this one!

In the historical accuracy department, there is a fabulous B story about Harry the Media Buyer manipulating a raise to the (lofty) amount of $220. per week. He doesn't realize it yet, but being made head of "television" at Sterling-Cooper in 1962 is the real prize.

Post-script--Don fires his dud of a secretary (thank God) and Joan the red haired office goddess moves into the position temporarily.

Oh, how we wish we could watch every single episode of this series at once. The only thing bad about Mad Men? Waiting until next Sunday's episode. The promo below gives a little taste of what you'll get when you tune into the controlled insanity on AMC's MM.

Mad Men Season Premier: Slow but Satisfying

Just a few notes to add to Lisa's post about the season two premier of Mad Men. It did move at a very leisurely pace, although the office venue is still hopping. Best moments; figuring out where to put that new fangled Xerox machine (and ultimately, it didn't take them long to start copying body parts), the old black and white TV footage of Jackie Kennedy giving a tour of the White House in the background on very vintage televisions (kudos to the MM set designers) and Don Draper mentoring Peggy the junior copywriter on the most compelling way to position the new airline account. It's not sex that sells...it's emotion. "What did you bring me, Daddy?" Don Draper and Peggy Olsen are the most intriguing characters, and this first episode leaves us wanting much more of them both. I also liked Don Draper's final voice over, which was prose in the shadow of Robert Frost...cold, precise, and very New England. Most of the Mad Men long to be published writers, but Don Draper may have the most accomplished way with words of them all.