In case you missed it - and based on ratings, pretty much everyone has - NBC moved Smash to Saturday nights a few weeks back. Not surprisingly, ratings have not improved and the move is pretty much a burn off. So how did a show that premiered with much acclaim in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot tank so quickly?
1. Too much too soon. For every character we were given a full professional and personal story, shoehorned into whatever space wasn't involved in a musical number. For every giggle we got from Eileen throwing another drink in Jerry's face, we had to suffer through Julia's interminable family dramas and Karen's boringly doomed relationship with Dev. Better to have focused on the relationships with a more direct tie to the show: Eileen and Jerry's divorce (which put Eileen's ability to produce the show in jeopardy) and Derek's pursuit of every leading lady he encounters.
2. Do you know how long it takes to get a show to Broadway? No? Neither does the show. We've heard on more than one occasion that it takes years to get a show to Broadway, but somehow Bombshell is violating the laws of space and time to get to its premiere. Even though it's had three different actresses in the leading role, has had a rewrite of its book, two different producers, and was shut down for a time during a Federal investigation. But if Karen could learn a new song in five minutes while the show was testing in Boston, anything is possible.
3. Lousy new characters. I'm thinking here of our Hit List duo, one who is so tormented by his art that he's a complete dick, and the other a total wuss. I have less of a problem with the latter (countless careers have been cut short due to a lack of confidence), but the former, yikes. To be that much of a jerk, and to have almost no explanation as to why he's that way, is a recipe for creating a character that has zero appeal. And then to have the show's one remaining romantic story line be between him and Karen? I was kind of hoping that when he went missing that time that he would never come back.
4. Ellis. Just because.
There are certainly other problematic things to point out - Ivy's sudden and out of character turn to pills, for example - but it would get to piling on fairly quickly. Smash should have been a smart, adult alternative to Glee (itself an example of "who needs a coherent plot when we've got songs!"), and it showed that promise in the pilot, but couldn't keep things going. Maybe it takes years to get a show about Broadway to the small screen?
Friday, April 26, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "To Have and to Hold"
Three Up
1, Harry Crane. A surprisingly positive episode for Harry, who comes up with a solution for Ken's problem with Dow Chemical (a one hour special Dow sponsors of stars singing Broadway tunes, starring Joe Namath), a couple of bold statements about deserving a partnership, and successfully countermanding Joan when she tries to fire his secretary. And while Cooper and Sterling aren't looking likely to add Harry as a partner, his threat of leaving is taken at least semi-seriously. Harry will find a way to screw this up, but it's a good moment for him.
2. Sylvia Rosen. We don't see much of her, and in what we do see she's either planning an assignation with Don or carrying it out, but her statement at the end that she prays for Don so he'll find peace is much more insightful than what we've heard from Don's other side pieces (or either of his wives, truth be told). As much as she wants to be with Don, she sees that it's more important that he calms the turmoil that's causing him to step out.
3. Stan Rizzo. He gets to work on the secret Project K (the firm's secret pitch for Heinz Ketchup), which allows him to work in private in a locked room, which allows him the peace to work and the ability to smoke pot whenever he wants (he even gets to share a toke and a smile with Don). And when both SCDP and CHC get beaten out for the account, he even gets to give Peggy the finger for spilling the secret (though it seems like he wasn't completely pissed at her).
Honorable Mention: the late 1960s. We got spy music for Project K, the Electric Lounge, swingers and Harry's secretary in go-go boots. Groovy.
Three Down
1. Don Draper. On the personal front, Don's winds up being too traditional to handle his wife kissing as part of her job, and compares it to being a prostitute. He continues to have his affair with Sylvia, but can't handle that she's praying for him. And at work he not only fails to land Heniz Ketchup, he may have lost the beans account. Probably for the best that he doesn't know that his secretary almost got fired.
2. Megan Draper. The good news is that she's getting a larger role on her soap. The bad news is that she now has love scenes, which means kissing and stuff. Don't not wild about the idea, and is even less happy when he watches a taping. This leads to a fight where Don basically calls her a whore. And in the middle of this, she and Don get hit on by the soap's head writer and his wife, who are swingers. Work has never been so awkward.
