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When I reviewed the start of the fourth season of Mad Men, I hoped that it could maintain the magnificent form and excitement of the third season finale. Now that we’re halfway, I have to say it's certainly lived up to expectations. Mad Men tends to start out relatively slow and build to a wonderful height by the end, but this season has come out all guns blazing.
The first seven episodes have very much charted the downward spiral of Don Draper. There are still flashes of his genius (such as his dealings with the people at Honda) but, on the whole, he’s become a slightly pathetic drunk, with a particularly low point coming early on when he slept with his secretary and then essentially made her feel like a prostitute the next day. But the absolute lowest point came last week, as an overeager Don made the most of his post-award winning euphoria by drunkenly pitching to some clients, and stealing an idea from a terrible potential copywriter. To see him drunkenly rehash his stunningly poetic Carousel pitch from the first season finale was honestly one of the most painful things I ever had to watch.
But this season has also been about the rise of the next generation. Things are working out pretty well for Pete Campbell, who is getting both the home life and success at the office that he always longed for. At the same time, Peggy continues to be amazing, embracing the counter culture and awesomely silencing the odious Stan by calling his bluff and stripping in front of him.
Which brings us to this week’s episode, ‘The Suitcase’. Bar a few scenes at the beginning and the end of the episode, this was essentially a two-hander between Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, as Don drags Peggy into working all through the night to try and avoid having to phone California, where he knows that news of Anna’s death is waiting for him. Anna was the one person who knew all about him and yet still loved him, and her upcoming death was a big factor in his collapse this season.
It’s a truly stunning episode, with the two actors completely lighting up the screen as two people who know and understand each other completely. It’s the kind of episode that a programme can only do this far into its run, as the two characters can talk about things without having to say what they’re talking about, such as their discussion of Peggy’s secret pregnancy. Moss’s quiet delivery of the word “playgrounds” is some of the best acting you’ll see anywhere. And the last scene, where he acknowledges what has happened between them by putting his hand on hers in a gesture that recalled her attempt at seducing him in the programme’s very first episode, was magnificent and hopefully indicative of some real growth in their relationship.
With Anna’s death, Don realises that Peggy loves him in the same way she did – not romantically, but completely. Hopefully this revelation will be enough to snap him out of the self-destructive mode that he’s been on all season. If the next six episodes are as good as the first seven, Mad Men fans are indeed in for a treat.
Mad Men continues on Wednesdays at 10pm on BBC4.
Having finished the whole series already I can happily say you will be left in plenty of suspense for series 5. Fantastic stuff.
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