*Mad Men was coming perilously close to losing me this season until the episode "Christmas Waltz," which features an extended sequence between Joan Harris and Don Draper. After Don hustles Joan out of the agency before she does bodily harm to the dingbat receptionist who'd allowed Joan to get served with divorce papers, they slip deliciously into the entitlement beauty brings...at a Jaguar dealership (where else?). With exquisite timing and self-assurance, Don and Joan play off of each other and off of the poor salesman and walk away to test drive a shiny red midlife crisis coupe. Who else could get away with writing a $6,000 check for a $5,600 car and shrugging, "If we don't return it, consider it sold"?
Joan and Don wind up at what Rachel Maddow would probably call an "old-man bar" and drink the afternoon away. The splendid writing gives the performers room to play as they get deeper into their cups. Layers of friendship and attraction and accumulated time and experience between Don and Joan allow Hamm and Hendricks to listen to each other and hand the scene to one another in a spiraling accumulation of power and good will. It's a glory of intimacy and generosity.
Susana Darwin
*http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/mad-men-season-5-episode-photos/episode-10-don.php
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