Summary: All the stars, thumbs, and lips money can buy
I have a jillion posts that I’ve written about this and that aspect of Out of Town. Before posting any of them, here’s the overall review: Yowza. This review will have spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, stop reading.
Out of Town
What this season opener does beautifully is weave together the characters and their arcs and lets us know where they are today. Where For Those Who Think Young failed, in my opinion, was in trying to be All Things to All Viewers. Here we focus fairly narrowly on Don, Salvatore, and Pete, as well as the “character” of Sterling Cooper. Yes there is more than that; yes we see where Joan is at, what’s going on for her at the office, and a bit of Peggy at the office as well. Yes we see Betty, deep in a haze of unrealistic expectations, and of course we spend time with Ken. But structurally it is not artificially balanced the way television can sometimes be (you ever watch a show and think, ‘this guy clearly has a contract that requires his face on-screen for 4 minutes of every episode’? ” yeah, me too). After Out of Town, we know little of Peggy and Joan, and nothing of Harry or Paul. Yet we are satisfied. New viewers are engaged, old viewers are on-board, and everyone is GASPING because SALVATORE OMGZ!
So, yes, I have been struggling for weeks not to tell you 1963, not to tell you pregnant, not to tell you SALVATORE and TEH SEX.
How much do we love Bryan Batt’s performance? Is that not the “Holy cow I’m having sex for the first time” face? Is that not a face that says “Holy wow this is what I’ve always wanted”?
Because there wasn’t a struggle to introduce, introduce, introduce, the episode could artfully tie the stories together thematically: Deception, rebirth, distance and intimacy, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Consider: Dick Whitman’s conception was a deception; Dick’s assumption of the identy of Don is a deception, Salvatore’s life is a deception; one that Don can accept because he knows how that goes. Ultimately, it resolves into an ad campaign of a flasher; concealing and revealing is what we’re all about. Limit your exposure. Don can give Sal two ideas in one with the campaign; he can talk about the personal through a tag line.
Don says to the stew, “I don’t know. I keep going a lot of places and ending up somewhere I’ve already been.” Distance and intimacy, goodbye and hello as embodied by air travel. The stew fears that marriage will change her, Don knows it won’t. Nothing changes, he believes, and what could be more sad?
And yet…change. Change as in the takeover of Sterling Cooper. Change that will bring about a whole lotta interesting plots for the next 12 episodes. Everything I thought I might see for Don, Betty, and Salvatore (among others) changes as a result of tonight.
157 Responses to “Review: Out of Town”
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@B. Cooper (#150) : "(can we not avoid saying “poor Kitty�)"
I can't avoid it at this point, largely because "poor Kitty" is played by Sarah Drew, who I've liked since Wonderfalls and who does mournfully unrequited so beautifully. After rewatching 'Gold Violin' on the DVDs, it still breaks my heart with how she tries to dote on Sal while he's distracted by Ken. Whether she's realized it or not, she is his beard. She truly loves Sal and it's going to hurt her so much if and when his sexuality becomes irrepressible. I don't think she's "acceptable collateral damage" at all. I think she's an unfortunate victim of 1960s American society.
@Ms. Darkly (#147) : "I meant the name sounded British, not the actor."
Ah. I misunderstood.
"Not only do I know Alexis Denisof is American, but I follow his wife on Twitter. ::grin::"
Yeah, me too. Their little girl is so adorable.
@ 151
I also hope this tea-totalling (ha!) on the part of the British is a calculated move at power play, because to have professional British men of the era who don't drink like fishes, now that WOULD be unrealistic!
Perhaps they just drink tea at the office and then go out for their "liquid lunches"…
Betty’s unrealistic expectations are not about gender, but about everything being “perfect.â€
I think you may have described nearly every character on the show. If you think about it . . . all of them – in their own way – demand what they would consider ideal or perfect in their lives. Come to think of it, I have noticed that a lot of people that I know or encountered in real life or on the Internet, are the same way.
In fact, I believe that one of the major flaws in human nature is this demand or expectations for perfection. And when it doesn't happen, humans either react strongly to this imperfection or pretend that they don't care.
#154 I would assume they drink tea at tea time and gin the rest of the time.
#156
That makes sense: 4 o'clock, tea-time, rest of the clock gin time. That was kind of the rule my grandmother lived by in later years, bless her.