Who is Don Draper?
That’s the question a journalist asks our Dapper Don to begin the premiere episode of the fourth season of “Mad Men,” which is ultimately, in itself, the premier show on basic cable television.
But, again, who is Don Draper? Well it’s changed a bit. It’s been about 11 months since we last saw him after all. At the end of “Mad Men” season three, everyone was recovering from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Now it’s Thanksgiving 1964, and Don is turning down a chance to go to fellow partner Roger Sterling’s Thanksgiving dinner, with someone that Roger set Don up with.
But let’s back up a bit: At the end of “Mad Men” season three, Don, Roger, Sterling Cooper and Lane Pryce all learn that the company is about to be sold — again — so they decide to form their own firm called, appropriately Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce. It all begins in a hotel room, but they eventually expand to two floors in the TimeLife building. Still not very swanky for Draper and Company’s old Madison Avenue digs. Plus, while they have chairs, they still do not have a conference table. But it will have to do.
In Don’s personal life, the riff between himself and Betty, mostly over Don’s secrecy about his past, causes the beginnings of a divorce. It probably did not help that Betty had developed an infatuation with another man — Henry Francis.
When season four begins, Don and Betty are already divorced. Henry and Betty are already married. So Don lives in a too-big house by himself, with a housekeeper that also seems unnecessary. Meanwhile, Betty and her children are having awkward Thanksgiving dinner with Henry and his family.
Thus ends the primer to just how messed up the new status quo of “Mad Men” truly is. But the “Mad Men” writers did not simply shift around the principle parts in order to create the facade of progress. These changes provide an interesting tableau for the characters to step outside their usual boxes.
Perhaps most entertainingly, in the first episode, Don’s personal life is definitely nagging at him because he is getting more and more easily frustrated in the workplace.
This situation sets itself up for high comedy in two scenarios. Firstly, in the beginning of the fourth season premiere, a handicapped Advertising Age journalist is asking Don, “Who is Don Draper?” Don decides to be mysterious and not say anything, which leads to a curt conversation with not many leads. As a result, an Advertising Age story comes out with lots of assumptions and little advertising of what Don’s new firm is doing. That article, in turn, makes a client drop an account. (Coming from a journalist by trade, what was Don expecting as a result? You gave him about two answers — both sentences. Where’s the story in that?)
The whole tizzy makes Don talk to a Wall Street Journal reporter — a bit of a step up in the world — and be transparently candid, telling the whole story about quitting and starting the new firm. The viewer is left, at the end of the episode, with wondering whether Don might have went too far in the other direction.
The other scenario that messed with Don’s psyche truly played for high comedy. A self-described “family company” wants Don’s firm to sell two-piece bikinis. Well, actually, the men behind this family company would rather you call them “bathing suits” than bikinis.
No-nonsense Don takes the opposite approach and presents a salacious, sexy ad, and he then goes into a spiel about how this family company will get trounced if it does not learn that sex sells. When they modestly turn down the ad campaign, he tells them to get out of his office.
To put it plainly, Don is a bit of a nervous wreck. In two of the more eye-rolling moments of the first episode, Pete and Peggy from creative both tell Don, in two separate, one-on-one conversations, that he is the reason everyone is there. And we all want to please you, Peggy says. It’s annoying because, while it may be true, it’s something no one would verbalize, especially since it’s the easiest way to diminish one’s own worth.
At the same time, why would Peggy and Pete have to say this if Don was not having low self-esteem and not feeling himself? Don has went from the man who did not want to fight in his divorce at the end of season three to one who wants his wife to leave the house and visibly sneers at Henry.
Meanwhile, his once better-half Betty looks as out of place with Henry as Don does by himself. Viewers have to wonder whether this separation will last.
At the same time, the split between Don and Betty is different from the soap opera trials and tribulations of loved ones in other shows. It somehow seems more meaningful, more representative of the progressive times of the 1960s that divorce is included. Maybe it’s simply a case of “Mad Men” getting the benefit of the doubt because it’s a period piece, but it seems like it’s actually going somewhere in this case.
An episode of “Mad Men” would not be complete without Pete and/or Peggy hijinx, and their proposal to cast two actresses to have a fight over the final turkey at a grocery store — right before Thanksgiving — provides laughs. It showcases the need for creative underlings in advertising firms to think outside the box and get noticed, even if it provokes cranky stares from Don if all turns out wrong.
There’s no doubt that the world of “Mad Men” has become topsy turvy with the new season, and after the layover since the end of “Breaking Bad,” it’s nice that AMC Sundays has gotten interesting again.
Just avoid “Rubicon,” no matter how many times AMC advertises reairs of that particular premiere.
