Mad Men - "Signal 30"

Season 5, Episode 5

“I have nothing.”

Five episodes in, and I can already tells that this is going to be Mad Men’s most divisive season ever. Given that one could have easily said the same thing about last season, and that show’s tend to decline in quality as they age, this perhaps isn’t the most surprising or even insightful comment I could make. However, I can’t help but notice that the show has been a lot more obvious with it’s themes and symbolism so far this season, and that it’s really starting to irritate some people. Given how much control Matthew Weiner has over the show, it’s hard to know if he’s just lost it, if it’s the other writers and directors who are messing things up, or if this is all deliberate. To that end, I can't determine if Mad Men's sudden lack of subtext is either a sign of declining quality or a piece of thematic brilliance.

Allow me to return to the season four finale, if only for a brief while. As I stated previously, what so shocked me about that episode was how if shed its air of aloofness and asked the audience to become emotionally invested in the fate of Don, for however briefly. Perhaps unsurprisingly audiences everywhere did buy into it, though that’s mostly the affect of the show merely ramping up the previous, smaller emotional connection that was already in place. While I originally wrote off the move as a storytelling aberration, I’m beginning to rethink that maybe that wasn’t the start of a new, purposeful trend of the show. Or maybe even a continuation. Season four also contained the episode in which Don’s diary entries served as narration (which a lot of people hated) and gave us an emotionally charged night between Don and Peggy (which everyone loved). The point is that Mad Men seems to be growing increasingly open with it’s emotions, and it seems to growing concurrent with the changing decade in which it’s set.

Let’s think about this. In the early seasons, Mad Men may have been set in the sixties, but the world it showed was still very influenced by the attitude of the fifties. The whole point of this show has always been to watch in abject horror as these men of power slowly lose their positions of power thanks to circumstances beyond their control, most of time not even realizing that it’s happening. However, the one question that the show seems to have avoided up until now is was exactly will happen to these men once they do realize what it happening.

This seems to be the stage at which the show is at now, and it’s through answering that question that it’s causing fan consternation. The show isn’t particularly wrong for waiting this long to answer, or even raise, this question, so really any fault here for confusion should most likely be pointed at the audience – myself included – for not realizing that was what the show is doing. And what it’s doing in answering the question, and changing the narrative style in order assist the process. Given the varied levels of masculinity on this show, it should come as no surprise that the response of each of the characters would vary. Some might remain stiff in their resolution that the status quo will remained unchanged. Some might attempt to change along with the times in order to remain on top. Others might fight the change at every turn. And some might just give up on the way of living that they used to know.

Enter Pete Campbell, a man stuck between decades. As one of the younger member of SCDP, Pete sort of straddles the line between the fifties and sixties. Though he’s perhaps young enough that he could be embracing some of the flashier, more creative elements of the decade, as Ken and Harry are able to do, he can’t seem to shake his rigid fifties upbringing and allow himself a true moment of happiness. Certainly Pete tries to be happy, but he ultimately pursues the wrong things in order to do so.

We’ve seen Pete run the gauntlet of reactions to these changes, some of which happened within the space of on hour. In trying to reassert control over the home and his personal life, he takes part in a driver’s education class – the better to limit how much time he has to spend at home and not by being reliant on the train – and it’s there that a high school senior captures his eye. She’s another distraction that public education affords him, so he attempts to woo her, in that creepy Pete Campbell sort of way. Meanwhile at home, there’s a leaky faucet, and as the one thing that Pete is sure he can control, he goes about fixing it, if only to make one dreadfully annoying thing in his life stop.

Pete’s attempt at both wooing the high school girl and fixing the pipe follow roughly the same trajectory – he seems to make progress with both, only to have them blow up in his face at a time that coincides with the arrival of a more masculine and attractive man. In the case of the high school girl, it’s someone who’s younger, more attractive, and age-appropriate, and in the case of the leaky faucet, it’s someone who’s older, more attractive, and more knowledgeable about plumbing. In either case, the loss sends Pete into bouts of depression and self-hatred. Given the violent tone of the episode – talks of the UT sniper, Pete’s own talk and defense of his rifle – it’s quite possible that these struggles won’t be internalized any longer.

We’ve already seen the start of that regards to his work life. Pete’s continued efforts to solidify and prove the worth of his position as junior partner continues, as his recent tiffs with Roger over the office and location of his secretaries have also shown. Still reeling from the loss of control at home, he decides to subvert Lane’s own attempt to land an account with Jaguar. When it turns out that Lane can connect to the man because the client believe Lane to be in the closet, the Accounts Trio decide to take him for a real man’s night out on the town.

But recognize that it’s actually Pete who suggests the brothel, as he recognizes an opportunity to cheat on Trudy. He is able to finally control a woman again, as is exemplified by the scene where he shuts down the various scenarios the prostitute suggests for their congress. It’s the one bedroom that Pete seems to have any control, because unlike with Trudy, this prostitute doesn’t have Pete whipped. The encounter serves as a brief means of escape from his boring suburban existence.

But is such an existence to be hated? Don, who for a long time exemplifies the hyper-masculine ad man role that Pete was no doubt trying to emulate, how consciously, has changed his own mind on the subject. Megan, unlike Trudy, seems to make her husband happy, and Don’s not going to screw it up. Or at least that’s what Don thinks. Pete was happy once, but Trudy couldn’t hold his attention forever, and he’s strayed on more than one occasion.

Pete’s emasculation obviously centers the hour, and though it’s almost shocking how much Pete we got tonight, he’s not the only man facing changes, but one who does it in a manner that’s unseemly in regards to the decade and how the show has operated up until this time. Unlike the ad men he seems to emulate, Pete isn’t so good at controlling his outward emotions. Like his contemporaries, Pete’s a bit incompatible with the frigid aloofness of men who reached true adulthood during the fifties.

It might be weird to see the show so open about the emotions of it character, or to present them less as subtext and more as over text. And it’s not even Pete who the show does this to. Lane similarly is open his emotions, whether it’s the seething resentment of his wife, beating the shit out of Pete in the office, or kissing Joan in a moment of desperation. This season had been about embracing the 60s style as part of the show’s aesthetic, and it would make sense that part of that it shedding the cool, aloof attitude that the show is known for, and embracing something more real. In order to reinforce the impact of the decade, the show is mirroring it.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Speaking of violent imagery in tonight’s episode, we see Don scribbling a picture of a noose, and he uses the phrase “rather blow my brains out” in regards to Pete and Trudy’s party. Discuss, keeping in mind that last week, Don dreamed about killing a woman.

I feel like the gag about nobody being able to remember Ken’s wife’ name is a comment about how nobody in the fan community can seem to remember either. I just refer to her as “Alex Mack” in my notes.

“I don’t know if you are aware, but England won the World Cup.” “Cup of what?”

“Look: Superman.”