Mad Men: Public Relations

Season 4, Episode 1

I caught up with Mad Men's first 3 seasons earlier this year and was sufficiently impressed to commit to another hour per week. At the end of last season, the agency had dissolved due to outside controlling interests. The major money men and talent reassembled to form a leaner, more creative, and more productive agency. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) was humbled, not only by being forced to apologize and explicitly state his admiration for his underlings, but also by his divorce. Season 3 ended in late December 1963 and Season 4 picks up in November 1964 . . .

In the interim, the new Sterling Cooper Draper Price ad agency has grown from 6-7 people working in the same hotel room to dozens of people in an office building. This is mostly due to Draper's creativity, but he doesn't know how to turn his developing fame into big bucks. The agency is still struggling to keep its clients which has Peggy and Pete developing unique ways to attract business. Betty is now married to Henry, but his mother does not approve.

The show is way out in front of the viewer which is challenging and rewarding. It forces you to catch up with the characters' entire last year while moving the "current" events at a breakneck pace. The humor is perfectly understated and stressed in the first half while the drama gets heavy in the second. Amazingly, the show finds the perfect balance. Newer viewers might be frustrated, only recognizing the impeccable recreation of the era. But those familiar with characters will find much to enjoy and ponder. One of the most complicated shows on TV got even more so in its stellar season premiere. A-