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“Mad Men”: “Smartest Show on TV”?
By Kyle | June 22, 2008
So says the New York Times’ Alex Witchel in a New York Times magazine piece. As is usual with these things, the writer can’t quite avoid hyperbole (there has to be an -est somewhere) or false statements. “Mad Men” is not a “hit show.” It was a failure both in ratings and especially in audience demographics, which have been skewing heavily toward people actually old enough to remember the 1960s, who are of no interest to advertisers. What it is is critically acclaimed. That counts for something but it’s got nothing to do with being a hit show. The show is almost certainly losing money.
Topics: Advertising, DVD, TV |
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I watch very little tv and I can’t get enough of Mad Men. Is part of its ratings problem that it’s a series show on a channel that isn’t known for having shows like it? I think it would be a huge smash if it were on HBO.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
To Karol: I don’t know about it being a huge smash on HBO. It’s being on AMC in a way does hinder its ratings for the reason you cited. But, AMC is in more homes than HBO is, so at the most, it’s probably a wash.
Moving on:
Regarding the article itself, I read a few pages and I believe the show’s creator said something like the show isn’t about the look of it. He’s dead wrong: it’s entirely about the look of it. Take away the look and you don’t have much.
The show seems like it’s “All in the Family” without an Archie and just a Meathead looking down on the establishment, albeit from the director’s chair. Meathead’s histrionics are missing, but the sentiment is the same.
I don’t hate the show–I watched the last season on account of having nothing else to do–but there’s nothing particularly compelling about it. There’s nothing particularly revelatory about it, either. Are we to be shocked that the -isms existed so casually? And in the end, so what if they did? And no, that is not saying that it was just to say, be a casual anti-Semite, but is it supposed to be an Original Sin of that establishment that we are to still feel to this day? Or is the point of the show just to say, using a “Mad Men” creation, that we’ve “Come A Long Way, Baby.” I suspect it’s both, which merely points to the show’s inherent smugness.
I might watch it, for I want it to be better, but the article doesn’t lead me to believe that it will be.
It sure looks good, though.