"Why is it whenever anything good happens, something bad has to happen?" - Peggy Olson
Peggy's question, coming on the heels of news that Lucky Strike has pulled out of the agency, might as well be about the series itself, which does take a particular joy in tormenting its characters just as they've achieved some semblance of happiness. It's a question about causality that's deeply rooted in her Catholic upbringing. Because Peggy is happy in her personal life, after tumbling into bed with Abe, does it mean that her work life has to fall into chaos as a result?
This week's stunning episode of Mad Men ("Chinese Wall"), written by Erin Levy and directed by Phil Abraham, seeks to examine the fallout from the Lucky Strike bombshell, a major blast that could signal the end for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce just as the fledgling agency finally got its wings. That the news would be delivered by an acquaintance of Ken Cosgrove rather than by Roger Sterling himself points to just how deep a state of denial Roger is in at the moment, unable to admit that he failed to keep his sole client happy and jeopardized the entire agency.
But, in keeping with Peggy Olson's pondering about the inner workings of the universe at large, all things--even our 1960s ad agency microcosm--tend towards entropy. That inexorable end looms large here as Don Draper attempts to rally the troops and send them into battle but there are certain wars, as everyone learned at the time, that can't be won.
The whiff...
Read the full article at Televisionary (http://www.televisionarytv.com).
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