Along with what seems like the entire rest of the world, I am 1) of the opinion that “Mad Men” is currently the best show on television, and 2) am blogging about my opinion that “Mad Men” is currently the best show on television. You don’t have a blog unless you are blogging about “Mad Men.” Even The Millions succumbed (and click through to check out their nifty re-design BTW).
Meanwhile, much like “The Wire”………. hardly anyone is watching “Mad Men.” Don Draper and the rest of Sterling Cooper set personal best ratings for Sunday night’s premiere with 2.8 million viewers. To put that number in perspective, twice as many people watched A RERUN of “How I Met Your Mother.” Don’t get me wrong, “How I Met Your Mother” is quite a legen (wait for it) dary show, but COME ON, PEOPLE.
I know not everyone gets AMC, even fewer get it in HD, there are a lot of people Tivo-ing the show as they catch up with the Season 1 and 2 DVDs, and sundry other reasons for the low ratings. But still: it hasn’t been since… well, “The Wire” that a relatively sparsely watched show has received such massive attention.
“Mad Men” has gotten me thinking about all sorts of topics – the way it unfolds so luxuriously, the way it looks (which has been influential in everything from fashion to antiquing), the social issues, the lurking specter of the ’60s cultural upheaval, and what is surely the best opening credits sequence in television history (a notable departure from “The Wire,” which was arguably the worst title sequence in television history).
Iconic shows tend to “get” something about the times in which they’re airing and tap straight into the cultural zeitgeist. “Dallas” became a hit just as a certain Western actor was about to move into the White House, and J.R. Ewing’s barely disguised glee for financial greed was contemporaneous with Michael Milken and the savings and loan crisis. In the ’90s, “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” and “Sex & the City” progressively reflected the rapid gentrification and “youthing” of America’s cities.
“Mad Men” is still a ways off from being an iconic show, except among critics and the 2.8 million people who are apparently watching it. And yet there’s something about the show that is really touching a cultural nerve, especially in the cities. It’s telling that AMC particularly focused its advertising for “Mad Men” directly in New York City.
In some sense, the mere fact that “Mad Men” is so relatively unpopular and yet has such fanatical devotion among its core group of fans is already reflective of our time. We’re living in an age when audiences for movies and TV shows are splintering further and further. Even without factoring for inflation, the highest grossing movie of all time came out twelve years ago. The most watched television event, in percentage terms, was twenty-six years ago.
But setting aside its cult status, I think what might be most appealing abut the show is the way in which the characters of “Mad Men” are living the still-relevant cultural upheavals that have left such a lasting impact nearly 50 years later (women in the work place, creeping but primitive awareness of racial issues, etc.) just as the characters remain blissfully unaware of the upheavals as they’re living them.
One of the most scathing articles I’ve seen about “Mad Men” was in the London Review of Books last Fall (via The Elegant Variation), in which Mark Greif lamented that the show was “an unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better.” He writes:
“We watch and know better about male chauvinism, homophobia, anti-semitism, workplace harassment, housewives’ depression, nutrition and smoking. We wait for the show’s advertising men or their secretaries and wives to make another gaffe for us to snigger over. ‘Have we ever hired any Jews?’ – ‘Not on my watch.’ ‘Try not to be overwhelmed by all this technology; it looks complicated, but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use.’… We’re meant to save a little snort, too, for the ad agency’s closeted gay art director as he dismisses psychological research: ‘We’re supposed to believe that people are living one way, and secretly thinking the exact opposite? . . . Ridiculous!’ – a line delivered with a limp-wristed wave. Mad Men is currently said to be the best and ‘smartest’ show on American TV. We’re doomed.”
Greif does spot the most cringe-inducing of the “wink winks” in the show’s history. But if the whole point of the show were these winks and nudges… yeah. It would suck. Only: it’s not, and it doesn’t.
