Mad Love for Mad Men

What can I say about Mad Men? For one, I can’t miss an episode. I’m too invested in the show to risk not finding out which secretary Don’s sleeping with now, or what challenges

Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce are facing at work this week. So what’s the big deal you may wonder, and why am I so obsessed? To that I’d answer that the concept is appealing, the characters are charismatic, and the visual style is superb! Matthew Weiner (Director) is a genius, I’d say.

What is the show about?

Set against a backdrop of New York in the 1960s, Mad Men centers around the ad men of Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce and follows their personal lives. Mainly, the show is a commentary on both marital and business relationships, as well as the historical influence of the time period on American life. It really focuses on each character’s past, revealing a little more each episode while still moving forward in the narrative.

In particular, the creative Director of the agency, Donald Draper, is the axis character each show rotates around.

Getting to know Donald Draper, the creative director of Sterling Coo

per Draper Pryce, is no easy task. Don is the main figure of the show, but that isn’t even his real name. DRAMA. Apart from stealing a dead soldier’s identity to escape the Korean War, Don has many other complex attributes and flaws we all flock to as viewers—having been terribly unfaithful to his cookie-cutter wife, he gets a divorce and moves on to the next affair. And the next, and the next… that is until he finds love again with one of his secretaries. From his personal life, you can see how the man is brilliant at selling lies to people for a living.

"When I'm watchin' my TV

and a man comes on to tell me

how white my shirts can be.

Well he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke

the same cigarettes as me.”

The Rolling Stones, Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Betty Draper is the poor cookie-cutter, a typical suburbanite mother who is unhappy with her mundane and seemingly structured life. But don’t feel too sorry for her,

because its debatable whether she even has a heart. She initiates the break-up with Don because she cheats on him with another man. To top off her charm, Betty is one of those women who probably should not have had children, because honestly she is just a horrible mother. More than likely, you will almost never see her smile, but you will almost always see a cigarette in her hand.

Although there are many main characters, the last I’ll focus on is Peggy. She is the only secretary on the show who put her ideas to work and became a trusted associate in the ad agency. Good for you, Peggy. Through Peggy you can see how stereotypical roles of women ofthe time period come into play (always expected to be pretty, but never to have thoughts). At first more tolerated than respected as a working member of the agency, her ideas are slowly becoming admired by her colleagues, though she still gets little credit for her work. O, we have come a long way in women’s rights.

Groundbreaking Takeover

As far as critical acclaim goes, there’s just one word—Emmys. Its not hard to believe that the series has won 13 Emmys and 4 Golden Globes so far. That’s because it’s well written, has good actors, a fantastic plot, and great visual style.

In terms of popularity, AMC’s show, Mad men has exploded onto the television scene with its past four seasons. But that’s not all it has taken over. There is a website dedicated to Mad Men, a cocktail app formed to give recipes for drinks on the show, and even an interactive activity where you can make yourself into a cartoon character from Mad Men. I made the one above!

Why is it popular? copious amounts of drinking, sex, and sometimes advertising. The show is like a guilty pleasure, sans the trashy reality aspect of MTV. Not only are viewers drawn to its nostalgic take on the advertising boom of the fifties and sixties (led on by the advent of television and new mediums to work with in selling their product), they are also drawn in by the personal exploits and imperfections of the central characters. There has also been a retro revival in fashion, so the style is popular as well.

Mixing the Old and New Mad Men is eye-opening and shows how a new concept can mix with an old concept. This repurposing of the sixties into a hit television show in the 21^st century makes it intriguing to think the pop culture of the past has become part of our pop culture today.

All pictures from http://www.amctv.com:80/originals/madmen/

Evidence of Mad Men surfacing in everyday America can be found at Pop culture is mad about cable's Emmy-winning ‘Mad Men’ - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register or http://www.sj-r.com/features/x1016921210/Pop-culture-is-mad-about-cables-Emmy-winning-Mad-Men