If I were Will Graham (from Hannible) I do not think I would want to step into Don Draper's mind, in fact, I doubt I would want to step into any of the men's minds at SCDP. The self loathing, alcoholism, narcissism, womanizing, etc...has become too much. This show has spent six seasons with characters that have not improved (as human beings) in any way or form, they continue to guide from one disaster to the next and, if this season opener is anything to go by, do not seem to show any signs of improving. Anyone who enters their orbit gets sucked in, destroyed then spit out. Relationships have been destroyed, marriages ended, businesses lost and lives ended.
How do we root for these people? Anyone got an answer? Roger Sterling's wit does not count!
I think, quite rightly, that Don is at the center of this problem. Donald Draper loves to live his life like the ads he sells. They capture a moment, are perfect and there is minimal depth...they are temporary.
The problem with this approach? Like creating new ads when the old ones go stale, Don has to restart his whole life and thus try and capture that loss of temporary happiness. People have being calling out Don for 6 seasons now, and he has yet to even change slightly. Rachael Mekan called him a coward when he tried to dump his family and kids and start over, back in season 1. Roger told him in the season 3 finale that he does not value relationships, unless he can exploit them. Faye told him that he only likes relationships when they are new and fresh. In season 5, once it became apparent that Megan was human and was flawed, Don was.....done! One could say that Megan did herself in, Connie told Don that he does not like people who cry and moan about not having what it takes and it turns out that (due to both him and Connie starting from nothing) that Don does neither, and did not like Megan crying and using him to succeed. Now in season 6 it has become very apparent that Don is back at it, fucking anything that moves, if anyone even doubted that Don did not go home and fuck those two girls at the bar, man were they mistaken. Megan not being perfect, like Betty, awoke him to a new reality and has left him back at square one. I like to think that when he was looking at Megan's reel last season, he was looking at what he thought was perfection...then realized that she was just using him to get where she needed to go...I like to think that he finally saw through her.
To be honest is anyone really surprised? Don told Ken's father on law that happiness is temporary, and its affects are temporary, and the only way to fix that is to keep starting afresh and creating a new campaigne that convince people that this product will make them happy all over again. Sound familiar?
There! right there is how Don lives his life, not happy at work - start a new agency! Not happy at home - start a new family with a new wife and a new home and a new life! someone disappoints you like Lane or his brother - get rid of them!
There is no inbetween with Don, there is no depth really and that is both interesting and annoying. Roger confirms this with his whole doors speech, Pete confirmed this mindset last season with his temporary bandage on a permanent wound metaphor. These are unhappy men with no idea how to cope with becoming irrelevant in a country that is going through its most drastic change.
I do have some hope though. This premiere was rife with callbacks to Don's mom, his dad, the real Don Draper (lighter!), his brother, Lane and others. It became obvious that Don is really feeling the guilt of all the deaths that have enveloped him. He asks the doorman what it is like, but really he needs to know that it is a wonderful experience, like the one he experienced in Hawaii. He needs to know that it is a warm, nirvana like experience that will help him find a way to absolve himself from the tragedy's that he is directly or indirectly been responsible for. The soldiers lighter kept reminding him of these very issues and he tried to get rid of it, but the lighter kept coming back. As Don said in the final moments, he wants to stop doing this, but life will not allow that, it is not how it works.
If Don realized that he is rotten, and has to take responsibility for all the shit that has reined in on his head, then he has to change.
If this season is about Don finally trying to find a way to change himself in a deep and meaningful way, then there may be hope for him yet. His ad to the hotel people may have been about a man wanting to shed his skin and leave footprints in the sand that get washed away, so there is no evidence left of the impact he made, but this is no longer good enough....Godspeed Don Draper.
As for the rest of the people in this universe...
Roger = Awesome! Oh Roger, the last person on this world that told you it is ok to be who you are, is now gone. I hope this realization that skating through life is not good enough, finally snapped him into a man who is going to fight a lot harder to leave a lasting legacy.
Peggy = You go girl! Awesome! Peggy is now Don Draper, long may that continue.
Stan = Awesome! I love that the sole source of all the Reefer stench that envelopes the agency is Rizzo chain smoking joints, never change brother. So, so, so funny...him telling Don (while he obviously had the munchies and was trying to stuff as much food down is mouth as possible) that he liked the suicide imagery, fantastic, all the Reefer has given him the kind of enlightenment that most of the youth in that era got, as time goes by those ads will become more and more relevant. Basically he does not give a shit, Vie con diaz brother!
Pete = when are you going to get punched again?
Joan = Awesome.
Ginzo = Shut the fuck up!
Harry = You skeezy fucking son of a bitch, never change, I love you!
Betty = Just fucking die.
Not a bad start, I hope they can really change these people, I really do.
Grade: A-
What do you guys think?
Shawn Mahone
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