This year's season of Mad Men--the fourth, which is about half over as I write this--is an exceptional one. The show has always featured memorable characters, but this year in particular seems to be a banner one. As Don Draper (Jon Hamm) falls deeper and deeper into the morass of his shattered life, Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) continues to shine. This is the year--1965 in the show's timeline--that Peggy gets her groove on, decades before that phrase became popular (and hackneyed).
Peggy has had at least three of this season's best moments, almost all purely visual. After Don's secretary throws a fit and smashes a picture with a thrown object (aimed at Don), Peggy silently rises up into the transom window that connects her office with Don's and just as slowly slinks back down, all without Don's knowledge. When the crew at Sterling Cooper Draper Price hatched an elaborate scheme to make their competitor think they were filming a commercial for Honda, Peggy rented studio time to further the illusion. While their competitor shot an ad in an adjoining studio, they could hear the powerful purr of a motorcycle's engine. Cut to Peggy slowly riding the Honda around in circles in the studio, in front of a stark white background in an artfully composed long-shot. And last night Peggy stripped naked in a hotel room while working with a pompous art director who kept making piggish remarks about her prudishness. And then she proceeded to make comments about his "shortcomings."
It really is the year of Peggy, and in a show that is often times depressing and melancholy (but in a good way), she's a beacon of light. It helps that Elizabeth Moss is such an effective actress, shy but strong, passive but aggressive, timid but unafraid. Peggy is a walking dichotomy, interested in experiencing almost everything. I can definitely see her going to Berkeley in the upcoming "summer of love" once the show gets there, time-wise). Last night she even stood up to Don Draper, telling him to "fix it," in reference to Don inadvertently stealing an interviewee's ad tagline from an otherwise lame portfolio. She has become one of the strongest characters in a show filled with strong characters, and she's also the most surprising.
One final bit of evidence: A few weeks back an adventurous Peggy decided to go to a party in Greenwich Village. She was invited by a young woman, a photo editor for Life Magazine, whom she met in the elevator of the Sterling/Cooper building (which must actually be the Time/Life Buiding, I reckon). The woman obviously had other intentions in mind and when Peggy got to the party, she came onto her. Peggy told her she was engaged and the girl retorted, "He doesn't own your vagina!" To which Peggy said "No, but he rents it."
That's exactly the kind of surprise Peggy has been so far this year. I can't wait to see what else happens to her as the fourth season of Mad Men continues.
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