‘Mad Men’ season 7, episode 1 review: Don Draper’s new ‘job’ is … patience?
“Mad Men” returned to television on Sunday night, and it wasted very little time at all in proving to us that all of those plane photos and videos actually meant something substantial. Travel was a major theme of the premiere “Time Zones,” as Don and Megan Draper found themselves living on two separate coasts.
But did Don learn something about himself in the process? The interesting thing is that we spent most of the episode wondering what Don was actually doing for a living right now, and if his revelations from last season’s finale stuck. If nothing else, we do know that he is at least downgraded on the cheating scale. Did he go over the line with his fellow airplane traveler? Sure, but compared to Sylvia and many of his other mistresses it was hardly anything at all. He spent his time with Megan, and then moved on.
Near the end of the episode, we found out that Don Draper still has a job, but it’s not exactly one that is considered normal. He’s getting paid to stay away, and sits inside his apartment and offers advisement. It’s a strange, almost-pathetic existence for a man who was once a king, but he seems to find some sort of pride in it. Not only that, but he feels committed to the notion that SC&P could actually bring him back. So much for Don not having his head in the clouds.
As for the rest of the story, it was solid, but also a little … disjointed? It was also mostly expected that Peggy is still amazing at her job, that Joan owns men who don’t treat her seriously, or that Roger Sterling is still a terrible person. The best moment of the subplots came in this few brief moments of Peggy, now isolated, alone, and frustrated by her life, started to tear up.
“Mad Men” is undoubtedly a phenomenal show, and there are phenomenal things that happen most of the time. It’s also extremely subtle, and in this case too much so and reliant on imagery of Don sitting out in the cold and exposing his true self. That one moment saved what could have otherwise been a letdown episode, since it gave us hope that once again, there is depth behind this man’s often-dead eyes that is not always apparent right away. Grade: B+.
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Photo: AMC