MadMen Episode 6 Review

In this episode Don starts out with a flashback after falling down the steps in his home. Then at his office he meets with a new client, a Jewish travel agency of some sort, who is trying to make new adds so more people would come to Israel. This is a struggle for Don because he is unsure of how to draw people for this business and knows very little about Jewish society or its story other than what he considers the mass "propaganda." He meets with a past client whom he has some feelings for about "her people." He gets a little bit of information and still has some feelings for her, which she is refusing to reciprocate but does have. Don then goes to see his artistic mistress but has some competition and reflects some while watching a performance in the midst of that tension.

Peggie and the other ladies are put into a room for some "brain storming," something that the admen have arranged in order to get some insights for a lipstick company they are working for. The men in the office all act like pigs even though they say that the women are the less intelligent/capable sex. This is summed up well in the singular comment made by one of the research and development guys when he tells Don that watching Peggie was like watching a "dog play piano."

This episode was racist and sexist, two of the biggest themes in this time period. The problems that come up between Don and his men and the Jews show just how much a problem there is among people groups. As for the battle of the sex's, there isn't much of a fight coming from the women's side, something that seems quite difficult to be remedied in the picture that is being given us. The men really do own the scene, making for the daily ruffing up of women and scandalizing of their personal lives. All around this episode shows us a difficult time for "foreigners" and non-men.

MadMen Episode 5 Review

This episode of MadMen was focused on two characters primarily, Don and Pete. Don begins his story with the acceptance of an award for his work at the company. This runs into the following day where he is called out to see his mistress for some "quality time." On what seems to be the following day he receives a call from someone who claims to be his brother, which he later confirms when he leaves the office and talks with him in a cafe. This makes him late for a photo shoot with the family and has him really distracted the whole day. That night he goes to visit with his brother and pays him off, telling him go start another life because he cant be a part of his.

Pete is having his own issues, dealing with what seems to be his own failure to be further along in his life and have made a name for himself. This is seen especially in his jealousy over a coworkers success in writing and publishing a story in a major paper. He tries to have his wife get an old boyfriend to publish it in a major paper as well and that ends with him upset over being in an unimportant paper and his wife feeling wronged by Pete because he would have had her damage her "purity" to him in order to have his story published in a better paper.

Two themes stick out in this episode. For Don's part of the story it's a question of what is important to him. Don has to choose between the success he has in his own life, the one he has created and manufactured around himself, fake though it may be, and the brother that he left behind so long ago. Don doesn't even once seem like he is going to pick his brother, but is rather fearful of what his brother surfacing would do to his life. He pays him off with a lot of money and I don't know what to think about his actions really.

Pete is dealing with the cost of success. Just how far are you willing to go in order to be "successful?" He is willing to put his own wife in a position that she never wanted to tangle with. The fact that he is so willing to use her in a brutal way like that is beyond my understanding of living. It brings into question why he actually married her. Is marriage jsut a way of getting what you want or do you marry to be with someone you care about. Don has brought this up in the past saying "love is a fantasy."