‘MAD Men” is a complex creature, effortlessly cool and relentlessly shocking.
It thrives on the deep secrets of its characters.
In an age where reality shows have made superstars out of manipulating fame whores, the old school drama of “Mad Men” remains unpredictable, providing more questions than answers.
Fans are left to surmise their own plot developments and take stabs at how the stories from last season will pan out. Given the sheer number of unanswered questions in the series thus far, there’s a lot of room for speculation.
What does the future hold for both the brass and the rank-and-file of 1960s Madison Avenue ad shop Sterling Cooper after its merger with British agency Putnam, Powell and Lowe?
Will leading man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his wife Betty (January Jones) move forward together now that he’s back from his debauchery-filled West Coast trip and she’s carrying a child she didn’t want?
And speaking of buns in the oven, what happened after junior copywriter Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss) spilled to married account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) that she not only bore his illegitimate child but also gave it away?
With the premiere just about two weeks away, the promos for “Mad Men” have been all style and no substance, focused on the visual details for which the show has become famous — the attention to detail with respect to clothing, set design, social mores and even product placement. Not a peep about what to expect this season, story-wise.
All you’re allowed to know is that Episode 1, entitled “Out of Town,” picks up at some point after the corporate merger. And not surprisingly, given the title, there’s also a business trip for devilishly handsome Don and suave but closeted art director Sal Romano (Bryan Batt).
In a season that creator Matt Weiner has said will be all about change, here’s what does not: the show’s ability to make us outwardly uneasy but inwardly thrilled at the same time.
The characters of “Mad Men” pretend to have it all while yearning for what’s out of reach, with characters you both love and despise, in situations you identify with but wish you didn’t.
Creative director Don has a shady past and an unenviable present, despite the fact that he’s a successful and handsome executive with the requisite beautiful home, wife, kids, car, corner office, you name it. His knockout wife Betty is devastatingly sad, plainly disdainful towards their children and pathetic in her realization that she simply isn’t enough to keep her husband satisfied.
Dramatically, these characters are dangerous because of what we don’t know about them and what has the potential to happen when we find out.
Pete is a smarmy, desperate, self-absorbed weasel who would screw over a co-worker and his mother to get what he thinks he’s entitled to. He could be even uglier with the right provocation, which is why it’s so unsettling that we are left wondering what happens when he learns the truth about what happened to his child.
And what’s with Peggy, who chose to pretend as though the kid didn’t exist rather than threaten her blossoming career?
We know that Sal’s been covering up his sexual preference for some time now. We know that sassy office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) is not as happy in her engagement as she seems. We know that Roger Sterling (John Flattery) left his wife to be with 20-year-old secretary Jane Siegel (Peyton List) and put Sterling Cooper in the balance to avoid financial ruin. And we know that Don constantly wrestles with his inability to keep it in his pants.
There’s so much that’s just waiting to break.
You can gloss it up all you want with chain smoking and period-perfect furniture. But it’s the seedy underbelly of “Mad Men” that keeps it going.