The first season of Mad Men was brilliant. It had an original and interesting premise and setting, great casting and acting, high production values and fantastic period work. But it also had something else—a titillating mystery: Who was Don Draper?
The plot lines were fun and it was a fascinating look at how things might have been in the early ’60s in a Manhattan advertising firm. But what kept the over all plot line together was the slowly revealed back-story about who the main character Don Draper really was and how he got to be a top ad man in the New York with the “perfect” life that was, of course, anything but.
The rave reviews, media attention and awards the first season won were richly deserved. But once we knew who Don was, where would it go from there? The answer, at least in terms of the back-story was pretty obvious to me. I was certain that season two would explore what happened to the real Don Draper and what would happen if someone came looking for him and found his impostor, instead. I was close.
The way the mystery is revealed in season one was inspired. When the unscrupulous accounts manager Pete discovers the truth that Don stole someone else’s identity and attempts to blackmail him, Don doesn’t take the bait and neither does the head of the firm. An innovative technique was employed: it was a mystery that drove the story, but ultimately it didn’t really matter (at least not for Don’s professional life). Judging by seasons two and three, however, what the writers didn’t realize that it was the mystery that kept the show humming along as anything other than a nighttime soap opera, albeit a sophisticated one; but that’s what it’s become, a soap.
Season two was pretty good. But like anything fresh and original, it’s never as good the second time around. Some people argue that The Empire Strikes Back is a better film than Star WarsStar Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope as it was rebranded). On a technical level that might be true (we’ve learned since that Lucas really shouldn’t direct his own work), but what’s magical about Star Wars is that it’s original and Empire, as good as it is, is a sequel where the magical world was already set up. Similarly, the novelty of Mad Men was used up in the first season, so the plot had to keep it together, but it hasn’t.
In season two the mystery continues, buts sans good drama. It is revealed that the real Don’s widow tracked Don down, but it was years before the show started and he’s been friends with and supported her all these years. Unlike the first season mystery, it was simply revealed, almost as an afterthought, mid-season.
The show became the continuing story of loathsome people working in a cutthroat environment, plus that of Don’s insufferably miserable (albeit gorgeous) wife. The second season storyline also took a bizarre turn where Don and Pete go on a business trip to L.A. and instead of working, Don goes off with a socialite on an unrealistic and uninteresting adventure that takes him eventually back to the real Don Draper’s widow’s house. Despite this weird writing decision, the show’s second season won the Emmy for best show, which I think was a mistake.
The mystery was then ignored until towards the end of the lumberingly odd third season. Butt when Don's wife finally finds out his secret my reaction was, “Who cares?” The writers also made a very odd decision to skip ahead several months between seasons two and three, never fully filling in the audience on major events that happened during that time.
Most of season three was a jumbled mess of more and more things that also made me say, “Who cares?” These characters are horrible human beings, but unlike comedic characters like Jack Donaghy or Tracy Jordon on 30 Rock, or, Patsy and Edina on Absolutely Fabulous, (Archie Bunker, etc.) they aren’t funny. They are just relentlessly unhappy and, frankly, often insufferable people.
Perhaps the creators are trying to portray how depressing the ’60s were. The manipulative tear jerker, and ultimately empty “where were you when JFK was shot?” episode, might be an indication that this was, indeed, one of their goals. But I don’t watch TV to see how depressing other eras were (if the Tudors was realistic no one would watch). I prefer to be entertained and it’s been a long time since Mad Men felt like anything than a show about awful people being awful to each other; frankly it’s felt like a chore to watch for most of this season.
The only character I still care about is Peggy, the up and coming copywriter who started as Don’s secretary and was promoted to be the firm’s first female executive, all the while not knowing she was pregnant with Pete’s child (yet another plot line they bungled by retroactively deciding the baby had been given up for adoption, despite the fact that we clearly saw him in the care of her mother). But Peggy is not reason enough to keep watching.
Peggy had some nice moments with Don in tonight’s season finale. The episode was quite good and makes it clear that next season will be a big departure for the series. But the third season of this show overall wasn’t good enough to make me want to see where they go with it. Luckily, we now live in a world with DVRs and Netflix; if I hear that season four is good, I can always catch up. But for now, I won’t be tuning in to season four.
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