Mad Men: Everybody Into The Typing Pool (Liveblog The New Girl)


As fun as it is to get lost in, and quibble with, the exhaustive amount of period detail in Mad Men, that’s not quite where I come from on it. Right or wrong (or more to the point, right AND wrong), the period details of Mad Men are meant, I think, to frame the story (and it’s why I think the most deserving Emmy they will win is costumes, because framing Joan in those cantilevered ensembles is a triumph of architecture, if nothing else), and it’s the story that keeps me coming back.

A recent comment observed the concern that Mad Men could become a Peyton Place; I tend to think not, not because it lacks, say, a Ryan O’Neal (indeed, Sterling Cooper is a stomping ground of potential O’Neals), but because it lacks a Mia Farrow, or perhaps more pointedly, a Lana Turner.

Tonight, The New Girl covers the arrival of Don’s new secretary (quite the looker, it seems), and the complications with Bobbie, who seems to have clawed a place in Don’s world much larger than I would have expected. Bobbie, I think, has been this season’s most interesting breath of reality - brassy, cut to the chase, able to pierce Don’s gauzy fantasies of his life and who he pretends to think he is, and to draw out the passions that lurk within him.

But of course, over the first four episodes, I’ve found myself more drawn to Peggy. It’s natural, I think, for my feminist bent, as well as for the working life of my Mom, which I so admire, that I find Peggy’s attempts to carve a life for herself so compelling. While I can’t tell where the (soon to be) fallen priest angle is going (gay? attracted to Peggy? Can we really tell?), (and don’t tell me you can’t see that defrocking is in that kid’s future) I think the respect he showed for her situation, and his ability to see her both as strong and vulnerable, spoke to the reasons Peggy’s story is, in many ways, the most heroic within the Mad Men frame.

As a former executive assistant to a senior marketing executive, what resonates with me most in Mad Men is the women in the Typing Pool. Today, an Assistant post is the fast track to entry level roles in Marketing and other areas; back then, Secretary was a dead-end job that most could use mainly as a springboard to a wedding ring, or a “little income” to help out the household. Yet the position hinges, then and now, on keeping secrets, and a sort of learned helplessness that puts a stranger in charge of your calendar, your purchases, much of your life.

We spend a lot of time talking about the notions of Mad Men as Don’s attempts to create his own fantastical reality: to erase his past, and create a suburban idyll with his dream girl, who herself can’t separate the real from the dream. But I’d point out the process of self creation that’s not so extreme in Mad Men is Peggy’s: creating an independent life that separates her from her family, her past, and quite possibly her own child. That’s a New York Story that’s pretty timeless, one I saw myself over and over in the marketing world. It’s how the Creative people, and the Marketing teams can create a vision of a life to which people aspire. Because they understand the purpose of aspirations.

When Tom asked me to write the lead in to tonight’s liveblog discussion, I wondered if I could do it sort of blind - those of you who share your reactions tonight will have a leg up on me, as I struggle through a life without cable. But what I know of Mad Men, up until ten o’clock, is what you know. The rest is a dream about to unfold. I look forward to seeing your interpretations. And help a weboy out - let me know what you’re seeing in The New Girl.

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August 24th, 2008
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