Reviewing Stuff I've Seen: Mad Men, Season 5 Episode 7

I'm a big fan of 'Mad Men'. It pretty much hits all my likes for TV or movies:

• History and historical accuracy. It's done a wonderful job of reflecting the era and getting all those details right. From the fashion* to the technology to how people acted back then, it's a lot like looking at Life magazine from back in the day.
• Good writing and wit. Roger Sterling is like an American James Bond, if James Bond wasn't a government worker.
• Long story arcs and character development. The best for this was 'Babylon 5', where the entire five-year story arc was written out so you'd see something in one season that would pay off four years later.
• Beautiful women. The only problem is that Elizabeth Moss is actually pretty but they do their best to make her not pretty and to emphasize her nose. She was the president's daughter in 'West Wing'. She was cute in that and now there's at least one shot per episode where she turns and I'm glad the show isn't in 3D. I know for a fact that they had mirror technology in 1959.
• You can't tell in the first five minutes what's going to happen but it always plays fair. One of the disadvantages of reading a lot when you're a kid is you've seen mediocre plots hundreds of times and you can see how it's going to end and that is so annoying. My mom and I are good at rolling our eyes at the same time because the story has telegraphed itself.
• Good directing. Several of the actors have directed episodes this season and done a wonderful job. It's one of the perks lead actors get when renewing a contract because it doesn't cost the studio anything. Star Trek is pretty famous for doing that.
• An alum of 'Firefly' is in it. Christina Hendricks played Saffron in two episodes. Shiny!

This season almost didn't happen because the network decided to try to cut the budget of their runaway successful series. I'm glad it's back on but I miss Betty Draper (she's had one episode and I think ten seconds in another episode). Yes, the character is a horrible person but January Jones does a wonderful job with her and, as previously stated, I like beautiful women. Megan seemed like such a mistake at first but she's wonderful and the actress is just doing an amazing job. Plus I like beautiful women.

So this episode. Pretty good. I'm a big fan of Sally Draper (the actress is wonderful and I think she's going to make the transition from child actor to adult pretty well- I've seen some interviews and she seems to have a good head on her shoulders) and an episode that's Sally-centric is always a lot of fun. Sally manages to get to go to stay with Don for a bit by breaking her step-grandma's ankle with a phone cord. Don's in-laws are in from Montreal to see him get a major award for writing a letter about stopping working with cigarette companies. Her mom is a cougar (le wow) and her father is a communist and an ass. Roger meets with his wife who is handling the 60s very well (great outfit and makeup- there was a line of light eyeliner above the mascara that caught my eye) and gets her to do some research for him on rich guys giving Don his major award. Roger had inherited the Lucky Strike account and it was at one time 70% of their agency's income so this season Roger is trying to regain his relevance. He had a cute bit with Sally where he acted like she was his partner; Roger is a male slut and while him dating a junior high student would normally sound horrifying, he managed to behave himself with her and you can see how he must have been wonderful with his daughter and heartbroken when she stopped liking him. The only creepy part was when Sally caught Don's mother-in-law giving a blow job to Roger.