Is Mad Men Season 5 really starting with a kiss?
Apparently so. And if the episode title isn’t enough to seduce us, I can only imagine that the premiere itself will. Season 5’s “A Little Kiss” Parts 1 and 2 will air tonight at 9:00 p.m. on AMC TV, and all the Mad Men addicts are surely licking their lips in anticipation of whatever Mathew Weiner has in store.
According to this Season 5 Preview from MovieWeb, we can look forward to being in the thrall of Weiner’s World View once again, with an episode that promises humor, signs of the swinging sixties, and at least one new character to tease us.
I imagine we will be as delighted with this premiere as we were with the Season 4 opener. Remember how it began – Who is Don Draper?
We were plunged straight into our hero’s chaotic state, the entire fourth season acting as a journey to recreate stability after every possible dramatic split – his own Don-Dick Whitman revelations, splitting with Betty, splitting from the originating agency. All of the characters were reinventing themselves, but none quite so painfully or to such an extreme as Don.
And Season 5?
1965? 1966? The promise of a little kiss? Will that involve Don and Megan’s marriage? More infidelity from our favorite characters?
My own memories of that period include the Blackout of 1965 that stretched up and down the Northeast. I was a child at the time, younger than Sally, but I remember nonetheless.
I also recall the arrival of all things British when it came to fashion and style – hair, makeup, clothing, shoes. And of course, the music, and not just the Beatles. As rebellion stirs, especially among the show’s women, will Betty be heading out to try on go-go boots and mini-skirts, despite her staid hubby Henry? Will Sally be listening to the Rolling Stones? Or will she get her feet wet with a little Marianne Faithfull first, singing As Tears Go By?
As for anything that may commence with a kiss, I’ll accompany mine with a sixties classic – one martini, three olives. If you’re in need of a few other options, try the Mad Men Cocktail Guide, courtesy of AMC.
Be sure to read more on Mad Men from The Daily Beast, here. The article includes interviews on video with January Jones as Betty Draper Francis, John Slattery as Roger Sterling, and of course – Jon Hamm as Don Draper.
And from those interviews, here’s Jon Hamm speaking on his role, including his appeal to men and women both.
Image of Christina Hendricks, Michael Yarish, AMCTV.com.
For more musings and reviews on Mad Men, pop by here.
© D. A. Wolf
The WSJ had a plot synopsis posted already on the Speakeasy blog but when I went back to it just now, it was taken down. If it was accurate, it will be a great episode that touches on Don/Megan, Roger/Peter, Peggy, Joan, and the 60’s. I won’t spoil the surprise with details 🙂
I purposely stayed away from all the spoilers, batticus… Didn’t want to ruin the surprise… (Shall we now sing “Anticipation” – while picturing a classic ad with Heinz ketchup?) 😉
I thought of you while watching… my first foray into this realm, and I’m sure I’ll be tuning in for more, and checking in with you for your take on things as the show exists for me somewhere between AMC and Daily Plate of Crazy.
It was strange watching, for besides being uncharacteristically intelligent writing, it was also a bit like sleepwalking through my own childhood of fashion, music and style as seen from a little kid’s POV—the glimpse of half-understood television, of parents’ parties, of the world outside the car.
I’m so glad you popped by this particular time tunnel, Bruce. Not perfect as a recreation of those years, but even with a child’s memories, very close. And very close to the experience that some of us lived. For me, like you, from the eyes of a child.
I hope you’ll watch earlier seasons if you can. To fill in a little, but also to see how deftly the threads are laid out and some woven together much later and others, left. When I watch French films, I always appreciate that sometimes, the ending is left without the neatly resolved plot and subplot that American viewers more often get (in both novels and movies). I find this show more like that – more about story and therefore slower paced – and if there is foreshadowing of something going awry, it doesn’t necessarily do so any more than every problem is foreshadowed.
Stop back later for more words! (And last evening, it was like looking at my mother’s old kitchen at times.)