Firstly, I would argue that the “Now We Know Better” genre is much preferable the “It Wasn’t So Bad Really” revisionist history genre where protagonists from racially and sexually awkward times are blessed with modern day awareness and sensitivity so that we can feel okay about them. As Ta-Nehesi Coates writes, the virtual omission of black characters in Mad Men perfectly reflects that world:
“I actually think it’s a beautiful, lovely, incredibly powerful omission. Mad Men is a show told from the perspective of a particular world. The people in that world barely see black people. They’re there all the time–Hollis in the elevator, women working in the powder-room, the Draper’s maid, the janitors, the black guy hired at Leo Burnett–but they’re never quite seen. I think this is an incredible statement on how privilege, at its most insidious, really works.”
Also, in order for a “Now We Know Better” genre to work… don’t we actually have to know better? What is most enjoyable about these moments of awkwardness on “Mad Men” isn’t that they’re closed cases but that the characters are dealing with issues that are still roiling our own times. It’s not as if we’ve closed the book on anti-semitism, racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Tumultuous change is in the air in the offices of Sterling Cooper, and yet the characters are completely unselfconsciously unaware. Peggy Olson is just ambitious and competent, she does not self-consciously think of herself as a trailblazer in the workplace. Pete Campbell doesn’t see himself as the last bastion of New York aristocracy. They don’t sit around talking about how the times they are a-changin’. They’re just people living their lives. That unselfawareness perfectly encapsulates how we are living through our own tumultuous time in the present: with no idea how everything is going to turn out.
What do you think? Does the Don Draper stare and the rest of “Mad Men” capture your imagination or does it leave you cold?
Wilkie says
I agree with Nathan's comments in many ways. And I DEFINITELY agree that you need to start with Episode 1, Season 1.
My boyfriend and I are avid fans of Mad Men. We didn't start watching until they were into the second season, and then spent that season catching up. The visual art of the show and the writing are fantastic, and we've been telling everyone we know to tune in.
I also must second Laura Martone that the opening sequence to True Blood is fantastic!
Sophia says
The opening credits of Mad Men remind of those for Hustle, the BBC series about a group of con artists who target the greedy. It's one of my favourite ever opening sequences. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGyIDtBX7f0&feature=related
Anonymous says
In Mad Men we can feel superior to these poor, shallow, ignorant, racist, drunk, philanderers while patting ourselves on the back. Yeah I know the whole 'look how far we've still got to go' aspect turns some people on but I am not so sure that is the appeal for most viewers.
The producers/writers DO want us to be in on the sly joke. Hey look at those assholes! *for instance, that picnic scene was extremely heavy handed* I have yet to see a scene that allows me to think the message in Mad Men is any other than 'we are so much better than these guys.'
Maybe, just maybe, the reason this show is resonating is the realisation that as far as shallowness, self-centeredness and vacuousness goes? Our current culture reigns supreme.
I mean are women really better treated today? I'm not talking bout money and jobs, but the complete objectification that seems to have emerged hand in hand with the sexual revolution. Not that women weren't objectified in the past, but complete cultural approval, accross all socio-economic and racial lines, is unprecedented.
In fact, I admire most of the women characters from Mad Men (really their counterparts IRL) MUCH more than the Sex in the City gals, the Girls Next Door, Paris Hilton and any female character on any show on the CW network.
Sophia says
Speaking of perfect series that unfold at a luxurious pace, I'm rewatching Murder One at the moment. When I watched it when it was first on in 1996, I was as caught up with the drama of it as the whole country seemed to be (the UK), but now I'm watching with an eye for character, plotting and pacing, too, and it's still perfect. I think the best series not only speak to the moment, but their quality and themes continue to resonate into the future.
Anonymous says
Mad Men is a brilliantly written, acted and conceived show. But it is also not to everyone's taste. Just as the Wire was all of these things and more. And yet…and yet it never broke out but remained a kind of 'underground' hit. I don't know that Mad Men will ever expand beyond its core group. Let's face it, it doesn't cater to the tastes of a wider audience.
CKHB says
We love Mad Men, although I think they're a little too scared to address racism with the same brutal honesty that they're addressing the other social issues (e.g. sexism). But I hope they'll get there.
And I'm still trying to find a Don Draper-style suit for my husband… tailoring was much better back then!
