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Mad Men Season 5 Premiere

March 26, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mad Men Season 5 Premiere 

Mad Men Season 5 Premiere, “What’s wrong with you people? You’re all so cynical. You don’t smile, you smirk.” — Megan, Through all the years, through all the Peggy Olsen working-girl iterations and Betty Draper mood changes and Don Draper bed-mate changes, one thing about “Mad Men” has remained the same: the show’s about identity, how people cope with changes, roll with the punches or duck and run for cover. Society is there, too. Changing. In it’s super-changey 1960s way.

And in the eagerly awaited “Mad Men” Season 5 premiere, it’s right there in the viewer’s face and on faces of the characters: Cultural upheaval! Race equality! Sexy parties that almost seem to become a swi*gers thing!

It’s as though co-creator/executive producer Matthew Weiner is screaming from the rooftop, “The times, they are a-changin’! CHANGIN’!” I half expected the Bob Dylan tune to play over the closing credits (too obvious? A bit.) Plus, that song is from 1964 (where we were last season) and we start Season 5 smack-dab in the middle of 1966.

See, change. It’s clear from the first scene of the two-hour premiere, which was also written by Weiner. We’re placed right in the middle of a group of protesters picketing for equal employment opportunity for African-Americans. They’re right outside rival ad firm Y&R, where three young (and white) employees are not too happy about the spectacle. “You’re walking in a circle!” one yells. Then come the water bombs (for some reason poured in a bag, not in a balloon. Maybe that’s how people rolled in 1966?).

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