Spoilers. Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' triumphant arrival in Jersusalem before his crucifixion. This episode takes place around this festival and likewise sees a variety of characters in unfamiliar territory: a handsome young priest is hosted by the Olsen family, Don (Jon Hamm) spends more time at home with Betty (January Jones), and their daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka) is taken to Sterling Cooper.Covering three weekends, we spent more time with Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), who so far has the only storyline that seems to be stitched through the season. Here, she meets a young priest, Father John Gill (Colin Hanks), at a church service and finds herself immediately attracted to him. The feeling appears to be mutual, as Gill is soon guest-of-honour at the Olsen residence and requesting Peggy's advice to improve his public speaking skills after learning she works in Madison Avenue as a copywriter.
Sadly, the beginnings of a strong friendship look to be thwarted by Peggy's sister Katherine (Myra Turley), who lets Gill know Peggy has a child out of wedlock during a confession. While certainly a cruel act, it's clear that Katherine is just trying to punish Peggy for effectively dumping a child on her family to raise by themselves, while she ignores her maternal responsibilities and focuses on her fancy-pants job. And you can kind of understand why Katherine would want to strike back at her sister, who is definitely taking advantage of her family's kindness.Elsewhere, Don spends quality time at home with his family, where it appears his marriage is back on-track after his recent lapse with Bobbie (Melinda McGraw), although it's not long before cracks start to appear. Their kids, particularly little Bobby, are misbehaving with greater regularity, apparently because they know their dad's a soft touch when it comes to discipline. In a chilling example of how attituides have changed in 40 years, Betty is eager for her husband to crack the whip ("you think you'd be the man you are today if your father didn't hit you?"), only realizing later that Don doesn't want to risk his kids hating him for belting them, as he did his own father. And, perhaps subconsciusly, Don doesn't want them raised similiarly in case they become grown-up echoes of himself.
The Draper weekend eventually curdles, with Don and Betty have a heated argument (during which Don even pushes his wife violently), before Don loses his cool in front of his errant son. Fortunately, Don's called into work for an impromptu pitch to American Airlines at Duck's (Mark Moses) request, forcing him to take daughter Sally with him. There follows some of the funniest Mad Men sequences ever, with young Sally admiring Joan's (Christina Hendricks) heaving bosom, prying into Paul's (Michael J. X. Gladis) relationship with his black girlfriend (a photo of whom she mistakenly assumed is his maid), and eventually collapsing into a stupor after sneaking some alcohol. Again, it's quite an eye-opener to modern audiences that a child getting drunk on work premises passes uncommented on.
The Amerian Airlines pitch itself (another of the few recurring stories this season, so far) goes badly after all the preparation, but only because Sterling Cooper's main contact has been fired and his superiors were never behind giving SC the account anyway. Shame the episode didn’t show us the pitch, as these are a favourite part of the show to me. I still remember Don's mesmerizing pitch for the carousel slide-project in season 1's finale. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if modern advertising agencies reap some benefit from Mad Men being on-air. Times may have changed, but it's still feels like a fun, fascinating mix of business, artistry and psychology.The weakest subplot belonged to Roger (John Slattery), but only because it was so brief and didn't feel like a snug fit for this episode's themes. Here, he takes a fancy to a client's "wife", who he later discovers was an escort girl, so hires her for an evening -- perhaps as a way to restore his feelings of power and control, following the news his daughter is planning a low-key wedding day that doesn't fit his own expectations. Slattery is always good fun as the white-haired rogue, so while this subplot didn't really engage me, it was still worth seeing play out.
Overall, "Three Sundays" felt very fresh because of its different approach and it was fun seeing a few separate worlds and characterd mix. I particularly liked Colin Hanks as Father Gill, and hope he doesn't snub Peggy because of her secret child. He seems quite progressive and likeable, so there's a chance he'll come round to understanding the position Peggy found herself in. The tension between the Olsen sisters is also brewing very nicely.
3 March 2009
BBC Four, 10pm
Writers: Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton
Director: Tim Hunter
Cast: January Jones (Betty), Christina Hendricks (Joan), Rich Sommer (Harry), Bryan Batt (Salvatore), Michael J. X. Gladis (Paul), Jon Hamm (Don), Aaron Staton (Ken), John Slattery (Roger), Vincent Kartheiser (Pete), Elisabeth Moss (Peggy), Robert Morse (Bertram Cooper), Mark Moses (Duck), Talia Balsam (Mona Sterling), Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper), Audrey Wasilewski (Anita Olson Respola), Elizabeth Hanly Rice (Margaret Sterling), Myra Turley (Katherine Olson), Jerry O'Donnell (Gerry Respola), Christopher Carrol (Monsignor Cavanaugh), Colin Hanks (Father John Gill), Melinda McGraw (Bobbie Barrett), Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett), Michael Dempsey (Marty Hasselbach) & Marguerite Moreau (Vicky)