Anonymous says
I think that this series needs to be seen from the beginning in order to be able to get into it. Someone here mentioned their inability to understand what was going on since they just started viewing with this season's opener. If you have an interest in the series you really need to see it in sequence from season one on. Picking it up from Sunday's opener would be confusing as to what is going on with the characters, etc. as it all is part of a continuing arc.
Chuck H. says
Mad Men? Don't got no cable either. *sighs again*
Word Ver: expence – that's why I don't got cable
Terri says
I watch series TV via Netflix while I'm working at our business and I have to admit – you've got me intrigued.
I found the commercials for MM to be a total turnoff and never gave the show a second thought. However, I do like bleak and gritty, with a good dose of stylish and will be putting MM in the queue.
I just finished 'The Wire' from day one to the jump-the-shark end and am in season 7 of 'Homicide', so I need some new entertainment.
Now, I have to warn you all, the minute I get interested in a cable series, it is cancelled. I have personally killed off: Deadwood, Carnivale, Rome, Huff, and Dead Like Me. The shows I refuse to watch such as Entourage, Dog The Bounty Hunter and others are still going strong. So, this could be it for MM if I start watching . . . you've been warned.
Lisa Katzenberger says
I heart Mad Men. I heart it so much it makes my knees sting.
And you hit it on the head, Nathan. Their unawareness is exactly what pulls me in and makes them so believable. Yet so hard to watch at time. Don't you just want to cringe when Pete and Peggy talk to one another? I mean, didn't he even suspect something when she got fat and disappeared for a while then returned all thin? But no, he didn't suspect, and that is what makes him so perfect to watch.
And Don struggles with being the father he never had and chasing tail and soaking up all the power and attention he can lay his hands on. All with smoldering eyes and a skinny tie.
Oh, it's just fabulous. A really special, different show.
The Procrastinating Perfectionist says
I DVRed the entire first season of Mad Men and never got around to watching it–even though I was doing PR for an ad agency in Chicago at the time and the CCO couldn't stop talking about it. I wanted to watch, but, living with a husband who doesn't like period piece television, never found the time. Then we moved across country and I turned my DVR full of unwatched episodes back to Comcast.
A few months after landing in Seattle, as a newfound fan of utilizing public libraries, I checked out the entire first season and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it. Once I finished season 1 I found a website where I could watch season 2 and was still blown away by the writing, the acting, the costumes, the sets, the whole package.
Now I'm finally watching Mad Men season 3 live and finding my skin itching for the next week's episode. How can AMC possibly expect me to wait SEVEN WHOLE DAYS for the next episode. It's nearly too much, until I think about the reward that awaits me at the end of those 7 days. So I take a deep breath and cross another day off my calendar.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Re: "I mean are women really better treated today? I'm not talking bout money and jobs, but the complete objectification that seems"
I was just thinking about the connection between money/jobs & objectification the other day…it was a comment on Salon about "sex positive feminists" – and I thought, why aren't there feminists who identify themselves as "paycheck positive feminists?" Who care about all that "boring" stuff like compensation, working conditions, etc…
I would love to see a TV show about feminists. Feminists in conflict. The sex positive feminists versus the paycheck positive feminists. And it's done as a drama like Mad Men, with plenty of attention to the "look" of sex positive feminist's lives versus that of the paycheck positive ones. Oh those boring literal unimaginative labor union women! Those frouf-y sex positivists!
It could be hilarious, and yet educational, and yet full of painful truths about our own times.
There are wonderful stirrings on message boards among medical transcriptionsts (a female-dominated field of our own time) about PAY, and technological/productivity "enhancemnts," that would make old Walter Reuther proud!
And I'd love to see a TV series (or a book), where there's some young 20-something woman unpacking her things in a dorm, and she's got a poster of the "Battle of the Overpass" from 1937 to hang on her wall (black/white photo), and then in comes her roommate, and she unpacks "Sex and the City – The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset)" (red/pink cover). And it's not played for laughs – it's a drama with moments of humor, as these two young women become allies on campus. And then just to mess with everyone's minds, make the one with the Overpass poster really pretty in a stereotypical way, with an awesome collection of earrings, and then the SATC roommate just average looking, with one pair of diamond stud earrings she only wears on special occasions, etc.
