Summer of 68: Mad Men latest episode one of the best

Season 6? 7? whatever we're in in Mad Men had been generally running on empty for a few episodes, but the Sunday broadcast gave the series a jolt of energy - I noticed on the credits that creator Matthew Weiner wrote this episode, so I was expecting a pretty good one - not disappointed. After a langourish but promising opening episode - too long and slow-paced, two-hour episodes are a mistake - but it did establish the important theme of the disintegration of Don's personality and hinted at a possible 2nd new identity for the shape-shifting hero: this theme, however, has not been developed or even touched on really since the first episode, though we do see Don increasingly as a sex-addicted man who will ruin everything in his life eventually just to seduce another woman. He even breaks the taboos - sex with wife of close friend - just because he can; meanwhile Meaghan is getting to realize that Don is no longer interested in her, or not the way he was. Enter this episode, in which among other things: M.'s French mother convinces her to dress sexy to keep Don's interest, it works (for now), Don tells off the despicable Jaguar dealer, kissing that prestigious account good-bye and pissing off everyone in the agency; Pete runs across his father-in-law in a Manhattan whorehouse, embarrassing for both, but the dad pulls his account from the agency - Pete getting increasingly isolated, and tensions building in Peggy's relationship with the Jewish journalist, as she's obviously getting more interested in her boss, and finally Don and Peggy's agencies pitch a Chevy account jointly and decide to merge - great, because Peggy had been slipping off the edge of the plot lately. All of this sounds very gossipy and soap, but despite that the series keeps us, or me, tuned in because of the strong central personalities, the evocative period detail (we're now in 1968, a hopeful moment when people though McCarthy or RFK could win the nomination), and the inside look at developing an ad pitch and wooing and winning clients. One of the best episodes - and the series sure needed it at this point in the season.