"Red in the Face" is the seventh episode from the first season of the really successful American series "Mad Men". The director is Tim Hunter this time, screenplay by Bridget Bedard and Matthew Weiner is also credited for writing as usual. What is also the same as usual is the running time of approximately 45 minutes, slightly over here. The first thing that came to my mind here is that there is a lot of focus on the two biggest male supporting players here. Kartheiser's Campbell was not too much in the spotlight in the previous episode(s), but the relationships with his wife as well as Elisabeth Moss' Peggy play a vital role in here. We see which of the two understands him better. At least when it comes to hunting and eating the prey afterwards. What was even more interesting, or at least funnier, was Peggy getting some food immediately after this inspiring monologue. I also liked how Pete did not make a direct reference to her being the woman in this scenario, but she totally does when she replies how much she would love this to happen. She is far from the nice girl everybody sees in her. Completely aside from that, it was also interesting to see the way the workers at the office have constant access to food apparently. In general, food plays a vital role in this episode because the other major male supporting player has a not exactly great encounter with oysters. I am talking about Slattery's Roger Sterling there of course. Well, the encounter was actually fairly nice for him with how much he enjoyed the delicacies, but what happened in the end then was not too nice for him.
Sterling and Pete do not really have many scenes combined, but there is one when Sterling calls him not by his name, but uses another name to mock him, so you see that Pete is really not accepted too well in the company, especially by the men. Therefore, you can also understand why he was looking for the other fellas' approval there when he bought the gun with the money he received back for a pretty interesting item linked to snacking chips etc. It was almost a bit on the gimmicky yet cult side how this item got shown repeatedly and Pete tells us (and whoever see it) what it is for. Anyway, I was talking about the scene in which he gives the other item back and this was maybe the funniest scene of the episode with the way the employees were acting there and how they did not dig him one bit, especially the one he is talking to towards the end who is clearly more interested in his buddy. At the same time, seeing Pete so desperate for approval, not only from men, but from women in this scene and how he reacts when he does not get it at the very end of the sequence, namely as sour as it gets, was also a bit on the bittersweet side. Looking for female approval is also something on Roger's agenda this episode with and it does not go too well. The women at the bar only seem to have eyes for Don there. Joan also has no time for him this weekend despite his family not being in town. She rather wants to go on a trip with him than only spend time at a hotel. Understandable. So he ends up with the Drapers then and they have dinner together, which goes all kinds of wrong afterwards, but somehow the relationship between him and Don is fine again afterwards, at least after Don gets his revenge there in the end. But even if alcohol played a role, I clearly did not expect Roger to get this touchy with Don's wife.
We also find out a bit more about her here. Betty meets a friend at a supermarket who has turned a bit into a foe and there is a direct and very specific reference back to the episode when she was babysitting for her, which is something we do not get super often on Mad Men, but it was interesting. It is also talked on several occasions how Betty sometimes acts like an angry girl. This is referenced by her psychiatrist and also by her husband. And the latter know it from the former. The episode literally starts with a phone conversation between the two men which shows you again a decent insight into gender roles back then. Doctor-patient confidentiality did not really exist, at least not when the patient is a female and her husband wants to know what is going on. The aforementioned scene with Pete and Peggy is also more insight into male-female roles from back then, the early 1960s. David Carbonara was again in charge of the music, at least partially, even if this episode does not have the great closing moment from "Babylon". And overall it may also be slightly weaker than episode six, but this is only because episode six was really marvelous. This seventh episode here is also still really good and I enjoyed it a lot as you can see from my rating too and I am definitely curious about what is going to happen next. This one here just delivers on other fronts than the previous one.
