Sunday night marks the return of Mad Men, the AMC program that is now without dispute the best program on television. What's most interesting about this series is that even though each episode emphasizes different characters having different experiences and feeling different emotions, one prominent element of every episode is the same: Boy, things sure were different back then! And that's the fun: watching these smoking, drinking, red meat-and creamed corn-eating, philandering, cynical, sophisticated, destructive, trapped, but ultimately certain men and women come to the realization that there is something wrong with their lives. The payoff for the viewer, of course, is the safety and superiority we enjoy, the comfortable knowledge that we have largely solved so many of these conflicts about prejudice and sex roles and so on. Lucky for executive producer Matthew Weiner and company, the really terrifying question posed by the show never really intrudes on the fun: what are the things in our lives that are we so very confident about -- The stability of America? The viability of our planet? The widespread use of prescription medicine? The enthusiasm for blogging? -- that audiences in 2058 will see depicted on a TV show set in 2008, and will find similarly ridiculous, ignorant and tragic?
When I finished training the mailboy (gr. 10 education and he could barely do a 1/4 of the job) I had to watch him be promoted ahead of me because "honey, if we lost our best girl, we couldn't do our jobs. Frank is so useless at filing, we might as well make him jr. buyer" *blink*
As part of my interview for my second job, I was asked if I would get pregnant within the next 5 years because they needed someone they could count on and they'd been "burned by women before"
Eventually, I became a negotiator for our union and helped write an equity package that saw my job rise 6 levels. Not long after that, I was hired by the HR dept. at a level higher than the buyer who mercilessly sexually harrassed me for 4 years. (of course sexual harrassment was called teasing back then even when a 60 yr. old man was grinding his crotch against your butt)
and more likely just plain lies is unforgivable.
I have absolutly no respect for the ad world.
As far as this program is concerned,
i am repulsed by the trailers i'm forced to watch
let alone actually watching the program.
The most daming thing about it all, is the fact that
the real difference between then and now
might only be the style of cloths, greasy hair etc.
If for one moment you actually believe that we've changed as a species,
and that the "good old days are gone"
You might consider scheduling an appointment
at your nearest electro shock treatment center.
We're finally allowed to to notice that there's a limit to landfills and breathable air and lumber and oil. I imagine our grandchildren reading about our extreme wastefullness with shock and anger.
We're also not supposed to notice that global capitaists behave like little Greek Gods floating on clouds from country to country, wherever the fix is in, to bicker over spoils and indulge in earthly delights. This is the same breed as the Ceasars and Kings of old. We're not supposed to notice that they dominated our government, deindustrialized us, plundered our future through debt, reduced services and have made us in the image of a third world debtor nation. Maybe our grandchildren will be more oppressed and less aware than we are now.
I was watching the marathon of the previous season, I might watch it but I find it only barely mildly interesting.
I quit and went to graduate school when I realized that our research was not being used at the right stage of the decision-making process...it was used almost totally to justify decisions that had already been made. It was especially heartbreaking because the research department there was as competent as any I have seen in government or education.
I am enjoying "Mad Men"....of course the language isn't right for the time, but I think it was tasteful of them not to have anybody say "Run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes it."
To those with a modicrum of intelligence, those things which will seem 'ridiculous, ignorant and tragic' in 2058 are glaringly so now. The character of Archie Bunker pretty much played out the string on this theme.
How's the saying goes.....you will never fully understand where you are going, until you know where you came from. I respect your point about not wanting to "relax and watch" your livelihood.
But I am 54 (not 70), so I guess I am the target audience. (But oddly, not the key demo for Madison Ave.).
If you cannot find the entertainment value, that's a personal choice.
But shows like "Mad Men", especially if you are willing to dissect it parts, can be an interesting introduction to history......something the target 18-34 yr. old may not be aware of. It is like asking a kid today, who was Dr. King. Most have little clue.
I was born after the Holocaust. However, my fascination/obsession with history dictated that I learn more about this horrible injustice from man to man. (Sorta like the despicable sexism, racism, anti-semitism, xenophobia, homophobia that this show so cleverly weaves into its storyline....)
But that's just my 54/55yr. old humble opinion.
It was a time that the Dick Cheneys, Bill O'Reillys, William Kristol, etc. yearn for. When the white male dominance from the 50s was about to be challenged. Thank heavens those days are far behind us.
I am captured by Weiner's attention to detail. How could HBO pass on this series? If television had more of this quality.....instead of our appetite for reality television....weekly ratings would be completely different!
That said, I await with baited breath for the first episode airing this weekend!
altho they might appear later if it lasts that long.....writers????/
I had an aunt who was widowed very young and became a career woman. To me she was the most interesting woman at every family get together and I would hang on her every word. She dressed fashionably and smoked and drank with the guys. But she was always pitied by the other women in the family - as if married life was so great for women at that time.
Not much.
I guess if I were 70, I might be able to relate. I'm 50, so I can't.
As for pure entertainment, it doesn't do anything for me.
I could have written these same comments about the show thirtysomething. I guess I don't want to "relax and watch" -- my livelihood!
Oddly enough, the TV shows I seem to like best are about the people I hate the most in real life: cops, doctors and lawyers!!!
Because I'm a woman precisely your age, and I can tell you that when I worked for a Major Madison Avenue Agency in the late 1970's-early 1980's, things hadn't changed that much with respect to women. I'm told that I was the first female in the Agency's proud 50+ year history to have been promoted from the secretarial pool to a creative position in the production department.
And while black and Hispanic men were among the department's MVP's, one was not, under any circumstances, permitted to be "too Jewish." (It was not appreciated when -- despite ample notice that I would do so -- I left a meeting early because Rosh Hashana was two hours away, and I needed an hour-and-a-half to get home.)
I can't say whether or note "Mad Men" provides an accurate picture of 1960 ... but it's uncomfortably close to 1979.