What do Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist have in common? They all played significant roles in tonight's Mad Men 6.12. Dick Cheney because Ken Cosgrove gets shot in the the face on the hunt - literally and figuratively - by client General Motors. Sunkist because Harry lands them as a client, which allows Don to stick it to Ted and Ocean Spray. But the best story concerned Rosemary's Baby, the 1968 supremely creepy movie by Roman Polanski about a guy who drugs out his wife so the devil can sleep with her and bear the devil's baby.No one is drugged in this episode of Mad Men, but Don is certainly a devil. Peggy has a brilliant idea for a St. Joseph's Aspirin ad - do a take on a Rosemary Baby's scene which culminates in the pitch for the aspirin from the baby's perspective. It's a wonderful ad, which had me laughing, but it comes with a big price tag, much more than St. Joseph's expected to pay.
Joan realizes this, but Don runs with it. He and Megan earlier bumped into Ted and Peggy in a movie theater, where all were seeing Rosemary's Baby, for different reasons. Ted and Peggy tell Don they needed to see the movie again to be sure about a scene, but Megan instantly realized there's something going on between Ted and Peggy, something more than business.
Don figures out a way to get St. Joseph to go for the expensive ad - at least with part of the cast - but in doing so manages to embarras Ted and Peggy. His real agenda, of course, is not only to sell the ad to St. Joseph, but indeed to embarras Ted and Peggy. Why? Don has been in competition with Ted since the merger, actually before as well, and whatever he may say (including to himself) to the contrary, the last thing he wants to see is Ted finding happiness with Don's girl Peggy. It's not that Don wants Peggy himself, it's that he doesn't want Ted to have her.
Peggy realizes some or most of this, and in one of the most satisfying verbal thrashings in the series, calls Don a "monster". In the pendulum of Don swinging from admirable to despicable, which is more often than not on the despicable side, Don achieved some pretty impressive lows tonight.
But the season is at some kind of high with the advertising and personal hardball it has been serving, and the season's finale is on cue for next week.
See also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ... Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool ... Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant
See also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale
See also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane
And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking! ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -
And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World
And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men
And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
#SFWApro
No comments:
Post a Comment