TV Review: Mad Men 2.6

Posted by Josh Radde (josh@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 1, 2008

Mad Men, AMC, Airs Sunday 10/9c
“Mad Men” may have already started its second season, but that won’t stop us from picking up . The good news is that if you have Comcast you can catch up on the first 6 episodes of season two On Demand and if you have Netflix or a Blockbuster card you can pick up season one (or if you have AMC you can pretty much tune in anytime since it’s basically the channel’s only original programming).

Episode: “Maidenform” (Season Two, Episode 6)

Synopsis: Don Draper (Jon Hamm) continues one of his many illicit affairs. Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) and Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) are working together on a new idea for Clearasil. We meet Duck Phillips’ (Mark Moses) family and his dog, Chauncey (”Dogs are better than wives–never a problem communicating”).

Review: We begin to see Don thinking twice about his newest affair and we see Betty (January Jones) reject her equine-riding suitor once again. Pete Campbell continues to be one of the most interesting and hilariously blunt characters on television. His struggle to define himself as a man for the sake of being manly is the most interesting subplot in this series. The character of Duck gets fleshed out a little more, but the creators have really not given us enough creative ammo to even like/dislike the character yet (we do learn that he may have alcohol problems). Sterling (John Slattery) and Joan (Christina Hendricks) are not featured much in this episode and the overall hilarity and intrigue suffers. Coming after three straight heart-wrenching and deeply interesting episodes, “Maidenform” is a mid-season lull that hopefully won’t last very long. It does end, like so many of them do, with Don putting a woman in her place (”I told you to stop talking”) and Peggy bringing out her inner hotty. - Josh Radde

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