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Mad Men - Season One
Aug. 17th, 2011 12:15 pm- Tue, 13:22: Some fool mixed peanut butter cookie dough in with chocolate chip cookie dough at the frozen yogurt topping bar! #fatamericanproblems
- Wed, 10:39: Just putting this someplace... http://cgtextures.com
- Wed, 10:44: RT @1up: Zelda: Skyward Sword Slated for November 20 Release http://www.1up.com/news/zelda-skyward-sword-slated-november-release
- Wed, 10:50: @ThomasField -ended up with Talisker 10 (they were out of Distiller's ed,) but it was a great choice! Now we can watch Mad Men properly.
Mystery and I just started watching Mad Men. We've watched the first season (up to the next to last episode anyway,) and I'm impressed by the caliber of the writing. Of course that's easy to do when there is such a clear arc to be explored, but it was done in such a subtle way, it seemed more organic than contrived.
For example, the main character has to build a playhouse for his daughter's birthday. He's a guy who doesn't express much of his personal feelings, and he's holding some pretty terrible secrets in check. It's safe to say that he doesn't let anyone get very close to him. So when you see him drink four beers while building the playhouse, you think "oh here it comes, he's going to lose his hold on all this stuff he's suppressing and ruin his daughter's birthday by getting too drunk." But surprisingly, he completes the playhouse, goes inside and has a mint julep, graduates to rye and water... and stays perfectly sober and level headed. The drinking in the scene serves to show how long he's been self-medicating with alcohol, he's gone way beyond drunkenness, he needs it to stay normal. It also shows how acceptable it was among his crowd, who seem to match him drink for drink. He does end up ruining the party, but in a quiet and subtle way that doesn't distill his daughter's love for him (partly because his wife steps in and saves the day,) but in a way that builds the tension between him and his wife just a tiny bit, and above all, in a way that doesn't compromise his facade. This can't go on forever, and normally you'd realize that, but scenes like that one desensitize you as a viewer, so you're truly surprised when things come to a climax, even though you knew they would all along.
It also portrays 1960 with no politically correct whitewash at all. It's like an alien universe. A woman from the secretarial pool makes a suggestion about ad copy, and the junior ad men make the comment, "it was like watching a dog play piano." There are tons of these stunners. If you don't watch it, and can handle the slow rising heat building to a boil, (and if copious alcohol abuse doesn't trigger any terrible memories of your own,) I highly recommend it.
The first 52 episodes are available to stream on Netflix, which should keep you busy long enough to hit the premiere of Season 5.
