After a tongue-in-cheek explanation of
its title (perhaps to set the highly tongue-in-cheek tone of the
series), 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' begins in a crowded bar. Crowded
not only with bodies, but with smoke, creating a feeling of
suffocation that we as modern-day viewers, with our ubiquitous
smoke-free zones, are not accustomed to. A sharply dressed man is
questioning a bus-boy about his smoking habits. He is charismatic,
despite the distinct air of someone looking to make a sale. He is
smooth-talking and manipulative. We are immediately taken in by his
charms.
We are expecting to be unsurprised by
what we see and hear. After all, before the social revolution and the
Summer of Love, the early 1960s was well-known as a breeding ground
for sexism, infidelity, poor health and discrimination of minorities.
And yet the image of protagonist Don Draper pulling on a resistance
band with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, as he drinks a heaped
Scotch on the rocks first thing in the morning at the office causes
us to double-take. Have we really come that far in such a
short amount of time? Subsequent incidents either confirm or deny
this.
The pilot focuses on the health risks
of cigarettes and how, as an advertising agency, they can ensure
their target market doesn't lose faith in their product and jump on
the healthy bandwagon. The formulation of the episode mirrors this
concern for the viewer, with only one, maybe two characters out of
the entire ensemble not lighting up at some point, regardless
of time and place.
It is a elegantly crafted piece of
television drama, and yet one couldn't help but wonder if these
“unsurprising” moments, whilst true to the time, are mostly
included for shock value.
We are expecting it, but still taken
aback when confronted by continual suggestions that new girl Peggy
Olson expose her legs for the men at the office – a crucial aspect
of the narrative, to allow an audience the opportunity to experience
this oppressive period of time from a woman's point of view, complete
with limitations and the prospect of career advancement seeming near
impossible. We feel for Salvatore concealing his closet homosexuality
in this group of staunch womanisers, for much the same reasons as
above. We are appalled at Olson's doctor not only smoking whilst
examining her nether regions, but lecturing her on sex outside of
marriage whilst doing so. We are momentarily confused when Draper
berates young go-getter Pete Campbell for stealing a document from
his office, claiming he knew it was stolen because “it's not like
there's some magical machine that makes identical copies of things”.
Though, perhaps, being young and naive, I'm alone in temporarily
forgetting that certain everyday appliances didn't always exist.
And finally we gawk at the prospect of Draper's unsuspecting family,
a train-ride away from the anything-goes attitude of the city he
spends the majority of his time in. It is this reveal that, while at
the close of the episode, is essentially the centrepiece of the
pilot.
By this point, we are beginning to get
a better sense of this enigmatic Mad Man, his virtues and (many)
vices. But this is the brilliant part. 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes'
differs itself from the endless line of pilots that are churned out
year after year by focusing on a single protagonist, to scrupulous
effect. From the moment the episode begins, we feel that we can
wholly trust ourselves in writer/creator Matthew Weiner's capable
hands, leaving no historical stone unturned, no detail too small –
my personal favourite of these details is the choice not to dim the
sound of the constant rustling of the female character's clothes: a
window into the heavy and often uncomfortable garments that women
were expected to wear to nondescript events such as dinner and/or
drinks. Every occurrence in Draper's life that we have the privilege
of following for this short time is deliberate and meaningful, and
ultimately contributes toward a greater understanding of his
character. We see his personality change once he crosses the
threshold of his home, the domestic realm of which, much like his
office, he is king. Does he feel the need to go off the rails in the
city because he feels ties down by his home life? Or does the
banality of marriage with children provide him with a sense of
grounding from his out of control bachelor-esque ways? We want to
know, and thus feel compelled to watch more.
ROMANY
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