Mad Men The Series Seasons 1-4
Now that Mad Men is streamable on Netflix, I got around to having a marathon and checking the whole thing out. I?ve just read too much good to ignore this.
Long story short; this is a great drama, well worth watching, that is petering out, jumping the shark and over staying its welcome. I?m glad I watched it and recommend you do as well.
I will, of course, watch season 5 to see if it picks up steam, but I?ve pretty much seen what I wanted to see.
What I wanted to see was what it was like back in the early 1960s. Hard as it may be to believe, this series takes place FIFTY YEARS AGO!!!!. And the sense of culture shock one feels while watching this is intense.
LIFESTYLE:
First, one notes that everyone is nearly constantly smoking cigarettes. Making the children breakfast cereal, walking around through the home, in bed, wherever. Watching someone smoke as they walk around through the place of work is disorienting. Smokers in my work place have been consigned out doors, even in blizzard conditions, for decades.
They also pour themselves a 2 finger drink of hard liquor every time they start a conversation, regardless of the time of day. Martinis are small. The 3 martini lunch is comprehensible in that a true martini is only 1.5 oz. Nowadays, they are more like 4 oz. So, yeah, every meal has a number of them on a table.
At child?s birthday party, some children are running around. An adult grabs a child, in front of his father and slaps his face hard and tells him to slow down. The father says nothing. Apparently, this was normal.
The family goes on a nice picnic in the park. When finished, the husband throws his beer can (punctured on top like a ½ gallon can of juice because there are no pulltabs on 12 oz cans back then) and throws it into the park. I wanted to crawl into the screen and smack him, but then his lovely wife shakes off their blanket, covered in trash, and folds it and takes it away, leaving the trash of a meal for 4 on the lawn. Where?s a tearful Indian when you need him!
As the series begins, there is one divorced woman in the series. She is treated like a fallen woman. Divorce was apparently rare and shameful. (Later in the show, it becomes ubiquitous, taking much of the drama and conflict out of the show).
RACE:
White people rule. Jews and Christian live in largely segregated public spheres. Much of the first season is about a Jewish business entity (Minskys) breaking ranks and going to this Christian establishment for fresh advertising ideas. I recall Alan Dershowitz, a top legal intellect, having to stay with Jewish firms early in his career for this reason. This de-facto segregation was real.
Black people are a servant class in this show. They don?t struggle against it in ways we get to see in this corporate world. They are omni present as elevator operators, janitors, cleaning ladies, etc. but never presented as ambitious people hoping to break the chains of stereotype. We don?t even get to see them as competing interests ala Christian firms vs Jewish firms.
We do get to see some of the civil rights movement brewing in the south (a couple of characters take a bus ride to protest down there) but this isn?t making its way up north, where everything is just as segregated and unjust.
GENDER:
Women, like racial minorities, do not have senior positions. One character is bumping up against the all boy network wall, and she is a central character for whom you root. You get a good look into her being held back by social policies. For example, the male execs want wine and dine a client by taking that client to a strip joint. She is not invited and misses out on matters that have professional ramifications. She later attends one such outing uninvited.
New women to the office are seen as potential conquests, even to the married men.
Aaand the stay at home moms are quietly going mad in their gilded cages.
HOMOSEXUALITY:
Right from the show?s start, there is a dashing character that you think is gay and heavily in the closet. You find out your are correct pretty quickly. He goes out on a dinner date with another man who asks him why not come out. He thinks the man insane. This is before a gay rights movement of any kind.
Later in the show, a young European employee is going to a concert with a young lady is told they make a great couple. He laughs, in front of the closeted gay and says it is not what everyone thinks: he is a homosexual. Another exec says, ?I don?t think that means what you think it means? to which he responds, ?I make love to the man, not the woman.? I?ve never seen people look so shocked. It was pretty hilarious. And you feel bad for the closeted guy, jealous he knows he cannot be as honest.
Normally, a reviewer may not say up front what he thought of a show or movie as he wants you to read the review first. Again, I like this show and recommend it, but in this case, I cared less about the actual plot, conflicts and characters than the general feel and culture in which this show takes place. Observing this stuff was a culture shock hoot. You shouldn?t miss it.
