Let’s talk Mad Men– some media mavens have complained that it’s just stylized brilliance but, like a magpie, i like things with shiny surfaces so I’m a happy camper. Although season 2 lacked the vibrancy and big color of its debut season, I really thought season 2 brilliant in a quiet way. It made you think harder to make connections that will only resonate over time. I see season 2 as the 2nd act bridge, establishing storylines and characters that will pay off in the 3rd act/season 3. The crazy California episode, “Jet Set,” was so much fun. Don’s Palm Springs Weekend with the EuroTrash while Pete chased accounts with the emergent aerospace industry really cooked.  I loved the winks at  French New Wave movies. Apparently, the location for the Palm Springs house was the Fox Residence over in Chatsworth.

The season finale was a fine homage to Douglas Sirk, tipping us off that season 2 was deliberately melodramatic and gendered female. Perhaps season 3 will be influenced by “A Hard’s Day Night” and the Zapruder footage of the JFK assassination. And will be get to see Pretentious Paul Kinsey’s sojourn with the Freedom Riders?

I also thought this season was about the women of Mad Men and made me see that this show’s unspoke theme focuses on the absent mother. There is Don’s efforts to craft a self around an inner child longing to find that mother who abandoned him long ago. He’s a truly self-created man because he never knew or connected with the woman who conceived and carried him. I think that’s why he and Peggy connect so well. He understands what her unwanted pregnancy cost her and, perhaps, even relates to her as a standin for the mother who abandoned him.

Certainly, the first Mrs. Don Draper is THE surrogate mother for him and gave Dick Whitman life…as Don Draper. I loved there scenes together in San Pedro. She’s the only person who gives him unconditional love and shows him that he’s worthy of it. I liked how the writers did not sexualize their relationship and thought that was an amazing, previously unrevealed side of Don’s character.

Like the Sopranos, Mad Men is all about mother issues. There are father issues, too, but this show this season was about mothering. We got to see Pete’s cold, withering mother and Roger’s mother substitute/former babysitter, Miss Cooper, Bertram’s sister. She was a hoot and you can see where Roger got his sardonic sense of humor. I want to see more of her.

Betty’s maturation from child bride to “mean” mommy to slightly emancipated mad housewife was really great. It was painful to see her take her rage out on her children. I thought that I was watching scenes from my own 60s childhood and could understand my own mother’s
transgressions so much better.

I like Mad Men because it shows how our childhood traumas were made during that period. Sally Draper is one of the most fascinating children on TV right now. Her line readings break my heart. The scene where Betty catches her smoking and locks her in the closet was chilling. I also laughed at the book end moment when Betty gave Sally the riding boots before telling her the truth about the state of her family. Betty may have scarred Sally to always equate nice surprises with harsh revelations (gee, thanks mom. now my 35 year old self will have plenty to discuss with her therapist) but she also appropriately parented her child by reassuring her that everything would be OK and that she was prepared to let Sally remain her child, not her co-conspirator or confidant. I love seeing psycho therapeutic behavior modeled for an unsuspecting audience.

I also liked it that Betty is letting go of her own absent mother issues and moving into a state of agency. I was so glad that she got a zipless f#ck of her own. That EP was great in reflecting the anxiety of the missile crisis yet speaking to our own current state of dread and anxiety about this Most Excellent, if not Great, Depression we are in.

Peggy really came into her own this season as well. I loved how she willed to power her own office and now she’s becoming Joan’s mentor, rather than vice versa. The office operator negotiating her way up the ladder with the corp boyz was fun..

In the final scene, after Peggy told Pete the truth, are we supposed to infer that the infant we’ve been seeing all season really is the biological child of her sister and that Peggy gave her kid away? Or is Matt Weiner messing with us some more. I loved the last shot of Pete sitting in his office with his shot gun.

now that the Mad Men season is over, all i have left to watch are True Blood and Sons of Anarchy. once those series conclude, I’m canceling premium cable to cut costs.

Speaking of cutting costs, how stupid was this week’s kerfuffle over Mad Men creator, Matt Weiner’s contract negotiations? Shame on Nikki Finke for taking CAA’s bait and using the media to negotiate a better deal for Matt with Mad Men’s production company, Lionsgate. Both of parties are in the wrong: it’s like watching a duel on the decks of the Titanic. Mass media is imploding and these guys are just preening their egos in public as a negotiation tactic.