Mad Men: notes from the break roomTelevision

Mad Men: Season three, episode one

The arrival of the Brits, another sacking, Betty poised to give birth – it's an action-packed start to the third series

Catchup on season two episode-by-episode

SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching Mad Men on BBC4. Don't read on if you haven't seen episode one – and if you've seen more of the series, please be aware that many UK viewers will not have done so …

Episode one: Out Of Town

Welcome to Notes From The Break Room, both those of you who made the discussions so interesting last year and anyone new. As usual, there's plenty to discuss – please do bring up anything I've missed in the comments. It's a double bill on BBC4 tonight, but we'll be covering the two episodes in separate blogs to avoid spoilers.

"You're an ambitious man, and an ambitious man is never happy with what he has." – Trudy Campbell

We're six months on from where we left off. It's April 1963, the Cuban missile crisis hasn't killed everyone, and despite the turmoil at the end of series two (ie Pete telling Peggy he loved her) not a lot seems to have happened to the major characters. Although Betty is bags-packed close to giving birth.

The main unrest seems to have come with the arrival of the Brits via the Duck-engineered merger with PPL. One-third of the Sterling Cooper staff have been let go and Duck is long gone too. The final sacking, that of Burt Peterson (who I didn't recognise but has been alluded to in passing in earlier episodes), welcomes us back into this new world. The company though, is much expanded and a spot of, as Roger puts it, "playing God, or playing Darwin" by new CFO Lane Pryce (played by Jared Harris) has left Ken and Pete as the joint heads of accounts.

When Pete finds out that he isn't where the buck stopped his reaction is typically one of apoplexy and genuine confusion. I'm not even sure if it's a sense of entitlement, more just that he's cast himself as a martyr despite his success. "Why can't I get anything good all at once?" he begs of Kitty. Ken, typically, takes it in his stride like an Ivy League essay writing contest. Pete doesn't ask about wages because he mainly craves status and he often seems intimidated by the bosses. Ken has no such qualms. As Cosgrove points out: it's going to be an interesting battle.

Don, meanwhile, is "celebrating" Dick's Birthday and has gone past flashbacks, and is now imagining/recreating his own birth as he boils some milk. The imminent arrival of his third child draws up hazy notions of his stepmother miscarriaging, while his own mother died in childbirth. The main, rather morbid, thing we learn is that he was named Dick because his mother's last wish was to cut off Don's father's dick for doing this to her. Having Don break a thick skin on the milk as he recollects/imagines the story of his birth is a clever directorial touch. Alan Sepinwall makes the point that the story of his being unwanted has probably been drummed into Don's head by his stepmother all his young life. Therefore he's especially keen to reassure Sally (and Betty for that matter) that she's loved and wanted. After she told him that she broke his suitcase he tells her: "I'll always come home, you'll always be my girl."

"Limit your exposure" — London Fog campaign slogan

The major point of narrative is Sal and Don's trip to the London Fog Coat Company in Baltimore. After utilising an old suitcase label to trick two buxom air hostesses who look like Thunderbirds into thinking that they are accountants for dodgy Teamster leader James Hoffa, Don (who revels in spinning the yarn) inevitably, and unashamedly, takes one of the girls back to his room. Sal, meanwhile, makes subtle eyes at a bellboy in the lift. A quick broken air conditioning switch later and he finds himself nervously in flagrante – so it is with a mixture of relief and regret (I suspect the latter) that they are interrupted by a fire alarm before anything major can happen. But it's enough for Don – as he climbs down the fire escape – to get the picture. He's not a man to blab other people's secrets – and the gentle nudge he gives Sal via the "limit your exposure" campaign for London Fog spells out the fact that while he is happy to ignore it, he ought to watch what he is doing. I can't see Sal finishing the series marriage intact.

So overall, a busy little introduction that doesn't give too much away. Some of the major recurring plots are nudged along with new ones – the introduction of the Brits, Ken v Pete. And, obviously there'll be plenty more from Joan, Peggy and Betty. I can't wait.

Notes

"She's taken to your tools like a little lesbian." Betty on Sally.

The list of accounts that are divvied out between Ken and Pete show just how much the merger has bulked out SC's standing. Nice reference to the Utz fiasco there too. Incidentally, is the company even still called Sterling Cooper post-merger?

Great last words from Burt Peterson: "Fellow comrades in mediocrity, I want you to listen very carefully ... you can all go straight to hell."

The dynamic between the father and son who run London Fog reminds me a lot of the relationship between Swede Levov and his father at the Newark Maid glove company in Philip Roth's American Pastoral.

Rich Sommer as Harry is Peter O'Hanra-Hanrahan . Ich nichten lichten.

Peggy refers to John Hooker (Pryce's right hand man) as "Moneypenny". Miaow. Meanwhile, fans of late 90s ITV comedy dramas might recognise actor Ryan Cartwright from The Grimleys.

Don on his brother-in-law (and himself) – "He never tires of putting his name on other people's things."

Alan Sepinwall expands on much of the above in his excellent blog , plus he interviews Matt Weiner pre-season three.

Culture Watch Bert Cooper's Rothko has taken second place to The Dream Of The Fisherman's Wife by Great Wave painter Hokusai. Another nod to Cooper's Japanophilia. Although what the picture, an octopus performing cunnilingus means, I'll leave you to debate. "I picked it for its sensuality," offers Bert.

Air hostess Shelly compares Don to actor Tyrone Power. Who died at just 44 of a heart attack. An omen?

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