Mad Men, Season 2

I finally got around to watching the second season of Mad Men, and now that there's a delay in the airing of the next season, I'm only two seasons behind. While this season wasn't as strong as the first, it was still gripping entertainment.

Once again set in the advertising agency of Sterling Cooper, this time in 1962, the character list is basically the same. The central character is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the highly successful creative director who is still protecting the lie about his identity and still a chronic philanderer. The central affair of this season is one he has the wife and agent of an obnoxious comedian. This time, though, his wife Betty (January Jones) finds out and kicks him out of the house.

The other characters all have subplots that at times stretch into melodrama. Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) one time Draper nemesis, deals with his father's death in an airplane crash and his wife's infertility. Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis), the copywriter with pretentions of being artist, goes Bohemian, moving to New Jersey and dating a black woman, whom he will accompany on a Freedom Ride. Howard Crane (Rich Sommer) looks to the expanding world of television advertising, and an episode revolved around an airing of the show The Defenders, which really did broadcast a show about abortion. Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) is engaged to a doctor, who seems perfect but has a dark side.

Aside from Don and Betty, the main character of the show is Peggy Olsen, played magnificently by Elisabeth Moss. When we last left her she had given birth to Pete Campbell's child (no one knew she was pregnant) and given it away. She spent some time off due to mental health concerns, but came back with a promotion. By the time the season ends she's a senior copywriter with her own office. Peggy is the representation of the burgeoning career woman at the time. She has managed to break through, while others bump against the ceiling. Joan, given a chance to review TV scripts for Howard, is disappointed when a man is hired to do it; Howard hadn't even thought of giving her the chance. A young secretary for Draper is fired by Joan for an indiscretion, but she manages to get to Sterling, who not only lets her keep her job, but ends up leaving his wife for her.

The season ends with Draper on a bizarre odyssey in Southern California, where he spends some debauched time with some jet-setters, and then confronts his past. I didn't buy it completely, as his character, up until then, seems like he would never sacrificed anything for his professional life, but then again his character has been completely unknowable.

The writers of the show are keenly aware of the events of the time. All sorts of events from 1962 make it into the plot, from the death of Marilyn Monroe to the Cuban missile crisis, which ends the season. Some of it seems shoe-horned in, but some of the little things resonated with me. Perhaps the most interesting scene was when Don and Betty have a picnic. When they pack up to leave, Don tosses his beer can aside and they leave all their garbage right on the grass. This truly was a different era, and was the kind of thing that would eventually make Iron Eyes Cody cry.