Ah yes, I can see it now. We'd only need to increase the number of women "writing in Hollywood" by about 78%.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Also, regarding women of that era and class – Sylvia Plath's 1963 "The Bell Jar," and also her biography, especially regarding her relationship with writer Olive Higgins-Prouty, yes, I'm just going to infodump from Wikipedia here:
"Olive Higgins Prouty (10 January 1882 – 24 March 1974) was an American novelist, best known for her pioneering consideration of psychotherapy in Now, Voyager (made into a movie starring Bette Davis) and her feminist melodrama Stella Dallas. The latter was used as the basis for two successful films – the 1937 version, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, was nominated for two Academy Awards – and a radio serial which was broadcast daily for 18 years, despite Prouty's legal efforts […}
Prouty is also known for her philanthropic works, and for her resulting association with Sylvia Plath, whom she encountered as a result of endowing a Smith College scholarship for "promising young writers". She supported Plath financially in the wake of Plath's unsuccessful 1953 suicide attempt; subsequently, Plath used Prouty as the basis of the character of "Philomena Guinea" in her 1963 novel, The Bell Jar."
Also of note, racism in Plath's writing – although Plath questioned gender dynamics of her era, she never (as far as I know) questioned those of race.
Rhonda says
I have never seen the show, but the critic/devil's advocate in me wonders if when one says that the show is not a revisionist version of the time period, that's true. Is it not just a newer revisionist version that reflects the current political climate, so it seems more right? I'm not saying that is the case. Truly just wondering…
Tracy says
Yeah Rhonda. I think the same thing.
Vanessa says
GASP, the worst title sequences in HISTORY is The Wire?! Tom Waits' "Down in the Hole" with images of Baltimore and themes of the season. Really?
Season four with the children running in the streets…I think that’s one of the all time best openings for a show.
Nathan Bransford says
vanessa-
No offense to Tom Waits, but that song really didn't work for me.
Major Tom says
Love it. Been watching it since it arrived. It really grabbed me in the first season, in the episode where Don has a run in with a beatnik who is bashing his lifestyle and profession.
'How do you sleep at night?' The Beatnik asks in disgust.
'On a bed made of money," Don replies.
Regan Leigh says
Oh, see… now you're going to make me turn on my TV? I haven't done that since the Lost season ended… I've been so proud of myself! (Though, I must confess to watching Flight of the Conchords and Gilmore Girls on DVD.)
I may have to check out the first season soon. I'm intrigued.
Elaine 'still writing' Smith says
Mad Men hasn't aired here – in the UK – I'll look out for it.
We had "Life on Mars" though – a vehicle for looking at how we used to live Police drama style. John Simm being the added bonus.
The opening titles for True Blood is almost painful – very powerful too.
Clarity says
Nathan, it has aired in the UK for two years. My sister adores it, but pretends not to.
I find the titles and music original but must admit I've never sat down to watch a full episode. Why? the brooding lead is too hyped for me, I tend to avoid hype… then again, have I missed a wee gem like The Wire?
I admire anything that can capture and engage with wit, charm and laser perception.
Ben Dutton says
I recently watched the first episode and I agree with every word spoken by the London Review – almost everything in that episode of nudge nudge wink wink look at the primitives. Terrible. I too thought "If this is the best thing on American TV we're doomed." I watched the second and found myself drifting. And yet, there is something about it – you can see the good show that's in there trying to come out… so I'll be giving the third episode a go, but still, not hopeful. I'd rather be watching Big Love.
Nathan Bransford says
ben-
I'm also a fan of "Big Love," but there are times when I feel like that show is too ambitious for its own good. The past season's events seemed like four seasons worth of material crammed into one.
Paula says
I tried to like it. I really did. My husband and I watched the first DVD, but I got so depressed, and we thought the show was so leaden that we stopped. We hated all the characters and couldn't have cared less what happened to them.
Just for contrast, some of our favorite shows include "Battlestar Galactica," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "The Office," both versions.
