Sunday's season premiere of AMC's period drama series Mad Men begins with Jon Hamm's Don Draper being interviewed by a reporter for a trade journal, who asks Don an innocuous puffball question as preparation of a profile about the successful advertising-agency executive. But because of what we know about Don's past -- and what most people around him DON'T know -- that puffball turns into a potential hand grenade.
The question the reporter asks, to begin season four of Mad Men, is this:
"Who is Don Draper?"
Brilliant.
The quizzical look on Hamm's face (at top above), reflecting the slightest nervousness about what may or may not be coming next, says it all, while Don himself, at first, says nothing.
Series creator Matthew Weiner wrote the opening episode, and his opener to that opener couldn't be more on point, more tantalizing, or more inviting to multiple interpretation.
On one level, Don Draper is the name of the dead Korean War soldier whose identity Dick Whitman stole on the battlefield -- a secret that Dick, now the Don of Madison Avenue, does not want to be discovered (even though two of the people who know that secret continue to work with him at the new agency).
But on a deeper level, "Who is Don Draper?" is a question Don has to confront the entire episode, and presumably the season, even if he can dodge it when posed by a friendly reporter. It's like a nesting doll of meanings within meanings. Who is Don to his colleagues? To the image-obsessed world of New York advertising? To the family that once signified success, but now is torn apart? And finally, who is Don Draper to himself?
After reinventing himself AS Don Draper, now he has to reinvent Don, too. And while I'll reveal nothing about when this new season takes place, what happens or where it begins to lead, I will say this: The first episode is bookended by Don being interviewed with reporters, and the difference between the two signifies the beginnings of a new answer to the question posed at the start.
Who is Don Draper? Like Mad Men, he's a work in progress -- always moving, always changing, always smarter and slicker than most of what surrounds him. And, also like Mad Men, he's fascinating to watch.
(You can hear my NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross report on Mad Men and other summer TV treats, which was broadcast Thursday, by clicking HERE. Mad Men returns Sunday night at 10 ET on AMC.)