Who is Don Draper?

Live blogging the season premiere of Mad Men.  
A few notes: 

I decided to do a live blog instead of a recap because that is an extremely intimidating idea.  I don't think I'd do the show justice with my analysis.  There's so much to talk about, it'd be impossible for me to really get into anything.   Also, some of the references are outside of my area of expertise being a product of the late 80's and all.  Oh, and the live blog skips the first 10 minutes because I didn't decide to do this until then.  Enjoy!

so well built, we can't show you the second floor.

9:10 – SCDP!  Joan in her own office!  Peggy and that guy from Jack & Bobby in an office together.  Classic 60’s music.  Bright furniture and modern office supplies.  This new office has become young, hip and slightly unnerving.  This is not the muted classiness we’ve come to expect.  It’s much more Pillow Talk than early Sterling Cooper.

9:15 – 12 mins in and already a smattering of innuendos

9:17 – I’m liking sarcastic Don.  Divorce has made him cynical and less desirable.

9:18 – So this is date Don.  More talking than we’ve seen between he and his other female conquests. 

9:19 – Wearing a bib in a French restaurant would make me take pause as well.  But if Don Draper can do it, so can I.

9:21 – Commercial break: BMW-slogan creator.  First those enjoyable Target commericals during Lost, now mini-history lessons about advertising execs.  Don Draper is having an effect on all advertisers.

9:23 – Harry Crane!  With longer hair and a California tan.  Glad to see SCDP brought him along.

9:26 – That could be a word of wisdom to everyone -- Stay away from one-legged reporters, Roger Sterling. 

9:27 – Glad to see Rog and Don back together again.  Snappy exchanges and gauche comments abound!

9:28 – Pete’s secretary is named Clara?  What happened to Hildy?  Just one of many casualties of the move.

9:29 – "Turning a creative success into business is your work," says Bert Cooper. "And you've failed."  Don can’t fail.  He’s Don Draper.  Don’s learning the hard way about the media game.  Because it is a game after all full of name dropping, personal branding, witty sound bites….and nothing to do with truth, honesty and work accomplishments alone.  He’s gotta create something better if he’s going to create a successful company.  His old tricks and persona isn’t going to cut it in the public eye.

9:32 – Sally’s lisp is gone but her angst is still here, simmering below an extremely composed, polite façade.  She’s learning a few things from her mom.  This has the markings for a story arc involving the effects of divorce on children.

9:32 – Bobby has become precocious.  Maybe it’s from banging his head against the wall.

9:33 – This is taking an unexpected turn with Don getting slapped by an escort.  Those innuendos weren’t for nothing I guess. 

9:36 – Peggy has a fiancé named Mark? 

9:36 – Or does she….

9:37 – Sally is still Daddy’s little girl – a relationship that makes me feel a wee bit more sympathetic towards Don even with all the lying and cheating and stuff.

9:37 – When Betty catches Sally calling her father to wish him a Happy Thanksgiving, Betty threatens her and barks at her to go to bed.  Oh Betty, glad to see you haven’t learned any new parenting techniques.  Threatening and clipped orders have worked so well thus far, why change now?

9:40 – Awkward foyer conversations between exes.  Short and cold, just like they ought to be when the kids are around and the dwellers (Betty and Henry) aren’t supposed to be there.

9:42 – When your ex-wife is Betty Draper, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be the better parent.  Just another way they differ: Don actually is a good parent.

9:43 – No one’s home at the Draper/Francis residence, Don waits in the darkness for them.  This is not going to end happily.

9:44 – Betty claims they haven’t moved out of the house because they haven’t found a good place for the kids.  Riiiight.  Just more games for Don to play….

9:44 – This whole thing (divorce, Betty & Henry, Don’s apartment in the city) is only temporary according to Don.  He’s waiting to get back together with Betty?  Probably not since there still seems to be a lot of hatred brewing.  More likely, he knows that she will soon tire of Henry when the honeymoon phase ends and she becomes the childish ice queen she really is.

9:46 – Don reprimanding Peggy reprimanding Don in the most discrete, professional way possible.

9:47 – At first I kind of hated Henry’s mom but now I’m thinking she’s the much need moral compass in this tangled web.  She’s NOT mad at Sally for throwing up at Thanksgiving after all because she knows the kids are afraid of Betty.  Also, she doesn’t understand why Henry is with such a “silly woman”.

9:48 – Innuendo #8: the origins of selling products via sex, made possible by the two-piece swimsuit and a topless girl at the beach.

9:51 –  Final scene, same as the first with Don at the restaurant being interviewed, this time by the Wall Street Journal.  Clever one liner/fib and cue the music because Don’s officially got his mojo back.  He’s on his way to creating just another mirage of himself for people to love.  All he needed was to sit on the other side of the table.

9:51 – And it’s over.  I guess that’s what I get with “limited commercial interruptions.” 

PREVIEW: Sally hates home, Peggy's being goaded, that girl from Everwood/Grey’s Anatomy is a flirting nurse (must she manifest in everything I watch? hopefully she doesn't stick around), Roger’s drinking, AND I’m...confused.  But when have these little previews ever given anything real away about the upcoming episode.  Until next week.