3. Dawn Chambers. Speaking of awkward, Dawn gets caught punching out for Scarlett when the latter is out of the office for the afternoon. She tries to make amends for it later, but Joan responds by giving Dawn what appears to be more responsibility, but the additional tasks may very well make Dawn less liked by her colleagues. We also learn that Dawn is a friend's maid of honor, and in their meetings we hear more from Dawn about her work - she likes it and wants to keep her job, but she's troubled by the amount of sadness in the office, and the amount of drinking. I was happy to see that Dawn was getting a story line, but wish for her sake it had been more positive.
Honorable Mention: Ken Cosgrove. After a weekend of listening to his father in law complain that no one likes Dow Chemical (and thinking that it's a dig at Ken and the firm), he gets help in that department from Harry of all people. And then he has to put out a fire with Heinz beans because they learn that the firm pitched to the ketchup division, which he'd expressly forbade. Ken's walking a bit of a tightrope with his father in law (having put his fate in the shaky and slightly clammy hands of Harry Crane) and may lose an account because other people at his firm went behind his back. Ken would have ranked higher if any of this was a a surprise.
1, Harry Crane. A surprisingly positive episode for Harry, who comes up with a solution for Ken's problem with Dow Chemical (a one hour special Dow sponsors of stars singing Broadway tunes, starring Joe Namath), a couple of bold statements about deserving a partnership, and successfully countermanding Joan when she tries to fire his secretary. And while Cooper and Sterling aren't looking likely to add Harry as a partner, his threat of leaving is taken at least semi-seriously. Harry will find a way to screw this up, but it's a good moment for him.
2. Sylvia Rosen. We don't see much of her, and in what we do see she's either planning an assignation with Don or carrying it out, but her statement at the end that she prays for Don so he'll find peace is much more insightful than what we've heard from Don's other side pieces (or either of his wives, truth be told). As much as she wants to be with Don, she sees that it's more important that he calms the turmoil that's causing him to step out.
3. Stan Rizzo. He gets to work on the secret Project K (the firm's secret pitch for Heinz Ketchup), which allows him to work in private in a locked room, which allows him the peace to work and the ability to smoke pot whenever he wants (he even gets to share a toke and a smile with Don). And when both SCDP and CHC get beaten out for the account, he even gets to give Peggy the finger for spilling the secret (though it seems like he wasn't completely pissed at her).
Honorable Mention: the late 1960s. We got spy music for Project K, the Electric Lounge, swingers and Harry's secretary in go-go boots. Groovy.
Three Down
1. Don Draper. On the personal front, Don's winds up being too traditional to handle his wife kissing as part of her job, and compares it to being a prostitute. He continues to have his affair with Sylvia, but can't handle that she's praying for him. And at work he not only fails to land Heniz Ketchup, he may have lost the beans account. Probably for the best that he doesn't know that his secretary almost got fired.
2. Megan Draper. The good news is that she's getting a larger role on her soap. The bad news is that she now has love scenes, which means kissing and stuff. Don't not wild about the idea, and is even less happy when he watches a taping. This leads to a fight where Don basically calls her a whore. And in the middle of this, she and Don get hit on by the soap's head writer and his wife, who are swingers. Work has never been so awkward.
3. Dawn Chambers. Speaking of awkward, Dawn gets caught punching out for Scarlett when the latter is out of the office for the afternoon. She tries to make amends for it later, but Joan responds by giving Dawn what appears to be more responsibility, but the additional tasks may very well make Dawn less liked by her colleagues. We also learn that Dawn is a friend's maid of honor, and in their meetings we hear more from Dawn about her work - she likes it and wants to keep her job, but she's troubled by the amount of sadness in the office, and the amount of drinking. I was happy to see that Dawn was getting a story line, but wish for her sake it had been more positive.
Honorable Mention: Ken Cosgrove. After a weekend of listening to his father in law complain that no one likes Dow Chemical (and thinking that it's a dig at Ken and the firm), he gets help in that department from Harry of all people. And then he has to put out a fire with Heinz beans because they learn that the firm pitched to the ketchup division, which he'd expressly forbade. Ken's walking a bit of a tightrope with his father in law (having put his fate in the shaky and slightly clammy hands of Harry Crane) and may lose an account because other people at his firm went behind his back. Ken would have ranked higher if any of this was a a surprise.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Collaborators"
Three Up
1. Trudy Campbell. Her bookend appearances run the gamut of the Campbell experience. It starts with Trudy flirtatiously fending off some of the neighbors (while their wives are just flirtatious with Pete, who can score them tickets to Hair). One of the wives shows up at Pete's Manhattan apartment and sees a little too much of a future with Pete, and her husband finds out. She tells Trudy, who has a short but highly effective confrontation with Pete the next morning: she knew all along what the purpose of the apartment was, but is now made foolish by his using it to bed women from the neighborhood.
