‘Mad Men’ season two still dazzling and well written
Fans of the incomparable “Mad Men” needn’t worry. The start of the AMC drama’s second season is as riveting and expertly written and produced as ever. No concerns of a “sophomore slump” here. While many series fall into a rut going into their second year (cough, “Desperate Housewives,” cough), this period look at advertising executives on Madison Avenue in the 1960s has retained a flair and mystery that reminds fans how this dazzling series first grabbed hold last year and wouldn’t let go.
The second season premiere airs Sunday night at 8 p.m. on the basic cable network.
In the season debut, it’s about a year later at Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, and it’s Valentine’s Day. The agency’s creative director, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his wife decide to celebrate at a posh hotel.
Meanwhile, his junior ad executives work on a new campaign for a regional midlevel airline. And the office gets a new piece of technologically advanced equipment that sparks curiosity - a new copy machine.
In the second episode, the account with the airline gets more complicated when the much larger American Airlines suffers a plane crash and considers moving its business to Sterling Cooper.
But perhaps the biggest focus is on new advertising executive Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), who was promoted at the end of last season - the first woman in the office to write ad copy - and had a baby after a tryst with executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser). Thankfully, that plot line is the show’s only soap-opera convention.
Peggy’s new role at Sterling Cooper plunges her in the middle of a boy’s club and has her fighting for respect in a sexist era.
Creator Matthew Weiner weaves all of these stories brilliantly from one scene to the next, and the characters intertwine with precision. And as in the first season, the acting continues to be top-tiered, particularly Kartheiser as the weasel executive Campbell, and John Slattery as the womanizing Roger Sterling, co-owner of the agency.
It’s a relief that “Mad Men” has come along now, after the equally brilliant “The Sopranos” ended its run on HBO (Weiner also wrote and executive produced “The Sopranos”). Both share a seriousness and air of artistry that is rare on television.
“Mad Men,” along with the wildly inventive “Breaking Bad,” has put AMC on an elite list with HBO and FX (though Showtime is trying) for creative and original programming.
So far, the series proves that the most interesting shows are sometimes tucked away in little-known networks willing to try something different.
Slattery, who plays the excessive Roger Sterling, a guy who likes women, bourbon and plenty of cigarettes, didn’t think he had to do research for his role.
“People like to do a lot of research but there wasn’t that specific skill I needed other than smoking and drinking, which I knew how to do fairly well,” he told me during a site visit last week. “It just happens to be somebody who’s dressed in these clothes and stands in this room and stays in the moment.”
I sure hope Slattery isn’t like his character too much. Last season, Sterling’s wild ways landed him in the hospital with a heart attack.