‘Mad Men’: ‘My Old Kentucky Home’

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

‘I’m Peggy Olson and I want to smoke some marijuana.”

Let us hope this line goes down in the annals of memorable TV lines. It’s not extremely clever or topical or shocking, but it’s one of the flirtiest winks “Mad Men” has ever given us. (And it had the blogs frothing last week, thanks to an iTunes mishap that allowed the show to be downloaded early.) Fifteen years ago, a dramatic program set in 1963 might have shown its characters smoking pot, but it likely would have been treated as the first step into a writhing pit of drugs and/or moral depravity. That’s not the case now -- maybe because smoking pot is becoming trendy, as The Times’ Adam Tschorn reports.

In “Mad Men,” airing in 2009, cannabis is the glue needed to bond a creative team stuck working on the weekend, forced to drum up ideas for a Bacardi campaign (at least it wasn’t Patio, the “elimination” drink for ladies). After T.S. Eliot quotes, Peggy’s feminist fantasy chat with her secretary (more on that at the end) and a rousing vocal performance from Princeton ’55 grads Paul Kinsey and his drug-dealing friend -- who looks like he’d surely cop a feel on a sorority girl while bopping around to the strains of “Louie Louie,” that great Kingsmen hit of 1963 -- creative gold is struck.

In more ways than one, I would say. So far, this has been my favorite episode of this season. Granted, we’re only three shows into the latest run of “Mad Men,” but “My Old Kentucky Home” will stand out as one of the more witty and sophisticated although still disturbing episodes of the season, if not the series. And it had so many (gold-accented bone-china) plates spinning in the air -- but not one was dropped.

While the working plebs of Sterling Cooper were stuck at the office, the elite executives were living the high life at Jane and Roger Sterling’s Derby garden party held at the local segregated country club. One of the show’s most wickedly critical moments comes when we see Roger Sterling performing Stephen Foster’s Kentucky anthem, complete with the lyric “The darkies are gay.” As if that isn’t enough to cause wincing, Sterling is in black-face. Cue dropping of glasses filled with subpar Trader Joe’s wine in American homes everywhere.

Did “Mad Men” need to go there? I think so. Though the show has illuminated the struggles of women and, to a much lesser degree, the prejudice against Jews, it has barely disturbed the sleeping lion that is racism. But a black-face moment goes a long way in taking our collective cultural shame and shoving our noses in it. Proceed with caution, “Mad Men.” Too many of those moments will render the show a depressing run-down of our worst mistakes -- not to mention engendering the absurd confidence that we’re wholly superior now. Senseless wars continue, harmful policies endure ... you get the drift.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Carla, the kindly maid, has her juiciest episode yet -- which makes the black-face moment on a show with few to no black characters easier to justify. When wee Sally Draper takes a fiver from Grandaddy Gene’s wallet, the old crank nearly accuses Carla. But he stops just shy because he’s a father -- he knows children sometimes do regrettable, silly things -- and he’s in a lucid period. Sally eventually “finds” it for him. (Though, if you ask me, $5 is a bargain-basement price for reading “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” to Gramps. She should’ve kept it.) Carla doesn’t quiver under Gene’s almost-accusation -- she gently but firmly lets him know she won’t be a scapegoat.

And then there’s Joan. Oh, Joan. Our cardinal-haired beauty also holds her ground but not without some eye-opening moments. First, she has to endure her former underling’s smug fakeness, but worse than that, she seems finally to realize that she may not have such a prize in that husband of hers. Yes, he’s a doctor, but he’s apparently the kind that may leave a sponge in someone’s frontal cortex. If Joan wasn’t convinced of his insecurity and deep need for power the moment he raped her in Don’s office, the absolute panic that lights in his eyes when he nearly begs her to play her accordion seems to get the point across. She plays “C’est Magnifique” with charm, but her own eyes give away shell-shock -- her great plan (and making plans was all a secretary could do back then) is going awry.

A few other points about this episode:

Peggy and Olive: While puffy-eyed and high, Peggy has a moment of empowerment for her, bafflement for her oldster secretary Olive. Peggy promises to accomplish “everything you want for me” -- meaning, she’ll rock Sterling Cooper for all the ladies out there. If secretary Olive had clutched Peggy’s hand and said, “Thank you,” her presumably orgasm-ignorant eyes tearing with gratitude, I would’ve barfed my martini into the nearest garbage pail. It would’ve been sentimental hogwash. But Olive looks more like, “Honey, stop. You’re scaring me.”

Don’s moment with Connie: This was the one tinny note in the show. It seemed to serve no other purpose than to afford a chance for Don Draper/Dick Whitman to make more mysterious allusions to his past, but it didn’t really till new ground. Am I missing something?

Good heavens, Trudy and Pete cut a rug! Who knew these two possessed such hot little feet, shaming Harry Crane and his willowy wife with their jaunty rendition of the Lindy Hop or the Charleston or whatever WASP-approved dance they learned from their emotionally repressed parents. This was one of the most jubilant scenes on “Mad Men” yet, played with ripe flair by both actors.

Fin: And we end with Don and Betty’s kiss in the moonlight of the garden. C’est beautiful. Thanks for the memories, “Mad Men.”

-- Margaret Wappler