My Old Kentucky Home

The Minnesota Timberwolves fucked up a deal to draft some 18-year-old basketball prodigy from Spain because the little piece-of-crap already had a contract with some team in Barcelona. I don’t really give a crap what happens to this kid, but the last sentence of the article read that his potential NBA career, as he’ll once again be a free agent when let go by this Spanish league team, “remains in the future.” This phrasing seems a bit ominous as this young talented hoopster is likely going to have money thrown at him constantly, but that phrase stuck with me. Just the phrase. Remains in the future. What if “remains” was the plural noun instead of a potential verb? Remains in the future. I imagine something seeming like Incan or Mayan ruins but is actually our remains, skyscrapers and such, like the ending to Planet of the Apes. It raises the question of what will destroy us.
And then I think about the most recent episode of Mad Men. These characters are entering a brave new world, and, as the old one crumbles around them, who knows if they’ll be able to handle it. If this last episode, entitled “My Old Kentucky Home,” answers this question in any way, it seems the characters are going to be singing to get through it. This episode put a lot of interesting things on the table, and I think it is the best episode of the show so far. I will explain both.
Matt Weiner had been taking cues from Hitchcock for a lot of the show so far, not just visually (Betty is clearly channeling Kim Novak and Tippi Hedron at times), but emotionally. Alfred was the master of directed tension and the cinematic red herring. The storyline involving Sally stealing money from her Alzhiemer’s-ridden grandfather, Gene, was all directed tension. You wondered whether Gene would ever figure out if Sally stole his $5 and, more importantly, you were scared he would do something dangerous to her if he did find out. Mad Men has edged into some freaky psychological ground with introducing a character that is medically proven to grow more delirious over time. Is this what they were going for with the title?
And, focusing on Sally’s act alone, this is by far the most ethically questionable thing a child has done on the show so far. Will the growing tide of angry youth in this changing world be reflected in the Draper children? I hope so and think so. This episode has broken a lot of walls, and I think these kids are going to do a lot more important things in episodes to come. By the end it’s entire run, we might have a bra-burning, teenage Sally Draper. Whoa.
Then there’s the musical numbers. Spectacular. I really hope it was John Slattery signing. He just spun a new twine into that wonderful web of a man, Roger Sterling. And the Pete and Trudy dance sequence, well, that speaks for itself. I honestly expected Paul Kinsey to sing nine times by now, but I like that it’s here, when he gets high.
Joan, who has already taken womanhood and sexiness to more dimensions than any other character ever, enters two more, as a housewife and singer/musician. And her scene facing off with Jane in the office was too perfect. It had the perfect amount of words. It was paced exactly right. The camera angles made too much sense. Joan’s facial expression said 100% who she was and what she was doing. It’s like Matt Weiner had that scene in this head for years and made this entire show just for that one scene. Christina Hendricks is going to shine this season.
Of course, there’s the fantastic pot plot, signaling and official beginning to 60’s grooviness. Don tried pot with Midge and her beatnik friends in Season 1, but he didn’t like it. Like society, it wasn’t really ready. But that was three years ago. Things are changing, and when you gather Paul Kinsey, who was alluded to have smoked grass at his party in Season 2, and new, young copyrighters, Smitty and Peggy Olson, into an office alone of the weekends, they’ll be getting stoned.
Peggy is young and she enjoys it. Don is old and does not. The parallel comparisons of Don and Peggy are numerously strong, but their reactions to smoking grass are very different. Don has an awful Korea flashback while Peggy is on cloud 9. She leaves the room, after a light bulb turns on above her head for the rum ads, and says, “I’m in a really good place right now.” She gives that epic monologue to her new secretary about being fearless. It reveals a lot about Peggy’s ambition and her state of mind. That’s one of the best-written monologues that’s ever appeared on this whole goddamned show.
I thought the best scene in the episode was the scene between Don and that old bartender, where they exchanged stories of growing up poor. It was very revealing of Don’s past and his humanity. Don has a respect for the working class that some of his more bourgeois don’t really share and you see it here. You also you what is probably the first instance on the show where Don realizes he’s the personification of the American Dream. It can be seen when he breaks eye contact briefly with the bartender.
Additionally, the scene begins with the Man Move of Don hopping over the bar and making himself and the old man a couple cocktails, which the barkeep compliments highly at the end of the scene.
Finally, there’s the old school movie ending with a kiss. Perfect. To remedy the first mention of their separation last year, he grabs Betty and plants a smacker on her. I love it. Ultimate Man Move. EPIC.