Past seasons ofMad Menhave usually had one episode that’s a clinker:Far Away Places is season 6’s dud. There were some interesting ideas such as Roger’s acid trip but they weren’t well executed. The episode felt flat and ennervated. It may set up some interesting stuff down the road but on the whole it was a bummer, man.
Fly me, I’m Roger: I didn’t care for the acid trip. A few moments were fun-the musical vodka bottle and Bert Cooper’s face on currency-but overall it was a bad trip, man. Perhaps it was the first batch of the brown acid Wavy Gravy warned everyone about at Woodstock.
The break-up: I’m glad Roger and Jane are going their separate ways. They never did anything very interesting with Jane’s character and she ended up being a stereotypical trophy wife. This will inevitably lead Roger to sniff around Joan’s door, which has gotta be more interesting than Jane and her big ass earrings.
The Pegster blues: I’m not pleased with the direction they’re taking Peggy’s character this season. She’s become more of an archetypal pioneering mad woman and less of a fully realized character. Maybe the Heinz cockup will lead to her finding her inner human being. I hope so: she’s getting tiresome and she used to be one of my favorite characters on the show.
Don and Megan’s not so excellent adventure: The whole thing was rather dull and repeated too many past themes: the ice cream parlor thing, the wrestling match and Don’s speaking to Megan like she was the reincarnation of Betty. Both of them behaved badly and overreacted to the other’s misbehavior. Plus the misbehavior was dull, dull, dull. I almost hoped that Megan had been kidnapped by a Richard Speck wannabe but she took the bus home instead. Boring,
The two bits I liked were Ginsburg’s telling Peggy about his background and Bert Cooper’s chewing Don out. The former was interesting and the latter was well-deserved.
The good news is that after bad episodes in the past, theMad Mengang have usually knocked the ball out of the park the next time around. Okay, time for some orange sherbet…