Make no mistake—Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men” is not a premiere. We may have waited a year for a new batch of stories, but there’s a reason this is the second half of Season 7, not the beginning of Season 8.
The episode opens and closes with Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”, an anthem for the characters of “Mad Men” if there ever was one. Plenty has changed since Bert Cooper’s death in last year’s midseason finale, but much has remained the same. Almost every character has reached a new height or returned to an old fighting weight—you better believe Don (Jon Hamm) is back in his corner office—but even surrounded by success, everyone is disillusioned and unsatisfied. Is this it?
Take Joan (Christina Hendricks). The sale of the agency to McCann has left her “filthy rich,” in Peggy’s (Elisabeth Moss) words, and Joan takes advantage by indulging in a massive midday shopping spree. But even though she’s a partner and account executive, Joan still can’t get through a meeting without enduring brutal sexual harassment.
There’s an air of regret too. On a remarkably successful first date, Peggy admits she’s never taken a vacation before spontaneously proposing that the two jet to Paris. Maybe she would have gotten on the plane before her buzz wore off and the hangover set in, but she can’t find the passport she’s never used. When she locates the damn thing in the light of day the whole idea seems ludicrous, and she already has returned to her well-established patterns.
Ken (Aaron Staton) laments “the life not lived,” but we’ve been with these characters for more than a decade in screen time, and that life hardly seems possible now. Earlier this season, Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) was living in L.A. and tying pastel sweaters around his shoulders, but now he’s as entrenched in the New York life as ever. “I thought I was really changing my life when I moved out to California,” he sighs. “Now it feels like a dream.”
The message is clear: These people are who they are. Peggy isn’t going to suddenly become laid-back any more than Harry (Rich Sommer) is going to become likable. The times may be changing, but our characters aren’t. Nearly all of them are decidedly middle-aged at this point, and now the question becomes how to live as the people they are, not how to turn into the people they hoped to become.
Like their surroundings, the reality of their fully formed identities gives our characters pause. Is that all there is?
Lauren Chval is a RedEye special contributor.
‘Mad Men’
9 p.m. Sunday, AMC
3 out of 4 stars