Mad Men (#7)
A dark, funny and brilliant show finally makes its entrance.
Somehow, when folks talk about the best TV shows of all-time, they often drive right past Mad Men. I’m not quite sure why - it was a true star maker for actor Jon Hamm, as well as for Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks and other actors like January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser and Kiernan Shipka. (And yes, so many others.)
In some ways, I think it’s a victim of all the talk about “prestige television” and how this show was held up as a shining beacon of this. (Here’s the top results for a Google search):
But also … it’s hard to sum up Mad Men in a way that isn’t tough for other great shows. It’s not a show about “the President and his staff” or “a cop in rural Kentucky” or “a comedy about office life” in a way that explains a few shows we have discussed already.
Mad Men is, in fact, a show about … America? It’s centered around an advertising agency (on Madison Avenue, hence the nickname ‘Mad Men’) with the lead character, Don Draper (Hamm) the creative director. We also see him outside of work where his charm and good looks make him quite the ladies man. (Which, spoiler alert, isn’t great - he’s married with kids.)
We also meet Peggy Olson (Moss) on her first day - she’s hired to be an assistant, and is taught the ways of the trade by Joan Holloway (Hendricks) who basically explains without saying as much that this is a man’s world, and she’ll do well to play by the rules - and who knows, maybe she’ll find a husband!
Of course, as the show went on, both Joan and Peggy thrived in this world, as well as went through major drama and trauma. Don’s life changes MANY ways, and of course in his case we learn a lot about Don’s past and how it’s shaped who he is today. (And who he is not, for those who have watched.)
The sheer quality of the show is tremendous - each show is a work of art, and many folks are understandably obsessive about it. One site dissected many episodes by showing what the characters are wearing and how this speaks to what’s going on with them and the episode itself.
Many folks will point to the episode “The Suitcase” as the peak of the show, and it’s clearly one of the most brilliant episodes of television I can think of. (If someone yells, “That’s what the money is for!” at you, they’re quoting this.) There are a handful of other episodes - one involving a lawnmower being used inside the office - that stick out to me as well.
But for me, the show absolutely won me over in the finale of Season 1. The show is called “The Wheel” and Draper is presenting to Kodak their pitch for their new device to show slides to the family, that Kodak is calling “The Wheel.” Here’s the money quote:
My first job, I was in-house at a fur company, with this old pro copywriter. Greek, named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is "new". Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of... calamine lotion. But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It's delicate... but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means, "the pain from an old wound". It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship. It's a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the Wheel. It's called a Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around, and back home again... to a place where we know we are loved.
You’re always gonna get me with good writing, and honestly, this is GREAT writing. I remember watching that episode and being truly moved at this moment, and wondering what had just happened. The show takes place during the entire decade of the 1960’s, starting with the Nixon-Kennedy election and finishing … well, you’ll need to watch. That backdrop adds a haunting sense of dread because some truly historic moments happened that decade and to some degree, you can sense them coming.
Mad Men is a tremendous show that hits all of the marks. It’s often very funny, but it absolutely hits all the emotions and gets you to invest yourself with many different characters, even as they often make truly bad life decisions. It’s been praised by all and won tons of awards, and again there is no misstep through the seven seasons. (Sure, there are characters they short changed and perhaps there could have been a few more light moments, but these are arguments on the margins.)
If you’ve stayed away from the show thus far, I can’t suggest it highly enough - it’s fantastic storytelling and a great forum for a litany of great actors, many of whom I’ve not even mentioned like John Slattery, Jared Harris, Alison Brie, Jessica Pare and others. Please, do yourself a favor and go check it out.
