Mad Men
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Smoke Gets in Your Eyeswas set mainly in the workplace.
Put another egg in it, says Roger, seated next to Mona.
When she balks, he insists that one egg is good, two is better.
But the ladies room is more than a room and more than a phrase.
Its a prism revealing new facets of the action.
She says shes having trouble getting her hands to work.
I cant tell you about my childhood, Don says.
It would ruin the first half of my novel.
We surmise that he probably didnt have a nanny and doesnt want to say so.
Most of the people at that table have, orhavehad, nannies.
And the washroom attendants remind us that they still do.
They are still being babysat.
She married a phantom.
Don doesnt like to talk about himself, Betty tells Roger and Mona.
I know better than to ask.
Driving home, Betty says that she likes seeing Don like that.
Betty is terrified: of losing Don specifically, and of being alone generally.
Bettys remark in the car was yet another invitation to confide, but again Don declined.
Later, Don sleeps, and Betty sidles up next to him and asks, Whos in there?
(Shes looking at the back of his head.)
They are married to each other, but you wonder how well they know each other.
The scene fades to white, and the white becomes the pebbled glass of an office partition.
Approving Peggys clothing choices, Joan tells her that accessories are next.
There are two mirrors in this scene.
One is the bathroom mirror into which a crying secretary weeps as Peggy looks on.
A modern deodorant for a modern man, Ken says, starting a Don Draper free-associative hype-fest.
The testosterone is thick; in the next scene a fireball flares behind the glass of Dons office door.
Kens coworkers test out the can on him, pinning him on the table in a mock gang rape.
Lets pretend its prom night, Dale says.
(Any woman who doesnt belong to a man can be taken.)
I think weve misunderstood each other, Peggy says on her way out.
But thereissomeone else, right?
says Paul, still not getting it.
The pressure weighs on Peggy.
Peggy considers going home early until Joan shows up to complain that Peggy mistyped her letters.
Its hard to hit the right keys when your hands are shaking.
The language the men use around the women is casually degrading.
Its jocularity doesnt mask its contempt.
Each workday brings a hundred tiny assaults and smiling assertions of dominance.
Im from Bay Ridge; we have manners.. .
Why cant they just leave it alone?
And here we see a difference in perception between Peggy and Joan.
Peggy bucks against the status quo.
As Peggy retypes the correspondence, we hear the Andrews Sisters singing I Can Dream, Cant I?
A low-angled shot looking up at Peggy makes it seem as though the ceiling is closing in on her.
Shes trapped at this desk, in this office, in this role.
The scene shifts into a slow-motion anti-reverie, a rancid parody of bliss.
The dogs of the office drift past Peggy, sniffing her out.
Were reminded again that, in this world, ladies dont have as much room to maneuver as men.
More often, theyre pinned to chairs.
Peggys anxious expressions confirm that the office can feel like a prison, or a zoo.
Things arent much better in the domestic sphere that Joan wants to graduate into.
Moments after seeing Helen for the first time, Betty loses control of her hands and crashes her car.
Is she an old lady?
Betty asks Francine at lunch.
Divorced, Francine repliessame thing, as far as theyre concerned.
Thats awful, says Betty.
All on her own?
Can you imagine worrying about money at this point in our lives?
No, says Betty.
There is talk that Helens presence in the neighborhood might lower real estate values.
He said it could be a nervous condition, Betty says.
Of course Im happy, Betty replies.
Well, thatll be thirty-five dollars, Don says.
While this is outwardly a tender, funny scene, theres a lot of fear in it.
Don fears that his wife is unhappy or sick and cannot be made well.
The pitch meeting for Right Guard is a drama of uncertainties.
Sal shows Don a mock-up of an ad exploiting the astronaut craze.
Except some people think of the future and it upsets them, says Don.
They see a rocket, they start building a bomb shelter.
How did you get there?
Paul wants to know.
Shifting gears, he offers, We should be asking ourselves, what do women want?
Dale suggests adding a chesty alien girl, and Don cuts him off.
The slack-jawed look on every other mans face confirms that Don has struck a nerve.
Not only do they not know what to say, they dont know what to think.
Don seems close to a breakthrough.
He sits for a moment, then takes a drag off his cigarette.
But what he comes up with isnt a flash of insight.
Hes quiet and strong.
He always brings the cattle home safe.
Then he catches himself, and has a near-breakthrough.
What if they want something else, he asks, some .
mysterious wish that were ignoring?
Excerpted with permission fromMad Men Carouselby Matt Zoller Seitz.
