Wee Small Hours

Darren Pettie, who plays Lee Garner Jr., of Lucky Strikes, is a brilliant actor, very mellow yet extremely scary, just see the final season of Sneaky Pete for more of his subtle intensity... and here he's the cause of the loss of one of the great original characters, Sal, whose closeted homosexuality was never forced or preachy on a series that could have easily treated the 1950's and 1960's as an evil era because it's not so open-minded as today...

Although, you can get so open-minded all creativity is lost, and no one is defined by anything but cliches... Which makes MAD MAN so great: it's about yesterday yet with the pulse of today... Anyhow, Sal's loss is the beginning of, not long after this, the loss of another original character, and here we're still in an era that doesn't resemble a flower-power costume party, so that's good...

Meanwhile the affair with Don and the extremely cute teacher is interesting.... and many of Don's affairs are rushed and dull... The best soap operatic trysts happen between two opposites and take time to build... Meanwhile Betty and Mr Stern Nose have a bit of chemistry as well, but there's something spooky about him, like the Lucky Strike guy... outwardly mellow but there's something sinister deep down.

Avoiding spoilers, this episode tackles several issues: people cheating and wanting to cheat, someone grappling with their sexuality, someone taking rejection badly and using their power to ruin someone's career, the ethics of taking money rather than standing up to a client who does the wrong thing, a rich, powerful client bordering on megalomania, with a strange mixture of religion and imperialistic endless business growth as a way to spread the joy of American culture all around the world and even into space. What an episode. It was quite disturbing. I felt like I was watching House of Cards. The show certainly wasn't this intense in Season One. I've seen others describe the series as a 'slow burner.' I imagine there's a lot more to come. The way the show writers develop plots and characters is brilliant. As is its relatedness to the real world. We know we're seeing a fictional portrayal of the 1960s and corporate culture, however, there are so many connections to be made to the real world as it was back then, and to today's world too. That's why so many love this show.