Today we have a new guest writer by the interblag name of SnowGhost, who is here to talk about Mad Men and guilt me into watching it. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE TO MY 30 ROCK MARATHONS AND THE CREEPING REALIZATION THAT I AM A YOUNGER LIZ LEMON.
It’s
that time again. Grab your favourite three piece suit or blouse and a nice cold
glass of whiskey on the rocks; Mad Men
is back on AMC. The two hour premiere debuted last Sunday and before I get into
how I felt about it I'm going to discuss the show itself, because I’m dying to spread my
knowledge to anyone at this point.
Mad
Men takes place in 60s America as we follow the life of protagonist Don Draper
(Played by Jon Hamm), a chief writer for Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. He
has a lovely wife Betty (played by January Jones, aka Emma Frost from First
Class) and two loving children with a nice house and even a black[1]
help. He’s friends with Roger Sterling, one of the chairmen of the company, and
they go drinking every so often. From the looks of it, Don has it all. He’s
literally living the American dream - but if only that was the truth. And boy
oh boy how far from it is it.
“What you call love was invented by guys like me, to
sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a
bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never
forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.” –Don Draper
When
your main character follows a philosophy like that, you know things aren’t as good as he’d like. He’s a cynic, reminiscent
of characters played by Humphrey Bogart. He’s also a massive playboy and an
affair means absolutely nothing to him so long as he can get away with it. In
many cases this makes a character unlikeable, but he’s just so charming that
you forget every reason you’d normally hate his guts. And that’s what makes the
show so wonderful. The characters are not nice people by any stretch but we
become invested in their plights. Ranging from the seductive Joan (played by
Christina Hendricks, that one chick who showed up for two episodes in Firefly
and for a few minutes in Drive) to the jealous Pete Campbell, to the talented
Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton, easily recognized as Cole Phelps from L.A Noire:
seriously everyone is a face someone has seen one way or another).
To
say the show is good is an understatement. It won the Emmy for best drama four
times in a row. Let me just say that again. Four
times in a fucking row, beating out the likes of Dexter, Lost, House,
Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. It’s also gotten a lot of
critical praise for its historical accuracy in terms of racial issues, sexism,
alcoholism and smoking and it doesn’t shy away from these themes. This is the
60s, the good, the bad and the worst of it. Honestly, ask yourself, why you
aren’t watching this right now? (Seriously Jenkins, watch this. And Luther. And Breaking Bad. And The Walking
Dead S2. Argh, get it together)
It’ll
take you three episodes to decide whether or not you’re hooked or not. But once
you’re on board, the train doesn’t stop. It slows down, it speeds up and
twists, turns and loops, but it never stops and while I could praise this show
to the highest of high heavens, I have to say that the series does stumble a
bit. Some episodes feel extremely slow and others feel highly unnecessary and pointless.
Certain characters don’t get much screen time while others seem to get too
much. With a cast this wide, it’s hard to divide the time amongst them but it’s
one of the flaws that Mad Men has yet
to really fix. Also the show does come across as melodramatic to the point of
annoyance. On the other hand, it has Christian Hendricks in lovely dresses. You
can’t lose with that, I guess. There’s also a lot of Jon Hamm, shirtless in all
of his manly glory. Mad Men has something
for everyone it seems. So stop complaining about Mass Effect 3, waiting for
season four of Arrested Development or debating whether or not The Hunger Games
is a good film and just give it a try.
Oh.
And as for the season 5 premiere, it was a brilliant and well done episode. But
after finding out the show won the Best Drama four times in a row, did you need
to me to say that? As the episode rolled on, the smile on my face got bigger
and bigger as they pushed a new subject matter to the forefront. Civil rights
have finally caught wind in New York and it’s going to set up interesting
plotlines for the rest of the season. Another thing that needs to be brought up
is that Don has changed. He’s less cynical, he’s got a smile on, and he seems
to be a bit easier to talk to. The truth is, ever since the previous events of
Season 4, Don may have, in fact, maybe, possibly, gotten happy with his life. It’s
a strong contrast to his character in the previous season as we saw Don hit a
low. Outside of Don, everyone hasn’t seemed to have changed. Pete is still
snide and jealous, Harry is still awkward, Roger is still the coy bastard (albeit
a bit more envious), Lane is still British, and Joan -- seeing some new changes
in her life -- still hasn’t adjusted to many of the events that occurred. The
premiere was a wonderful episode and one that leaves me excited for what
Matthew Weiner (series creator) has to offer in the future.
It’s
good to be back in the office. (No, not that
office)
Picture References
http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/files/2011/03/don-draper-mad-men.jpg
http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/1400000/Michael-in-Branch-Closing-michael-scott-1468603-1280-720.jpg
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