The end of something is usually (always?) the beginning of something else.
A bottle of Canadian Club, abandoned in the Draper's former home. (Image credit: AMC)
I watched Season 4, Episode 13 – “Tomorrowland” of AMC’s acclaimed Mad Men series last night. I know I’ve written about CC on a few different occasions, but one image from this episode struck me as visually and contextually significant: the bottle of Canadian Club that Don & Betty leave on their kitchen counter as they both walk out of their Ossining house for, presumably, the last time.
Does this signify an end to Don Draper’s hard liquor days? It’s tough to tell. We won’t find out more until Season 5 debuts in March 2012… yes, just two short months away.
Budweiser for a new Donald Draper? (Image credit: AMC)
Before Season 4, I think I noticed Don drinking a beer in only one other episode (Season 1 or 2)… and in that episode they showed him drinking about 10 beers, followed by several glasses of his ad-man fuel, Canadian Club. But in season 4, on at least 2 occasions, they show him seemingly content with just one beer. A Budweiser (accompanied by a bowl of Dinty Moore Beef Stew) during Episode 8 – “The Summer Man” and a bottle of a different brand in the aforementioned season finale, High Life. These two beers were very easy to pick out, mostly because the overall “look” of the brand really hasn’t changed much over the decades. Your can of Budweiser still looks like your grandfather’s can of Budweiser. Likewise for the bottle of High Life. Both these beers, for the record, are nothing special… but they’re also not bad. They are your standard “well, this is what I’ve always drank” beers, and sometimes that’s all you’re looking for.
Don enjoys the High Life with a good book. (Image credit: AMC)
(For those of you wondering… the book Don is reading while he’s drinking the High Life is The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carre’. This very subtle prop hints at the ongoing identity drama of the Maddest Man of the Mad Men, Don Draper… er, Dick Whitman.)
As I’ve come to the end of all of the Mad Men episodes currently available, I feel this is also a convenient opportunity for myself to transition. It’s easy to get fixated on things… especially when you deliberately fixate on things, as I’ve done with Mad Men and the liquor they drink. I may continue to write about the show once the new season starts, but in the meantime, I’d like to share weekly thoughts that don’t necessarily revolve around 80 proof spirits and the televised romps of an unrealistically glamorized womanizer.
So, for a while anyway, my posts will be about other random product placement, unusually or eye-catching commercials, or maybe just good beers that I sample. So, say so long to your weekly injections of high-fashion hedonism, and say hello to a slew of grounded, down-to-earth explorations of realism.
