Mad Men Monday: Wee Small Hours
WEE HOUR
Mad Men Monday: Wee Small Hours Seems Like An Eternity Without Joan, Peggy
WHERE WAS PEGGY, WHERE WAS JOAN?
Last night's episode sucked even with a half bottle of wine in my system.
Without Joan, and hardly any Peggy, that means it's a sausage party, and the guys just aren't as intriguing. In fact, they're pretty hapless without these two around.
First off, Betty is carrying on this affair with Henry, the politician. She starts slowly by writing these flirty one-line letters and then he shows up unexpectedly at the house, arousing Carla's suspicions. So to distract Don, Betty throws this extravagant fundraiser at the house…and then Henry wisely doesn't show up. Angry, she goes to him, and he says that's the way it has to be because "you're married." To which Betty replies, "Oh." Right. That.
It's almost like Betty and Don are afterthoughts to each other. Sad. Especially since Don decides to start up with Sally's teacher again.
This show has become less about any actual Mad Men and more about whether Don or Betty is more promiscuous.
In the five minutes the writers could dedicate this week to Sterling Cooper, we see that Connie is still running Donnie through the ringer, calling him at all hours of the day and night to tell him about how Hilton Hotels will be on the moon someday.
I keep thinking that if only Connie could see his pointless bag of flesh granddaughter Paris right now, he might not be so hard on Don.
Not far away from this kind of abuse, Sal is being harassed by the Lucky Strike client, Lee. Although married, Lee is apparently gay, and he begins making the moves on Sal during an edit late one night. When Sal rebuffs his attempts to get closer, Lee storms out, then phones the pitiful Harry Crane to fire Sal. Naturally, Harry stammers about how he doesn’t have the authority (something we all knew LONG before Harry became Head of the Television Department). Then, stunningly, Harry chooses not to tell anyone. So of course, everything blows up in his face when Lee shows up for a meeting and Sal is there. Even Pete's all, “What the fuck?” about it. So this puts the finally-bothering-to-work Roger in a tizzy, and he immediately calls Don out on it. And Don rolls his eyes, then ducks out to go fuck Sally's teacher.
And that’s it. Seriously. Without Peggy or Joan, there's nothing interesting going on at the office. Thank GOD for Betty, or there’d be nothing worth watching.
I need another drink.
Miz J, who works in advertising, is a regular contributor and resident expert on all things Mad Men at Crabby Golightly.
Tags: Mad Men , Television