Anonymous says
I think that perhaps I knew the gentleman upon whom Don Draper is loosely modeled. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. 🙂
In Chicago in 1983, I witnessed an afternoon-long three (or more) martini lunch at Chez Paul partaken of by ad execs.
Never considered writing about them. Jerry Della Femina's (spelling?) book, "From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Pearl Harbor" offers an inside look at advertising from that period.
I do miss the smoking, drinking and eating with abandon that indulged in back then.
Terry says
Wow, Nathan! I know I'm like the millionth response here, but this really resonates with me.
I agree with what you say.
The characters in Mad Men are just people living their lives and aren't that much different from us now and with no idea how everything is going to turn out.
My story idea for my manuscript was conceived after a year and a half of terrible grief, so I never heard nor cared about Mad Men. But it's a PI detective story that takes place in 1964.
When I heard about Mad Men I rented it from Netflix. It is so well done.
And the Nielsen ratings for TV are narrow. They need to find a better way to judge. It's outdated and really absurd.
Another great post. Thanks.
Serenissima says
I rented season one from the library and only endured one episode. The treatment of women left me too uncomfortable to watch further. I realize that eliciting that level of emotion from the viewer shows they're doing something right; however, I don't want to spend hours feeling crummy for the sake of 'entertainment'.
My fav show these days is Dexter. Yes, I prefer watching a sardonic serial killer over a sexist lady killer.
Deb Lehman says
Nathan, I blogged about Mad Men last year, my title was close to yours: Mad About Mad Men. LOL. I am a baby boomer and fell madly in love with the show. Masterfully written, directed and performed, Mad Men teems with complex characters you either love or love to hate. The series is highly textured. I need to see each episode several times just to catch all the allusions, symbols, metaphors. Mad Men captures the history and heart of the era with a stunning attention to detail. I also love Showtime's The Tudors and ITV's Foyle's War.
Deb Lehman says
Mad Men Newbies, begin with Season 1, Episode 1 because the series must be watched sequentially to be understood and it just may be the best of them all. And I agree with the person who recommended Alan Sepinwall's Mad Men Blog. I'm addicted to it.
Carey_Corp says
MAD MEN is AWE(wait for it)SOME! We especially love January Jones' frustrated and oft-neglected housewife. Hard to believe that is the same actress from LOVE ACTUALLY (baffled? google on imdb). However reruns of HIMYM are also great. NPH – always funny. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention we have Barney's framed AWESOMENESS poster in our study. 🙂
Carey_Corp says
I also want to add the opening credits are brilliant. And I think the writers take perverse pleasure in underscoring all the socially acceptable things of the age that are now taboo.
Anonymous says
Wanda, The Book Thief is incredible. I read it over a year ago and the last line still resonates… I've never met anyone who wasn't moved by it in some way (anmd I'm not just saying that b/c I share an agent- and a home country- with the author).
BTW, adore Mad Men, though we've only had the first series here in Australia. Can't believe I read some of thsoe spoilers… Joan did WHAT?!
Kylie in Aus
Jennifer says
I desperately want to find one of those stewardess outfits we saw in the season three premiere. I don't know why…just to wear around the house, I guess. I love this show. LOVE. IT.
BenPanced says
I've tried watching it but I just can't get into it. Everybody's so cold and calculating, I don't care about them or their motives.
Anonymous says
Mad Men is a breath of fresh air on TV! I love watching the series and understanding what my mother had to go through to become "liberated"–maybe you anti-Mad Men people are too young or too "PC" to get it but this was the reality of the 1960s.
Try asking your parents or grandparents about those times–it's totally accurate and so visually appealing and compelling. The storylines and dialogue say so much with so little.
Jon Hamm is one of the best, yet most subtle actors around–and gorgeous to boot. He can say more with an expression than most actors can in a monologue. Thanks, Nathan for encouraging people to watch the BEST SHOW ON TV!
Ben Dutton says
Nathan – just wanted to agree with you about the last season of Big Love. I find that with most TV shows, though – they get a few seasons in and think they have to top all that has come before and they end up overextending themselves. It was at its best in the first two seasons where the focus was on the core family.
