Far Away Places (S5x06)
Airdate: 22 April 2012
Written by: Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Scott Hornbacher
Running Time: 48 minutes
Season 5 of Mad Men looks like a fascinating pivot point in the series' trajectory, signalling an interesting trend in the course of the show's evolution. As the narrative moved deeper into the mid-1960s, the plots and storylines began to thematically resemble the decade as imagined in today’s popular culture and the nostalgic lens of the Boomer generation. However, beyond the surface-level aesthetics of swirling smoke and tailored suits, the general style of the series began to resemble films and television shows that were becoming all the rage in the latter part of the decade. These were years of experimentation, where the boundaries of narrative structure were being pushed by the New Wave and European art cinema. One of the most daring experiments conducted during this season was the episode Far Away Places, a bold departure from the traditional episodic format that nonetheless remained deeply rooted in the show's character studies.
Matthew Weiner has frequently cited the inspiration for this episode as the 1952 French film La Plaisir by Max Ophüls, an anthology film notable for its three-part structure. This anthology structure became quite popular in European cinema in the 1950s and especially the 1960s, influencing filmmakers to explore interconnected narratives within a single timeframe. Weiner envisioned Far Away Places as a Mad Men take on that anthology film, nominally set as a "day in the life" episode showing three different stories that simultaneously take place during the course of a day in September 1966 and are presented in a non-linear fashion. The episode weaves together the professional and personal lives of Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and Roger Sterling, creating a triptych that mirrors the fractured nature of the mid-60s psyche.
The first story in the triptych deals with Peggy, who is having problems in her relationship with Abe. Her boyfriend accuses her of being more focuse on work than him, a frustration that drives her to the office just as Don has departed with Megan to Howard Johnson’s hotel in upstate New York, while Roger prepares to go to a party with Jane. Peggy must present the pitch for the Heinz campaign, but despite all her efforts, Raymond Geiger is unimpressed. Frustrated with her inability to connect with the client, she turns combative to Geiger, and while Ken Cosgrove tries to smooth things over, Pete tells her that she has been taken off the Heinz account. Deeply unhappy, she retreats to the cinema and watches the 1966 film Born Free, a choice that reflects her own desire for freedom. While watching, she gets offered marijuana by a man to whom she provide a handjob in return. She returns to the office and sees Michael Ginsberg talking with his father Morris; she later falls asleep and receives a call from obviously distressed Don who hangs up before he can explain what is going on. Later, when she wakes up, she meets Michael, who explains that Morris isn’t his biological father, and that he was born in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, having spent the first five years of his life in a Swedish orphanage before being adopted. This deeply moves Peggy, and when she returns home, she calls Abe to come by.
The next story shows what happened with Roger in the meantime. He would very much like to go with Don to Howard Johnson’s, mostly because he would like to avoid going to a party with Jane. Yet, when Don takes Megan, he hasn’t a choice. During the party, he finds that Jane’s "snotty" friends are all middle-aged and that one of them is her therapist. They are offered to take LSD, and Roger does it. He has a strange but mostly positive trip, and together with Jane has a moment of absolute clarity when both realise that their marriage is over. The next day, when they wake up, Jane has some second thoughts, but Roger, despite looking at Jane’s body and telling her how she is beautiful, has made his mind and he explains that he would prepare for the inevitable divorce.
The final story tells about Don’s trip to Howard Johnson’s. It begins happily, with the couple arriving at the restaurant. A small disagreement about orange sherbet that Don has insisted she takes escalates into a full-blown fight during which she accuses Don of disregarding her needs and she makes the fatal error of insulting his mother. Don is so angry that he storms out of the restaurant, takes the car, and drives away. Some time afterwards he drives back, but Megan is nowhere to be seen. He spends hours waiting for her and desperately calling friends, family, and colleagues about her whereabouts. In the end, he decides to return to their apartment in New York, where Megan, still angry over being abandoned, won’t let him in. He breaks the door and starts chasing her around the apartment before they both collapse exhausted, with Don begging her for forgiveness.
The episode ends with an epilogue during which Don and Megan return to the office, all pretending to be a normal happy couple. Bert Cooper surprisingly admonishes Don for being on "love leave," while almost ecstatic Roger makes an "important announcement" about "having a beautiful day."
Far Away Places is a very bold experiment, and, for the most part, successful. Yet, like with all anthology films, segments vary in quality, and the distinction between the three stories is stark. The segment featuring Roger and Jane is undoubtedly the best, not only because of its surreal scenes showing Roger’s trip, but also due to interesting editing and great acting. John Slattery brings a wonderful subtlety to the scene where Roger looks at Jane’s body, telling her how beautiful she is, while his eyes reveal the finality of his decision. The segment is elevated by Peyton List, who is shown semi-nude at the end in the most glamorous and desirable way. This visual irony underlines Roger’s determination to leave her.
Roger’s segment is also interesting because it debunks popular myth about the 1960s counterculture as being in the single domain of the young Boomer generation. As this episode clearly shows, being a product of previously marginal trends that were already there and established by older generations. LSD as such was invented in the 1940s, and its trickle-down effect on young hippies came from "snotty" middle-aged intellectuals like Roger and his therapist friends. It humanises the counterculture, showing that the desire for transcendence was a universal experience, not just for the youth.
Don and Megan’s segment was inspired by co-writer Semi Chellas’ friend’s experience with his wife. It is relatively well-directed, although some CGI and obvious back projection make it surreal in a bad and quasi-Hitchcockian way. It fits into the general theme, with Don and Megan’s marriage—which matches Roger and Jane’s—developing differently, although likely with the same outcome. The breakdown in the apartment is raw and unflinching, showcasing the violence that can simmer beneath the surface of a seemingly perfect exterior.
Peggy’s segment, however, is the weakest. It is not that much because of being poorly written, but because it doesn’t fit into the pattern of the two previous stories. It would have worked much better as a separate storyline or within a regular episode. The sudden introduction of Michael Ginsberg’s backstory feels forced and somewhat tacked on. Adding the Holocaust as a shadow that lurks over one of the characters looks slightly exploitative and signals that Weiner and Semi Chellas ran out of ideas for how to connect the three disparate narratives. While it provides a powerful moment for Peggy, it disrupts the flow of the anthology experiment.
Despite that, Far Away Places is a very good episode that deserves recommendation. It shows that high-quality shows like Mad Men can offer something different even in their late stages. It demonstrates a willingness to take risks and engage with the experimental cinema of the era, even if the execution is not entirely seamless. The episode captures the anxiety, the liberation, and the fragmentation of the mid-60s with a remarkable amount of empathy and style. It is a reminder that even in the era of the tightly plotted drama, television can still learn from the cinema, and that the most compelling stories are often the ones that refuse to follow a single path.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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