"Mad Men": Boring Affairs?

Don Draper of "Mad Men": sophisticated, blue eyes, black hair, so good looking. He had us hooked in Act 1, Scene 1 of Episode 1, Season 1. So the show two seasons later can afford some risks showing him unshaven with messed up hair in one scene, and in an almost boring sex scene in another.

That the bedroom scene between Don Draper and the flight attendant was dull -- at least I found it so -- must have been intentional. Watching the pair eat a bowl of Cheerios would have been more exciting. Meanwhile, their gay counterparts downstairs were having a screaming a good time, and I think that was the point.

Whereas Don almost feels obligated, at this point in his life, to cheat, even if he really doesn't want to, for his gay colleague, what was going to be his first real time out of the closet in a heterosexual world was an ecstatic, freeing, life-changing moment. The contrast was deliberate.

Then the fire drill. Too bad for our homosexual hero. His moment died, in more ways than one.

What is sparked is an exquisite tension about whether Don will squeal on his friend, or whether Don, who seems only ever to judge his wife, will actually have an opinion, now, about his colleague. The jury seems to be out about that: Don's narrowed eyes, his dramatic pauses before addressing him.

That these are but a few of many provocative story strands in "Mad Men" is why the show is so pleasurable.