So while Pete counters with divorce, Trudy fends that off, saying he's exiled unless called for and any further transgressions will lead her to destroy him. Seriously, she says destroy. Pete tries to make some comeback about her sleeping alone, but he knows he's in treacherous waters. And if you didn't know it before, be assured that Alison Brie is awesome.
2. Don Draper. On the personal side, he's still juggling Megan and Sylvia Rosen, made especially tricky when Megan confesses to a miscarriage and Sylvia tries to blame Don for their affair and how it makes their spouses look. Don's is gracious with Megan, saying she should have told him about the pregnancy and miscarriage, and calls Sylvia's bluff, saying that she's what he wants and that whatever she's feeling isn't about him. They, of course, are still a thing, though Don does push things a bit by showing up at the Rosen apartment while Dr. Rosen is home. At the end Don sits down in the hallway in front of his apartment door; he's managing things, but for how long?
(We also get some young Don, where he and his mom move into a whorehouse run by his aunt after Don's father dies, giving us some idea of how Don formed his approach towards women as well his mindset of keeping his assignations compartmentalized.)
On the professional side, Don has to deal with Herb the Jaguar dealer, who wants to move most of their ad money to local radio to drive sales. Don hates the idea, but in the meeting with Jaguar oversells the idea so as to sour the top brass on it. It's Don Draper using his powers for evil.
3. Ted Chaough. So much for his marriage retreat, Ted's back in charge and finds that he can exploit Peggy's friendship with Stan as a way to get an account that SCDP is nominally in the market for. Getting a win over Don and company, even when they're not really competing, may be Ted's favorite thing.
Honorable Mention: Roger Sterling. He's only in the episode for a couple of minutes, but they're a good couple of minutes. From his smirk during the Jaguar meeting to his having to explain the Munich Accords to Pete to misquoting Churchill, it's vintage Roger.
Three Down
1. Pete Campbell. Poor dumb Pete. He thought he was being so suave with the Manhattan apartment, but his plan to be the Don Draper of accounts was doomed to fail from the start as he never realized that Trudy is smarter than him. He also can't choose a mistress for beans. His divorce threat is baseless, given the potential payouts to support Trudy and Tammy combined with losing his father in law's business. And then he tries to back Herb's plan for Jaguar's ad campaign and doesn't see Don coming. I'm having a hard time figuring if Trudy's evisceration was worse than Lane punching Pete out; the latter was awesome as a stand-alone incident, but the threat of Trudy lowering the boom has delicious anticipation, as you know it's going to happen eventually.
2. Peggy Olsen. Peggy realizes (or maybe just vocalizes) that she has no friends at work, and her attempt to buck up her staff is horrible, leading them to put a can of feminine powder on her desk with a campaign mock-up that more or less equates her with that not so fresh feeling. She also accidentally sells out Stan when she tells Ted about the Heinz meeting, which Ted wants to use to try to get the ketchup account. Peggy's learning some tough lessons about her profession, which she either didn't or couldn't learn while working for Don.
3. Don Draper's Women. Megan has a miscarriage and feels guilty because (a) she's kind of glad it happened and (b) she never told Don she was pregnant. Sylvia wants to call of their affair, but finds she can't after Don bluntly explains his desire for her and why she's full of it when she tries to put the burden on to him. Joan (here as Don's only female friend) has to deal with Herb during his first visit to the office, which puts Don's hackles up even before hearing Herb's stupid radio plan. You can even throw Don's mom into this, as she has to move her son into a brothel, which rankles her Christian sensibilities and makes her fearful for Don's moral well-being. And rightfully so.
Honorable Mention: Bob Benson. Still smarmy, but kind of getting the points that he needs to reel it in a bit. Though at the end of the episode he seems to be hitching his star to Pete, which at this juncture seems like a really poor idea.
1. Trudy Campbell. Her bookend appearances run the gamut of the Campbell experience. It starts with Trudy flirtatiously fending off some of the neighbors (while their wives are just flirtatious with Pete, who can score them tickets to Hair). One of the wives shows up at Pete's Manhattan apartment and sees a little too much of a future with Pete, and her husband finds out. She tells Trudy, who has a short but highly effective confrontation with Pete the next morning: she knew all along what the purpose of the apartment was, but is now made foolish by his using it to bed women from the neighborhood.
