tvPalaver: Mad About Mad Men

I came late to Mad Men.  When I saw the commercials for it a year and a half ago or so I thought it looked exploitative.  It's set in the advertising world of Madison Avenue in the early 1960s, and the promos made me think it celebrated a culture where men were men and women knew their place.  Fortunately, partway through the second season (this past summer) friends encouraged me to give it a try. I did, and I was hooked.

Far from celebrating sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and alcoholism, it provides a nuanced, realistic take on these things, and life in general in the early 60s.  And tells great stories.  The writing and acting are first rate.  I love the props.  In one scene Betty (above) was reading to her daughter from a book that was so familiar to me from forty years ago that I could remember what it smelled like and what it felt like in my hands (I think our Aunt Kathleen gave it to us as a hand-me-down from her children).  I love the theme song, particularly when the percussion comes in behind animated Don's shoulder.  I've actually rewound and watched the opening again.  Repeatedly.  I love Don's stiff suaveness.  I love Pete's weaseliness, and his stilted attempts at snappy phrases.   ("A thing like that.")

In looks, Betty reminds me of a cross between Laura Petrie, Pam from "The Office" (in the way she talks), Grace Kelly, and my mother, though I'm happy to say my mother, in addition to being beautiful, was and is a warm and caring mother (Betty, not so much, despite the bedtime reading scene).  I love the fact when they turn the TV off the screen goes down to a pinpoint of light.  (As kids we used to race to be the first to the TV to put our index finger on the dot as it disappeared.)  I love Joan's walk.  I love the way the women are all freaked out by the new divorcee in the neighborhood.  I love the typewriter covers.  I love the depictions of things we did then that seemed normal but now seem insane, such as when Betty's son sails over the front car seat to get to the glove compartment, and when her daughter Sally appears in the kitchen wearing a "this is not a toy" dry cleaning bag over her head and Betty's only concern is whether Sally had thrown Betty's dry cleaning on the floor.  As a result of the extraordinary consumption of hard liquor that goes on in the offices of Sterling Cooper in each episode, I confess to at least once giving in and pouring myself a Scotch.  I wonder if Lucky Strike has had an unexpected increase in revenue.  I find Peggy to be an enigma.

I could go on and on.  Obviously.  If you missed it the first time around, Season 1 is available on four DVDs from Netflix. For anyone on your holiday gift list, Amazon's got the set for $27.49 right now.  If you watch it, and are able to figure out what the deal is with Peggy, please fill me in.

Comments

[sybil]

Love it, love it, love it. I started watching at the beginning of this season and caught up on dvds from netflix immediately. The sixties touches are perfect; they got all the details just right. The cans of frozen tropicana orange juice, the Lanz pajama's......

[whjohnson]

I absolutely love your description of Mad Men. I also came late to the program but the episodes I have seen certainly ignited lost brain cells. At night my father would take the Long Island Railroad home from Wall Street. My mother would get dressed up, put on some perfume, and pick him up at the station. (He always smelled like the N.Y. Times and the Herald Tribune he read on the train.) They had Martinis or Manhattans and cigarettes and then, at 8 o'clock, we all ate by candlelight -- him still wearing jacket and tie. I don't know how they endured.

[mysterywriter]

I think Peggy is supposed to be a female version of Don. She's putting the past she doesn't like behind her, treating her family like a backdrop to her "show", and quietly, almost effortlessly, rising to the top.

Rumor has it that when the show returns, like last year, two years will have passed. It will be 1964, effectively skipping over JFK's assassination. This has gotten a lot of negative reaction, but I think it's smart of Matt Weiner. What more can be said? Also, at this pace, the show can have more fun with the changes in social mores, let alone fashion.

You should check out Entertainment Weekly's online breakdown of the show each week. It sometimes points out parts that you didn't notice and always has pages and pages of comments from the fans.

[Jabber]

You convinced me. We're adding it to the TV line-up.