AMC’s new show Mad Men is a must-see. It’s set in 1960 in a high-pressure Madison Avenue ad agency. Other than sharp writing, gorgeous visuals, and a top-notch cast, what Mad Men has going for it is an unapologetic eye about the mores of the late 50s/early 60s (what they’re now calling “mid-century”).
The “values conservatives” of the world, David Broder, Jonah Goldberg, and other people with pseudo-brains filling their skulls, believe the 1950s were an idyllic time. Women knew their place, none of that pesky feminism to mess around with their pretty heads. Abortion was illegal. Sex was never discussed in the public sphere, and when it was alluded to, it was only the heterosexual sort. Men wore skinny ties. (I kind of agree about the skinny ties.) The notion, of course, is that mid-century was a happy, innocent time. Families were all Ozzie and Harriet or Leave It To Beaver.
The fact is, the man behind the curtain was already visible at the time. Kinsey published in 1948 and 1953. Brown vs. the Board of Education was 1954 and the Montgomery bus boycott was the following year.
What Mad Men shows is direct and uncompromising. It is a man’s world, but the show has strong female characters, struggling in a world where they must choose between career and marriage, where most opportunities are closed to them, and sexual harassment is not only legal, it’s encouraged. As oppressive as the sexism is, it’s matched by the casual, normative racism and anti-Semitism. Homophobia isn’t even mentioned, but there is one character who is clearly closeted and struggling to be ‘one of the boys.’
Maybe I’m naive to think it would make a difference for people to actually see what they’re idolizing. I’m well-informed, I know a lot about the world my mother grew up in, and yet I found it shocking. There’s something about the visual impact that can’t be denied.
The mise en scène is pretty amazing. They are very careful to get the clothing, speech and attitudes just right. And the cast, as I said, is excellent. Whedon-heads will be pleased to see Angel and Firefly regulars back on TV.
It’s so good. It’s so good! I just rewatched the pilot last night, in preparation for tonight’s second episode.
It is highly stylized. I’m not convinced that the languaging is 100% accurate to the times, but it does bring us there with a beautiful guiding hand. The show is filled with ironies that are based solely on the fact that it is a different century looking back. (Tiny, insignificant spoiler alert:) Upon discovering that a report has been stolen from his garbage It’s not like there’s some magical machine that makes copies of things. These are the kind of ‘time travel’ allusions that are so fascinating to me. This show is clearly loaded with the self-consciousness of who its audience is. Like the gay character–he warrants virtually no explanation to us, cause uh, we get it, we get it more than he does). And there ain’t NOTHING wrong with that.
[…] I was meaning to write a review of AMC’s new show Mad Men, but Deb beat me to it. So read hers, and I have a comment on there as […]
Unfortunately, I suspect many people who idolize that time period would simply accuse the show of succumbing to some sort of revisionist history.
I’ve been reading great things about it (Tim Goodman in the Chronicle loved the show). I’ll probably Netflix it when it comes out on DVD.
Ohhh, why haven’t I heard of this show? Thanks for the tip; I’ll tune in.
I just saw it and I’m enormously impressed. It made me think of what Far From Heaven did for 1950’s “women’s” pictures by recreating them with what was left out then (and our awareness of that)put in. The template here seems to be Executive Suite and other drama-in-the-boardroom movies of the 50’s, which, for their time, were actually pretty hard-edged and unromantic.
You’re right about the mise-en-scene. In the scene in the strip club, not only was the stripper accurate, but the music she strpped to as well.
Great cast. Especially nice to see Vincent Kartheiser, whom I blamed for all the shortcomings of Season 4 of Angel, doing so much better in a role that’s right for him i.e. a sleazy creep.
Really? He took all the blame? Not the crappiest writing ever?
(Sorry, I get a little passionate about Season 4. My solution: A horrible bus wreck in the season opener. Throws Cordelia into a coma; kills the kid. None of that Jasmine nonsense. Make the whole rest of the episode about Wesley and Lilah. Cripes, they couldn’t even make Angelus plausibly scary.)
The copy machine joke made me smile, but to tell you the truth, I was afraid Mad Men would be nothing BUT jokes like that. Instead it was…deep.
[…] sister and I have started a blog about the AMC show Mad Men. I’ve posted about this show before, and in fact, I have a half-written post about the feminism of the show sitting in my Drafts […]
[…] My sister and I have started a blog about the AMC show Mad Men. I’ve posted about this show before, and in fact, I have a half-written post about the feminism of the show sitting in my Drafts […]