The Chinese Walls are coming down for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce this week as we dig into Season 4, Episode 11. That’s right, Mad Men Men is back for another dive into how Don Draper is the absolute worst at balancing professional and personal relationships, plus how desperation truly drives all of us. As usual, we recap the episode, give our analysis, and reference the director/writer/actors’ commentaries as well as Mad Men Carousel by Matt Zoller Seitz.
In case this is your first time digging into our podcast, we recap Mad Men from the perspective of a first-time watcher, someone who only watched the show once while it was airing, and a superfan who watches excessively instead of having a functional social life.
“Chinese Wall” Discussion Points:
- What IS a Chinese Wall in the workplace?
- Should we read Sterling’s Gold?
- Does the episode still work even when it’s this on the nose?
- How does SCDP come back from this major shakeup?
- Can you relate to a workplace crisis like this?
- What does Peggy’s pitch remind you of?
- How has Peggy grown as a character since Season 1?
- What is really going on between Don and Megan?
- Is this it for Joan and Roger?
Extra credits:
Matthew Weiner created Mad Men, which aired on AMC from 2007 to 2015. Phil Abraham directed “Chinese Wall” and Erin Levy wrote the script. The show stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Robert Morse, and many more. Our intro music is “Mad Men Men” by Tom Davidson, which is an original remix of the show’s opening theme “A Beautiful Mine” by RJD2. Podcast illustration is by Jon Negroni. Our podcast hosts include Jon Negroni (Podcast Editor of InBetweenDrafts), Will Ashton (cohost of the Cinemaholics podcast), and Michael Overhulse (a guy who’s addicted to working at startups).
We’ll be back soon to discuss Season 4 Episode 12, titled “Blowing Smoke.” Subscribe to Mad Men Men on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever else podcasts are, ahem, advertised. You can find our conversations about the first season on our podcast feed.
Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts. He hosts the podcasts Thank God for Movies, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn’t sleep, essentially.
