Mad Men - Love Among The Ruins S03E02

Last week when the first episode of the new Mad Men season aired I was left feeling underwhelmed because the episode felt like a reset of the show so that the new viewers can get a nice little introduction into the world of Mad Men, nothing wrong with that but myself as an old fan, I felt that the episode was a crude flashback to season one. I also wasn't feeling the season opener since the pacing felt off and it didn't really pick up too many past plot threads. Still the biggest flaw of last weeks episode was in Don's plot line with the air-hostess in that it felt very rough and in your face with none of that Mad Men subtlety which I adore.

Now this weeks episode can be summed into three letters "WOW!". This episode is a prime example why I watch and adore Mad Men so much as a show. It was complex with quite a few small plot lines and many of them felt like they might go on and become major plot lines for the season. The show is at it's strongest when it is subtle and not in your face and this episode is doing that perfectly. Love Among The Ruins as it is titled is already one of my favorites due to the fact that it feels like a Mad Men Greatest Hits episode. The writers of this show are truly genius when they really go all out and despite there being so many threads to the plot in this episode they manage to hint at relevance in all of them.




This is also the reason I adore this episode because it returns to what the show does best, we get alot of screen time in Sterling Cooper and the business side of things with a cool advertising plot about Patio Diet Cola, which became Diet Pepsi, as well as some really good domestic drama with Betty & Don and how they are forced to deal with Betty's ailing and lonely father. I'm pretty sure having Betty's dad living with the Drapers isn't going to work out, family-wise or plot-wise and I feel it is a disaster waiting to happened but I really enjoyed Don taking Betty's brother aside and telling him this is exactly how it's going to happen.

Don really gets to shine in this episode and I am once again in love with his sheer mellow manliness, at work he is still the guy in control when it comes to being a big shot ad-man, and at home he once again shows that despite his major flaws he is still a very good man to his family. He not only had the previously mentioned awesome scene where he puts Betty's brother in place, but he also has a great scene at the end where he's admiring his son's beautiful instructor during a spring performance, this scene is simply stunning because of the subtlety in that Don really can't control his desires and I am glad that the writers held back and didn't try to make anything happened with the instructor during this episode. I'm waiting impatiently for the next installment to a show that once again seems to be in high form.