So while Pete counters with divorce, Trudy fends that off, saying he's exiled unless called for and any further transgressions will lead her to destroy him. Seriously, she says destroy. Pete tries to make some comeback about her sleeping alone, but he knows he's in treacherous waters. And if you didn't know it before, be assured that Alison Brie is awesome.
2. Don Draper. On the personal side, he's still juggling Megan and Sylvia Rosen, made especially tricky when Megan confesses to a miscarriage and Sylvia tries to blame Don for their affair and how it makes their spouses look. Don's is gracious with Megan, saying she should have told him about the pregnancy and miscarriage, and calls Sylvia's bluff, saying that she's what he wants and that whatever she's feeling isn't about him. They, of course, are still a thing, though Don does push things a bit by showing up at the Rosen apartment while Dr. Rosen is home. At the end Don sits down in the hallway in front of his apartment door; he's managing things, but for how long?
(We also get some young Don, where he and his mom move into a whorehouse run by his aunt after Don's father dies, giving us some idea of how Don formed his approach towards women as well his mindset of keeping his assignations compartmentalized.)
On the professional side, Don has to deal with Herb the Jaguar dealer, who wants to move most of their ad money to local radio to drive sales. Don hates the idea, but in the meeting with Jaguar oversells the idea so as to sour the top brass on it. It's Don Draper using his powers for evil.
3. Ted Chaough. So much for his marriage retreat, Ted's back in charge and finds that he can exploit Peggy's friendship with Stan as a way to get an account that SCDP is nominally in the market for. Getting a win over Don and company, even when they're not really competing, may be Ted's favorite thing.
Honorable Mention: Roger Sterling. He's only in the episode for a couple of minutes, but they're a good couple of minutes. From his smirk during the Jaguar meeting to his having to explain the Munich Accords to Pete to misquoting Churchill, it's vintage Roger.
Three Down
1. Pete Campbell. Poor dumb Pete. He thought he was being so suave with the Manhattan apartment, but his plan to be the Don Draper of accounts was doomed to fail from the start as he never realized that Trudy is smarter than him. He also can't choose a mistress for beans. His divorce threat is baseless, given the potential payouts to support Trudy and Tammy combined with losing his father in law's business. And then he tries to back Herb's plan for Jaguar's ad campaign and doesn't see Don coming. I'm having a hard time figuring if Trudy's evisceration was worse than Lane punching Pete out; the latter was awesome as a stand-alone incident, but the threat of Trudy lowering the boom has delicious anticipation, as you know it's going to happen eventually.
2. Peggy Olsen. Peggy realizes (or maybe just vocalizes) that she has no friends at work, and her attempt to buck up her staff is horrible, leading them to put a can of feminine powder on her desk with a campaign mock-up that more or less equates her with that not so fresh feeling. She also accidentally sells out Stan when she tells Ted about the Heinz meeting, which Ted wants to use to try to get the ketchup account. Peggy's learning some tough lessons about her profession, which she either didn't or couldn't learn while working for Don.
3. Don Draper's Women. Megan has a miscarriage and feels guilty because (a) she's kind of glad it happened and (b) she never told Don she was pregnant. Sylvia wants to call of their affair, but finds she can't after Don bluntly explains his desire for her and why she's full of it when she tries to put the burden on to him. Joan (here as Don's only female friend) has to deal with Herb during his first visit to the office, which puts Don's hackles up even before hearing Herb's stupid radio plan. You can even throw Don's mom into this, as she has to move her son into a brothel, which rankles her Christian sensibilities and makes her fearful for Don's moral well-being. And rightfully so.
Honorable Mention: Bob Benson. Still smarmy, but kind of getting the points that he needs to reel it in a bit. Though at the end of the episode he seems to be hitching his star to Pete, which at this juncture seems like a really poor idea.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Doorway"
So if you're someone who never quite associated depression with holidays, this episode probably took care of that. Glad it's April, honestly. Anyway, back to determining what three characters had the best episode and which three the worst.
Three Up
3. Megan Draper. Things are working out for Megan. Since we've last seen her she's landed a role on a soap opera, and she enjoys the hell out of taking a working vacation to Hawaii with Don. She continues to be a breath of youthful fresh air for Don and their neighbors (she hosts a New Year's Even fondue party), but there's trouble lurking that she doesn't know about, which puts her current state of contentment at risk.
