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“Mad Men”: Sexist!
By Kyle | May 21, 2008
Or so claims a huffy reader to England’s greatest lefty paper, The Guardian. That’s like saying “Dr. Strangelove” is pro-war because it’s about a bunch of bloodthirsty generals claiming, “I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed” when it comes to ten or 20 million deaths by nuclear assault. “Mad Men” is so pleased with its own irony, in fact–all the top jobs were held by white men! Women were secretaries and wives! Smoking was okay, even on the job! People drank at lunch! All of these things seemed unobjectionable!– that I found it annoying to watch and gave up after a couple of episodes, though some say the show got better after that. Anyway, the second season is gearing up.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
You’re right, it is irritating when they essentially stop the show to say “the past’s another country”, and then smile smugly to themselves about how clever that is. For the first two or three episodes I felt like turning off the TV, but then I found myself wanting to know what happens next. There will probably come a point where the annoyance overwhelms my curiosity (unless the show is cancelled first), but I haven’t got there yet.
This is another one for the list of recent shows that should have been miniseries, along with *Lost*, *Heroes*, *Sleeper Cell*, and *Prison Break*.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Well put, jic. I was astounded _Prison Break_ went on to a second and third season and, paradoxically, found myself wanting to know what would happen next precisely because it’s so ridiculous to have these same guys keeping getting put back in prison and break out again. Perhaps they should just change the name of the series (ditto _Smallville_, which should eventually just become _Metropolis_).
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 am
I find it annoying as well, yet another example of the genre, Life is Hell in America.
The self-loathing is palpable and creepy.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Something I found during season 2 of *Prison Break* was that I could miss two or three episodes in a row and it didn’t matter, since the plot was nonsensical and at least 95% of the content was padding. *Sleeper Cell* annoyed me because season 1 was virtually complete and self-contained; they had nowhere to go for season 2, and just ended up with a less-good version of the first season.
One more thing about *Mad Men*: Before I saw it, I thought I was the only person under the age of 65 who hated beatniks.
May 26th, 2008 at 5:12 am
I found myself watching Mad Men in a somewhat ambivalent fashion. Ambivalent in the sense that not much that was shown was new regarding the early 60’s and the lives of the characters were not particularly compelling. I gave up on it after a few episodes but having to spend a few weeks at a friend’s home babysitting, and with nothing else on, I found that it did get better, although I would not say that it was so much better that it ameliorates all of the archness of the show’s characters. The main character, Don Draper, has become far more fascinating than any other on the show, probably because he is the only one who breaks out of some of the archetypes on the show. His character would fit right in a David Lynch movie, though perhaps one without Lynchian excess. The rest could all fit in any standard depiction of The Patriarchy: The 60’s episode. I’ll still watch it, but it’s also a show that I could probably just watch in snippets and only for the Don Draper character.