Now that Mad Men is streamable on Netflix, I got around to having a marathon and checking the whole thing out. I?ve just read too much good to ignore this.
Long story short; this is a great drama, well worth watching, that is petering out, jumping the shark and over staying its welcome. I?m glad I watched it and recommend you do as well.
I will, of course, watch season 5 to see if it picks up steam, but I?ve pretty much seen what I wanted to see.
What I wanted to see was what it was like back in the early 1960s. Hard as it may be to believe, this series takes place FIFTY YEARS AGO!!!!. And the sense of culture shock one feels while watching this is intense.
LIFESTYLE:
First, one notes that everyone is nearly constantly smoking cigarettes. Making the children breakfast cereal, walking around through the home, in bed, wherever. Watching someone smoke as they walk around through the place of work is disorienting. Smokers in my work place have been consigned out doors, even in blizzard conditions, for decades.
They also pour themselves a 2 finger drink of hard liquor every time they start a conversation, regardless of the time of day. Martinis are small. The 3 martini lunch is comprehensible in that a true martini is only 1.5 oz. Nowadays, they are more like 4 oz. So, yeah, every meal has a number of them on a table.
At child?s birthday party, some children are running around. An adult grabs a child, in front of his father and slaps his face hard and tells him to slow down. The father says nothing. Apparently, this was normal.
The family goes on a nice picnic in the park. When finished, the husband throws his beer can (punctured on top like a ½ gallon can of juice because there are no pulltabs on 12 oz cans back then) and throws it into the park. I wanted to crawl into the screen and smack him, but then his lovely wife shakes off their blanket, covered in trash, and folds it and takes it away, leaving the trash of a meal for 4 on the lawn. Where?s a tearful Indian when you need him!
As the series begins, there is one divorced woman in the series. She is treated like a fallen woman. Divorce was apparently rare and shameful. (Later in the show, it becomes ubiquitous, taking much of the drama and conflict out of the show).
RACE:
White people rule. Jews and Christian live in largely segregated public spheres. Much of the first season is about a Jewish business entity (Minskys) breaking ranks and going to this Christian establishment for fresh advertising ideas. I recall Alan Dershowitz, a top legal intellect, having to stay with Jewish firms early in his career for this reason. This de-facto segregation was real.
Black people are a servant class in this show. They don?t struggle against it in ways we get to see in this corporate world. They are omni present as elevator operators, janitors, cleaning ladies, etc. but never presented as ambitious people hoping to break the chains of stereotype. We don?t even get to see them as competing interests ala Christian firms vs Jewish firms.
We do get to see some of the civil rights movement brewing in the south (a couple of characters take a bus ride to protest down there) but this isn?t making its way up north, where everything is just as segregated and unjust.
GENDER:
Women, like racial minorities, do not have senior positions. One character is bumping up against the all boy network wall, and she is a central character for whom you root. You get a good look into her being held back by social policies. For example, the male execs want wine and dine a client by taking that client to a strip joint. She is not invited and misses out on matters that have professional ramifications. She later attends one such outing uninvited.
New women to the office are seen as potential conquests, even to the married men.
Aaand the stay at home moms are quietly going mad in their gilded cages.
HOMOSEXUALITY:
Right from the show?s start, there is a dashing character that you think is gay and heavily in the closet. You find out your are correct pretty quickly. He goes out on a dinner date with another man who asks him why not come out. He thinks the man insane. This is before a gay rights movement of any kind.
Later in the show, a young European employee is going to a concert with a young lady is told they make a great couple. He laughs, in front of the closeted gay and says it is not what everyone thinks: he is a homosexual. Another exec says, ?I don?t think that means what you think it means? to which he responds, ?I make love to the man, not the woman.? I?ve never seen people look so shocked. It was pretty hilarious. And you feel bad for the closeted guy, jealous he knows he cannot be as honest.
Normally, a reviewer may not say up front what he thought of a show or movie as he wants you to read the review first. Again, I like this show and recommend it, but in this case, I cared less about the actual plot, conflicts and characters than the general feel and culture in which this show takes place. Observing this stuff was a culture shock hoot. You shouldn?t miss it.
