TV Review: Mad Men 2.8 – A Night to Remember
Posted by Josh Radde (josh@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 15, 2008
Mad Men, AMC, airs Sundays, 10/9c
Episode: “A Night to Remember” (Season 2, Episode 8)
Synopsis: Father Gill (Colin Hanks) returns to ask Peggy about more promotional activity for the church. Harry comes under fire from management because a TV Dept. snafu and looks to Joan for answers. Betty unknowingly makes an alcoholic purchase that helps Don in business, prompting him and Duck Phillips to promote beer to housewives.
Review: “Can we leave some room for the Holy Ghost?” Peggy and Father Gill are becoming quite a weird couple. The last time we saw him he was making a backhanded remark about her pregnancy, and now he’s charged her with making posters for a church-sponsored dance that is met with hilarious competition. Betty spends a lot of the episode angry, based on the information that Jimmy Barrett gave her in the last episode. There’s one moment that in a outburst of rage, she breaks a chair. But it’s not a manic, it’s slow and conscious and actually kind of frightening. There’s something brewing under the surface of Betty that could come out in a multitude of ways, and we’re only seeing the beginning of how potentially crazy she could be. The show is still pulling back layers of Duck’s personality, but he hasn’t been given a constant storyline to really care about. Even Harry has had a through-line in this season with the drama surrounding the TV department, and he’s a pretty minor character. I do wish that Pete would be given more to do, because sometimes all he does is sit in the background and make a hilarious joke or two in half of these episodes.
Up Next Week: Freddy Rumsen disappoints his team during a pitch. Pete finds an opportunity at the office to exploit while Don proves his loyalty to an old friend. Betty finds a welcome distraction in Sara Beth.
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