Watching "Mad Men" in the Suburbs

 "Mad Men" rewrites "The Sopranos." Matthew Weiner asks this: "What if Tony and Carmela separate, but they never find their way to a reconciliation?"

The seeds of the Draper divorce are there in Season One. Betty needs to stage a birthday for her daughter, Sally; Betty is profoundly uncomfortable in her suburban world and in fact suffers from neurasthenia, to the extent that she has almost killed her children (near-victims of death-via-car-accident). Her husband's startling response is this: "I see all the wealth around you, and I think, come on, can she really be unhappy?"

Don--a man--is basically useless with the birthday party. Betty asks him to build a playhouse in secret, but he can't be bothered to do the work of concealment, so Sally learns very quickly about what she will be getting. ("Don't tell your mother. Now get me a beer.") Don later inflates his daughter's expectations by suggesting she might receive a pony. (This fatherly misstep is shocking to me.) Finally, Don fails--and fails--and fails--to pick up Sally's birthday cake. He instead flirts with an unattached neighbor. We see Betty spiraling beneath her facade.

This script, "The Marriage of Figaro," is remarkable because it suggests a different kind of life, a life Betty will never pursue. As Betty squirms, she also observes Helen, a frenemy. Helen is unattached; she works full-time and raises two children on her own. She strolls through the neighborhood simply for the pleasure of strolling; the walks unnerve everyone in Ossining. Helen recognizes that some little things do not matter; if she didn't have time to find something other than holly/ivy wrapping paper for a springtime birthday, it's not the end of the world. Helen is notably silent during a lengthy discussion about whether Florida is "too Jewish" for a vacation. For her own honeymoon, she traveled to Paris. She doesn't need to brag about that.

By the end of the hour, we can sense that Betty is already bringing down the curtain on this phase of her life. (The official separation will get finalized, or semi-finalized, in Season Three.) The truth seeps out via Freudian slips, indirect comments--as in actual life. Betty goes to bed in a rage. We know this only because her face has become a mask; her lips are tightly sealed.

While Betty is a version of Carmela, Helen stands in for Angie Bonpensierro, who was so memorable in several episodes of "The Sopranos." It's also worth noting Weiner's "David Chase-adjacent" love of cars--as engines of plot, romantic bowers, death traps. Sondheim emerged from the shadow of Oscar Hammerstein; Weiner cuts an umbilical cord and takes over from David Chase.