I did watch the third episode of Mad Men last next and must admit to, again, digging the mise en scene – Mad Men looks so cool. The writing, when it's not winking at us, is excellent. Yet still, something feels artificial about it. There is enormous scope here, and because I bought the DVDs, I'll stick with it.
Diamond says
Don Draper leaves me cold though Mr Bransford's acute assesment of the series makes me wish it weren't so. But a man with a three-pack-a-day habit who in no episode in living memory has ever popped a breath mint – who would let him within breathing, never mind kissing distance? Draper's wife's fashions, however, are hot as. Not since Grace Kelly has the belted flared skirt and tight bodice been worn with such elan. But it's Draper's secretary – the 'clever' second one – who robs the show of the last shred of cred. Love the racism, the chain smoking, the retro decor, the misogyny, but a woman who dsicovers she's pregnant only when the baby drops out of her???? Please, this was the sixties, not Victorian England. And even if she was so incredibly stupid, surely someone in that sophisticated agency would have realised it wasn't simply a case of extreme weight gain. I put up with a lot from TV-land. I love Smallville and Eureka where plotholes abound, but Draper's breath and all those women whose noses must have gone blind, plus his pregnant secretary who had no clue – too much even for me to swallow.
Etiquette Bitch says
What???? I "don't have a blog unless I'm blogging about mad men"???? Okay, I'll get on that.
I did watch MM until I had to cut cable last year. Wish I could see it now, wish my economic situation was not mirroring the current economy.
And "How I Met Your (wait for it) Mother" sucks.
Cat Moleski says
My partner and I love the show and happened to have some Libby gold Leaf glasses! We are currently buying more and searching for the round set that Don has in his office. I always feel the need to drink when I watch that show.
Flemmily says
I love Mad Men.
In fact, I think that I too need to go blog about Mad Men just to legitimize my blog.
Sue says
I'm not a fan. Ugly people doing ugly things. Not a single rootable character. Life is too short to spend valuable hours of my life watching imaginary people be despicable to each other.
DCS says
Got to dissent, respectfully. Never having seen the show, I tuned in for episode 1 of the new season. Fifteen minutes later I tuned out. Incomprehensible! Where was the hook? Did I care about anyone on the show? Not in the slightest.
Nathan Bransford says
dcs (and others)-
Again, starting with Season 3, Episode 1 is like picking up a novel and starting in the middle. You gotta start at the beginning.
Toni Kenyon says
I adore the show. But, no spoilers please, Nathan.
I live in the Antipodes (New Zealand) and we are always a series behind the rest of the world!!
cheryl s says
Thanks, Nathan, for this Mad Men post. AMC just abandoned my cable provider 5 days before the season 3 premier and I'm, well, bummed.
What other show makes me write down lines that I never ever want to forget (Don to post partum Peggy: "It will shock you how much this never happened.")? What story line whittles down to a final scene of a young priest alone in his room who…pulls out his guitar and belts Peter, Paul, and Mary? Where else is irony like a guy having a heart attack at the meeting with the cigarette people?
I know it's just TV, but it's really under my skin, you know?
DCS says
Well, not quite the same as picking up a book and starting at the middle or walking into a movie ten minutes along. I can think of some notable series (Sopranos, Sex in the City, Dallas even,) where a new viewer was given something to whet the appetite at the outset. I can think of another show, Twin Peaks, that was a cult from the outset and was confusing even if watched from the beginning.
Nathan Bransford says
dcs-
But I think this show is specifically intended for the Netflix/iTunes era. Those previous shows couldn't count on their audience's ability to catch up (how could they?) so they had to ease everyone in slowly.
Shows like Mad Men and Lost and The Wire could never have existed in a previous era because anyone who didn't tune in from Day 1 would be hopelessly lost. But now that it's possible to catch up it allows for TV shows that really are like
Nathan Bransford says
whoops, missed a word.
like… novels.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Re: "Wanda, The Book Thief is incredible. I read it over a year ago and the last line still resonates…"
Thanks for commenting about The Book Thief.
Nathan Bransford says
Love love love THE BOOK THIEF. It's incredible.