2. Betty Francis. Betty begins to break away from the path she was put before matriculating at Bryn Mawr, but in perhaps the most Betty way possible. A friend of Sally's who is supposedly going to Julliard admits to Betty that she was rejected, and plans to move in with squatters in the East Village. Both the friend and the squatters have some harsh words for Betty and how she's lived her life based on others, and in the end this strikes a chord, and Betty stops looking for Sally's friend. She also decides to let her hair go to its natural brunette color, a small but significant step in claiming her own life (I'm wondering what's next: abandoning the battle of the bulge or a blow out with her mother in law; I'm hoping for the latter).
I was toying with giving Betty the top spot, but I don't think you can win if you're taking life lessons from 15 year olds. She also had this scene where was talking to Henry about Sally's friend and gave him permission to sleep with her (she actually says rape at one point), a little uncomfortable.
1 Peggy Olson. Peggy finally gets the validation for her work she never got from Don when an ad campaign for headphones gets caught up in news from Vietnam ("Lend Me Your Ears" isn't a great tag line when there's news that GIs are taking ears as trophies from dead enemy troops). She has her Don moment when Abe is using the headphones during a dinner visit, reminder her of outtake footage from the TV ad they shot for the Super Bowl.
We do get to see that she's still Don's protege in some cases - she's very rough on copywriters and has most of the team in the office on New Year's Eve, when she already has a solution in hand. Perhaps these will smooth down as she gets more independent.
Honorable mention: facial hair. Pete has grown out his sideburns a bit as part of his ongoing campaign to distract people from noticing he's going bald. Harry has even longer sideburns as part of his ongoing campaign to be as douchey as possible. Roger seems to be growing a bit of a pompadour, Stan has a beard like Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, Abe looks like Paul Rudd in Anchorman, and even Ginsberg gets in on the act.
Three Down
3. Bob Benson. Benson is a relatively new accounts guy at SCDP, and he's very aggressive about trying to make contact with the higher-ups. He "runs into" Don on the elevator and gives him coffee. He sends food to the memorial to Roger's mom. He hangs around in the outer areas of the office trying to cadge time with others. On that last trick Ken sends Bob back to his office, and with no love lost. Bob's clearly trying to move up quickly, and while his moves here generally backfire, it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to play the game.
2. Don Draper. Don's trip to Hawaii, already a business event, takes on an uncomfortable personal dimension when Don meets a drunken GI at a bar and, after some discussion about being veterans, winds up giving away the bride when the GI gets married the following morning. The GI bears a passing resemblance to Adam, and Don spends the rest of the episode trying to forget the occasion, even throwing away the GI's lighter, which he apparently swapped for his own.
The stink of death more or less follows Don throughout the episode, from the near-death of the doorman at Don's building (pre-Hawaii, seen in flashback) to the memorial to Roger's mom (at which Don shows up drunk and throws up), to the ad campaign for the Sheraton Hawaiian Village that reminds one of the hotel execs of suicide (most of the SCDP don't see this connection, except for Stan, who thought it was cool).
And while we never do learn if Don took that woman up on her offer at the end of last season, we do learn that he's reverted back to form with the wife of a neighbor, the cardiologist who saved the life of the doorman (and who appears to be as close to a non-work friend as Don has). He does have the self-awareness to realize their affair needs to end, if nothing else.
1. Roger Sterling. He's apparently traded in LSD for therapy, as we get a number of scenes where Roger is trying to work out his issues, which mostly center around his lack of purpose and a fear of death. It doesn't help, then, that his mother dies, and at the memorial he starts yelling at Mona's new husband. So throw into his other issues new (or newly articulated) feelings that he's let every woman in his life down. He does make partial amends in agreeing to invest in a trucking company his son in law is starting.
Roger doesn't hit the wall until he learns his shoeshine man has died, and he's inherited his shoebox as he's been the only person to call to ask about him. Roger breaks down while going through the box, probably realizing that he's shown more interest in a shoeshine guy than his family.
Honorable Mention: Sally and Bobby Draper. Sally spends pretty much the entire episode in some sort of teenaged snit aimed at Betty, while Bobby goes from having an obvious crush on Sally's friend to hating Betty's new dark hair. I expect Sally will continue acting like a teenager, but I can't begin to predict what Bobby's deal will be going forward.
Three Up
3. Megan Draper. Things are working out for Megan. Since we've last seen her she's landed a role on a soap opera, and she enjoys the hell out of taking a working vacation to Hawaii with Don. She continues to be a breath of youthful fresh air for Don and their neighbors (she hosts a New Year's Even fondue party), but there's trouble lurking that she doesn't know about, which puts her current state of contentment at risk.
