Friday, May 17, 2013

Mad Men “New Amsterdam”


Finally, Mad Men starts getting good.  This episode revolves mostly around Pete.  Introducing Trudy, his wife played by the beautiful Alison Brie, and creating sympathy with the audience by showing his cold father and his lack of control with his wife.  On top of those problems, he almost ruins his future at Sterling Cooper by overstepping his responsibilities with a client.  He is only saved by his name, which is coincidentally the only thing his father will consent to him getting from his parents.

I like the decision to set up an episode around the character who, I believe, is supposed to be one of the main antagonists of the story, or at least this season.  He has been at odds with Draper since the first episode.  This episode gives the audience a reason to sympathize with the person who will be challenging the main character throughout the story.  This creates less of an evil presence and allows you to understand Pete’s motivations as he further complicates Draper’s life.  In fact, I did feel a little sorry for him at the end as he stands in his empty apartment looking on as his wife entertains the neighbors with a story of his heritage, him coming from a popular family must make this interesting to them.  Anyway, you can feel his loneliness and inefficacy as he stares from his own empty corner at the people around him.  If he wasn’t such a dick most of the time I’d feel worse for him.

This series is starting to pick up for me.  The synopsis of the next episode promises secrets, so hopefully that will be the episode that solidifies Mad Men in my collection of shows that I must watch.

No comments:

Post a Comment