Spoilers, folks.
Given that the series’ creator, Matt Weiner, was a major player behind-the-scenes on The Sopranos, you might expect some thematic overlap. Don Draper, like Tony Soprano, is a conflicted womanizer who has own specific sense of honor (in Don’s case: you may cheat on your wife, but please do take your hat off indoors like a gentleman).
This week’s episode put an even finer point on those parallels, sending Don to an exotic locale away from his estranged wife — and having our anti-hero suffer a fainting spell, to boot.
Other thoughts? Duck Phillips — asshole.
Peggy always picks the wrong boys. So self-aware! Peep Sal’s reactions during the scene when Kurt comes out; that was a really well-done job by Brian Blatt.
They’ve completely dropped that plot where Joan is passed over for a job for which she’d be perfect. (The random dropping of plots is another Sopranos quirk.)
This Roger Sterling B-plot with the secretary is sort of weak, which would seem like a hard prospect to pull off given Roger’s charisma. It seems pretty boilerplate mid-life crisis storyline, yes?