Some final brainstorming as the end of the review gets closer: We find out about an interesting reference linked to lighting cigarettes during wartime, we have references to Nixon and Kennedy on quite a few occasions. How both were perceived back then in the face of their upcoming political clash. There were even Nixon employees there paying a visit to the protagonists at their workplace with the option of a collaboration. We understand how nice it is to have your name on the building as Roger tells us not once, but twice and we have Robert Morse once again on the screen here, which was quite nice. I always like seeing him and may he rest in peace. His character was also really assured that Kennedy would triumph, even if he was not wearing a hat. He was not wrong as we know now. We even get an Elvis reference. We understand that Black people back then were mostly busy running elevators and making sure that nobody is hungry. And apparently everybody is using the elevator, so secret couples know where they have to go to avoid getting seen. Unless Don and Roger are heading up the stairs that is. I guess Roger might stay away from seafood for a little while after this episode. But from redheads there is no way he can stay away. So much for this seventh episode in a nutshell. It is once again very much worth seeing, not red in the face, but very much comfortably on the green side of the scale quality-wise. Also 16 years later. Don't miss out.
Sterling and Pete do not really have many scenes combined, but there is one when Sterling calls him not by his name, but uses another name to mock him, so you see that Pete is really not accepted too well in the company, especially by the men. Therefore, you can also understand why he was looking for the other fellas' approval there when he bought the gun with the money he received back for a pretty interesting item linked to snacking chips etc. It was almost a bit on the gimmicky yet cult side how this item got shown repeatedly and Pete tells us (and whoever see it) what it is for. Anyway, I was talking about the scene in which he gives the other item back and this was maybe the funniest scene of the episode with the way the employees were acting there and how they did not dig him one bit, especially the one he is talking to towards the end who is clearly more interested in his buddy. At the same time, seeing Pete so desperate for approval, not only from men, but from women in this scene and how he reacts when he does not get it at the very end of the sequence, namely as sour as it gets, was also a bit on the bittersweet side. Looking for female approval is also something on Roger's agenda this episode with and it does not go too well. The women at the bar only seem to have eyes for Don there. Joan also has no time for him this weekend despite his family not being in town. She rather wants to go on a trip with him than only spend time at a hotel. Understandable. So he ends up with the Drapers then and they have dinner together, which goes all kinds of wrong afterwards, but somehow the relationship between him and Don is fine again afterwards, at least after Don gets his revenge there in the end. But even if alcohol played a role, I clearly did not expect Roger to get this touchy with Don's wife.
We also find out a bit more about her here. Betty meets a friend at a supermarket who has turned a bit into a foe and there is a direct and very specific reference back to the episode when she was babysitting for her, which is something we do not get super often on Mad Men, but it was interesting. It is also talked on several occasions how Betty sometimes acts like an angry girl. This is referenced by her psychiatrist and also by her husband. And the latter know it from the former. The episode literally starts with a phone conversation between the two men which shows you again a decent insight into gender roles back then. Doctor-patient confidentiality did not really exist, at least not when the patient is a female and her husband wants to know what is going on. The aforementioned scene with Pete and Peggy is also more insight into male-female roles from back then, the early 1960s. David Carbonara was again in charge of the music, at least partially, even if this episode does not have the great closing moment from "Babylon". And overall it may also be slightly weaker than episode six, but this is only because episode six was really marvelous. This seventh episode here is also still really good and I enjoyed it a lot as you can see from my rating too and I am definitely curious about what is going to happen next. This one here just delivers on other fronts than the previous one.
Some final brainstorming as the end of the review gets closer: We find out about an interesting reference linked to lighting cigarettes during wartime, we have references to Nixon and Kennedy on quite a few occasions. How both were perceived back then in the face of their upcoming political clash. There were even Nixon employees there paying a visit to the protagonists at their workplace with the option of a collaboration. We understand how nice it is to have your name on the building as Roger tells us not once, but twice and we have Robert Morse once again on the screen here, which was quite nice. I always like seeing him and may he rest in peace. His character was also really assured that Kennedy would triumph, even if he was not wearing a hat. He was not wrong as we know now. We even get an Elvis reference. We understand that Black people back then were mostly busy running elevators and making sure that nobody is hungry. And apparently everybody is using the elevator, so secret couples know where they have to go to avoid getting seen. Unless Don and Roger are heading up the stairs that is. I guess Roger might stay away from seafood for a little while after this episode. But from redheads there is no way he can stay away. So much for this seventh episode in a nutshell. It is once again very much worth seeing, not red in the face, but very much comfortably on the green side of the scale quality-wise. Also 16 years later. Don't miss out.