Arts: Mad Men, Season 6

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Tv Club Mad Men, Season 6 Don is trying to sell absence to his clients. By Paul Ford Posted Monday, Apr 22, 2013, at 09:03 PM ET Hanna, Seth, There's something genuinely sweet to Don's secretary, Dawn, a moral core that is lacking in nearly every other character. Her description of SCDP is superb: "Everybody's scared there," she says. "Women crying in the ladies' room. Men crying in the elevator. Sounds like New Year's Eve when they empty the garbage, there's so many bottles. And I told you about that poor man hanging himself in his office." Oh lord, I thought, she's right. What the hell is wrong with these people? It's like some sort of soap opera in there. I'm not sure how we're supposed to perceive her. Everyone else in this show has a sword of Damocles hanging over them—a sword that they each hung there themselves. To watch this show is to experience a steady state of dread and exhaustion. It's trickle-down cruelty and fear. And here is Dawn, cataloging that dread, acting slightly—very slightly—outside the pale (sorry) by punching out a fellow secretary's time card, yet willing to own up to her moral failings. A self-interrogating, decent, vulnerable human being. On Mad Men. Why?  The pure-hearted won't last long in that hell. Why does the black lady have to be so good? Yet her character does provide a valuable service: Reminding us that SCDP is, for many, a genuinely awful place. The badness filters down. And Don, who is the emotional core of SCDP, is not landing business ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Slatest PM: Police Wonder if Tamerlan Killed His Ex-Roommate A History of Violence Unanswered Questions About Watergate	Advertisement
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