MAD MEN 1.6 – "Babylon"

Writers: Maria Jacquemetton & Andre Jacquemetton
Director: Andrew Bernstein

Cast: Elisabeth Moss (Peggy), Jon Hamm (Don Draper), January Jones (Betty), Christina Hendricks (Joan), Vincent Kartheiser (Pete), Rosemarie DeWitt (Midge), John Slattery (Roger Sterling), Michael J. X Gladis (Paul), Aaron Staton (Ken), Rich Sommer (Harry), Bryan Batt (Salvatore), Maggie Siff (Rachel Menken), Alexa Alemanni (Allison), George Alvarez (Waiter), Talia Balsam (Mona Sterling), Ian Bohen (Roy Hazelitt), Rebecca Creskoff (Barbara Katz), Candice Cunningham (Secretary #1), Eve Curtis (Secretary #2), Megan Duffy (Poetry Girl), Emelle (Secretary #3), Zacharian James-Jason Evans (Robert Draper), Jennifer Fitzgerald (Judy), Monica Ford (Secretary #4), Heather Fox (Ginger), Brynn Horrocks (Abigail Whitman), Britt Hysen (Secretary #5), Danny Jacobs (Yoram Ben Shulhai), Brandon Killham (Young Dick), Maura Murphy (Secretary #6), Joel Murray (Fred Rumsen), Rachel Oliva (Boarding House Girl), Bruno Oliver (Nick Fotis), Sarah Jannett Parish (Donna), Gordana Rashovich (Dr Greta Guttman), Elizabeth Rice (Margaret Sterling), Irene Roseen (Lily Meyer), Franklin Ruehl (Beatnik), Morgan Rusler (Mack Johnson), Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper) & Hrach Titizian (Mate Okos)

A secret office romance is revealed, Peggy impresses at a brainstorming session over lipstick, and Rachel faces her feelings for Don when he asks for her help...

"Roger, if you had your way, I would be stranded in
some paperweight with my legs stuck in the air."

-- Joan (Christina Hendricks)

There's a clear sense of change with Babylon, which takes time to develop the so-far underused characters of Joan (Christina Hendricks) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and pushes earnest Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) into an exciting new direction. The script, by Maria and Andre Jacquemetton (married or siblings?) is particularly memorable for some excellent two-hand scenes and a fresh-feeling throughout...

Following last week's revelation that Don (Jon Hamm) has a long-lost younger brother Adam, who he persuaded to disappear again with a $5,000 bribe, this episode finds Don having a childhood flashback after falling down some stairs at home while carrying a breakfast tray. The flashback doesn't reveal anything we didn't know already, as Don's "mother" Abigail (Brynn Horrocks) has just given birth to baby brother Adam, but I suppose it proves Don might be regretting his decision to turn his back on his family...

The advertising dilemma facing Sterling Cooper this week concerns the Israeli Tourism Bureau, with representative Nick Rodis wanting to turn Israel into a tourist destination for cruises. Later, Don seeks advice from potential squeeze Rachel Menkin (Maggie Siff), who is of Jewish descent and might have an interesting perspective on his latest project. Rachel only offers some background to Jewish sensibility; a people who have lived in exile for generations, first in Babylon and then all over the world, doing business with people who despise them.

Babylon's biggest surprise is its reveal that Sterling Cooper co-owner Roger Sterling is having a year-long affair with red-haired office worker Joan. Moments after seeing Roger's wife Mona (Talia Balsam) and 16-year-old daughter Margaret (Elizabeth Rice) in the office, we jump to Roger and Joan in a hotel room, moments after having sex. It seems to be a running feature of Mad Men that practically every employee, and employer, is playing away from home.

Ken (Aaron Staton) and Salvatore (Bryan Batt) poke their noses into copywriter Fred Rumsen (Joel Murray), who is trying to get a handle on a Belle Jolie brand of lipstick. A researcher called Dr. Greta Guttman (Gordana Rashovich) utilizes the Sterling Cooper female staff to help Fred, and the office girls are herded into a room to try on various lipstick shades. Quite creepily, all the men in the office have gathered in a secret room, viewing the girls through a one-way mirror lecherously. Roger is particularly bothered when the men salute Joan's hourglass figure.

After the research session comes to an end, Fred arrives to retrieve a bin overflowing with tissues marked with lipstick. The plan is to simply count up the most popular lipstick shade, but Peggy catches Fred's attention by poetically referring to the bin as "a basket of kisses". Intrigued by Peggy, particularly when she incisively concludes that she wouldn't want to be "one of a hundred different shades in a box", Fred later informs Don of his secretary's talent ("It was like watching a dog play piano.") As Peggy files some paperwork, she's informed by Joan that Fred wants her to write copy for Belle Jolie, in her own time.

Despite a touching early scene between Don and wife Betty, where she admits to spending every day just waiting to see him, Don still goes to see Midge (Rosemarie DeWitt) for sex at her apartment. However, their meeting is interrupted by Midge's friend Roy Hazelitt (Ian Bohen), who invites them to see a friend perform at a Greenwich Village club. Midge persuades an uncomfortable Don to attend, although he's not impressed by the arty atmosphere and Midge's plan to create an anti-establishment theatre with Roy. However, when Midge's friend Ian takes the stage, singing "By The Waters Of Babylon" on a mandolin, the music and coincidental choice of song touches him...

Can Mad Men put a foot wrong? This is exceptional drama with an ambience and quality that can't be punctured by claims of bad pacing. Babylon was particularly welcome because it opened up the show; giving characters like Joan and Roger Sterling better justification for being on the show, and putting new spins on them. Their relationship adds yet another layer of unease and complication.

And I particularly liked how Peggy looks poised for better things. Will she blossom from office caterpillar to corporate butterfly? Hopefully Fred Rumsen won't start claiming credit for Peggy's brainwaves with the lipstick project. If she has a natural flair for advertising, how long will it be before Peggy is accepted as part of the team? Years, I'm guessing. Her quirky success is being treated as an eyebrow-raiser for the men to chuckle over at the moment, but Elisabeth Moss is such an engaging actress to watch, I'm eager to see Peggy grow confident and give credible reason for a rethink regarding women in the workplace.

Don continues to bug me (as he should), as I don't understand why he strays from lovely Betty. Is it purely down to marital boredom, or are the seeds of his itchy feet yet to be fully revealed? It's possibly a hangover from something that happened in his childhood, so more flashbacks will hopefully shed light on this. The tender bedroom scene, with Betty opening up to Don about her dead mother and the extent of her infatuation with him, had me cursing Don's return to Midge for no-strings sex. But the writers manage to keep Don multi-faceted and never a one-note, unlikeable cheat.

If I'm worried about anything, it’s Mad Men's overuse of extramarital affairs. Pete slept with Peggy on the eve of his wedding in episode 1; Don is sleeping with someone behind his wife's back (and close to similar with a client); and now we discover Roger's sleeping with an employee! It's all handled well (and the other subplots are thankfully more diverse), but hopefully those three affairs are as far as it's going to go...

Overall, while not quite as memorable as other episodes, I loved the whole lipstick subplot for Peggy, and the Joan/Roger affair was a great way to invigorate those characters. There remains something very engaging about Mad Men – which I think stems from the undoubted brilliance in the writing and acting. It's a show that makes you feel comfortable and hasn't yet disappointed.


6 April 2008
BBC Four, 10.00 pm