The Televangelist: ‘Mad Men,’ Season 5, Eps 1-2
“A Little Kiss” was like a peck on the cheek, a “welcome back, doll” before the inevitable, “now let’s get down to business!”
- AMC.com
- 1966: The year Don Draper smiled
Zoo be zoo be zoo my darlings! It’s 1966 and you don’t have to tell me you love me, I already know.
“A Little Kiss” started out with a definite lack of love for protesting African-Americans outside of the Y&R building, a theme that ran throughout the episode and finally gave voice to a movement that “Mad Men” had previously more or less ignored. Will Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce get a secretary of color, or will Lane “accidentally” misplace those resumes? Though SCDP has a long way to go in terms of understanding and accepting their brethren fighting for equality, last night’s episode was in its own way quite progressive.
Season Five didn’t make a huge time jump like some prior seasons of the show, but the characters feel very changed all the same. For those wondering how Don’s impulsive marriage to secretary-turned-nanny-turned-sexpot-wife Megan was going, the answer is: Don is happy! Or as close to happy as Don can be. Holding hands with Megan in the halls at work, rushing home when he finds out she’s upset, attempting to have sex with her 24 hours a day (unless after a party) — this is an openly freer Don than we’ve ever seen. And Megan handles Don in a partially giggly, partially petulant way that seems to work most of the time. Despite Don’s annoyance at the surprise party (and having “his soul leave his body,” as Lane put it, during Megan’s song), he made things right with his wife first by grabbing her by the hair and having sex on their dirty carpet — which is a very Don thing to do — but more importantly afterwards he used his words, and actually communicated with her on the issue. Bravo. See? Progress!
I read in some fan forums last night and also heard from friends that there was a disappointment in the lack of action in “A Little Kiss.” But “Mad Men” has never been about getting from Point A to Point B, it’s about immersing us in a world and enjoying the sense of being a fly on the wall while these familiar faces interact. One of the reasons the first season of the series was so slow-going is because we didn’t know our principle cast well enough to care, necessarily, about one of them wanting a bigger office. But as every face appeared on screen last night after a 17-month absence, it was a joy to pick up with them where they left off. “A Little Kiss” was like a peck on the cheek, a “welcome back, doll” before the inevitable, “now let’s get down to business!”