2. Betty Francis. Betty begins to break away from the path she was put before matriculating at Bryn Mawr, but in perhaps the most Betty way possible. A friend of Sally's who is supposedly going to Julliard admits to Betty that she was rejected, and plans to move in with squatters in the East Village. Both the friend and the squatters have some harsh words for Betty and how she's lived her life based on others, and in the end this strikes a chord, and Betty stops looking for Sally's friend. She also decides to let her hair go to its natural brunette color, a small but significant step in claiming her own life (I'm wondering what's next: abandoning the battle of the bulge or a blow out with her mother in law; I'm hoping for the latter).
I was toying with giving Betty the top spot, but I don't think you can win if you're taking life lessons from 15 year olds. She also had this scene where was talking to Henry about Sally's friend and gave him permission to sleep with her (she actually says rape at one point), a little uncomfortable.
1 Peggy Olson. Peggy finally gets the validation for her work she never got from Don when an ad campaign for headphones gets caught up in news from Vietnam ("Lend Me Your Ears" isn't a great tag line when there's news that GIs are taking ears as trophies from dead enemy troops). She has her Don moment when Abe is using the headphones during a dinner visit, reminder her of outtake footage from the TV ad they shot for the Super Bowl.
We do get to see that she's still Don's protege in some cases - she's very rough on copywriters and has most of the team in the office on New Year's Eve, when she already has a solution in hand. Perhaps these will smooth down as she gets more independent.
Honorable mention: facial hair. Pete has grown out his sideburns a bit as part of his ongoing campaign to distract people from noticing he's going bald. Harry has even longer sideburns as part of his ongoing campaign to be as douchey as possible. Roger seems to be growing a bit of a pompadour, Stan has a beard like Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, Abe looks like Paul Rudd in Anchorman, and even Ginsberg gets in on the act.
Three Down
3. Bob Benson. Benson is a relatively new accounts guy at SCDP, and he's very aggressive about trying to make contact with the higher-ups. He "runs into" Don on the elevator and gives him coffee. He sends food to the memorial to Roger's mom. He hangs around in the outer areas of the office trying to cadge time with others. On that last trick Ken sends Bob back to his office, and with no love lost. Bob's clearly trying to move up quickly, and while his moves here generally backfire, it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to play the game.
2. Don Draper. Don's trip to Hawaii, already a business event, takes on an uncomfortable personal dimension when Don meets a drunken GI at a bar and, after some discussion about being veterans, winds up giving away the bride when the GI gets married the following morning. The GI bears a passing resemblance to Adam, and Don spends the rest of the episode trying to forget the occasion, even throwing away the GI's lighter, which he apparently swapped for his own.
The stink of death more or less follows Don throughout the episode, from the near-death of the doorman at Don's building (pre-Hawaii, seen in flashback) to the memorial to Roger's mom (at which Don shows up drunk and throws up), to the ad campaign for the Sheraton Hawaiian Village that reminds one of the hotel execs of suicide (most of the SCDP don't see this connection, except for Stan, who thought it was cool).
And while we never do learn if Don took that woman up on her offer at the end of last season, we do learn that he's reverted back to form with the wife of a neighbor, the cardiologist who saved the life of the doorman (and who appears to be as close to a non-work friend as Don has). He does have the self-awareness to realize their affair needs to end, if nothing else.
1. Roger Sterling. He's apparently traded in LSD for therapy, as we get a number of scenes where Roger is trying to work out his issues, which mostly center around his lack of purpose and a fear of death. It doesn't help, then, that his mother dies, and at the memorial he starts yelling at Mona's new husband. So throw into his other issues new (or newly articulated) feelings that he's let every woman in his life down. He does make partial amends in agreeing to invest in a trucking company his son in law is starting.
Roger doesn't hit the wall until he learns his shoeshine man has died, and he's inherited his shoebox as he's been the only person to call to ask about him. Roger breaks down while going through the box, probably realizing that he's shown more interest in a shoeshine guy than his family.
Honorable Mention: Sally and Bobby Draper. Sally spends pretty much the entire episode in some sort of teenaged snit aimed at Betty, while Bobby goes from having an obvious crush on Sally's friend to hating Betty's new dark hair. I expect Sally will continue acting like a teenager, but I can't begin to predict what Bobby's deal will be going forward.
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