You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
I’m watching the AMC network. For the first time in my life I am about to watch Mad Men.
Mad Men has been on for several seasons and is a 4 time Emmy winner for best drama.
There’s no doubt the show is a huge hit, I just have never watched it, nor do I believe I have ever put on the AMC Network. In fact, I have to scroll like a Mad Man through my directv guide just to find it.
The problem with me and Mad Men is this; it is season 5 or 6 and I don’t have a clue what this show is about.
It’s like walking into Star Wars about the time Darth Vadar says; “Luke I am your father.” It doesn’t have quite the impact if you aren’t vested in the franchise.
The announcer says: PREVIOUSLY ON MAD MEN.
I watch a woman run in an office and say “you are going to Vietnam.”
CUT TO: Another woman wearing a provocative dress saying “I would like to do what you do!”
CUT TO: Her throwing a business man down on the couch.
CUT TO: A white haired actor who fires up a cigarette. There’s a pensive look with a woman, perhaps the hint of an office romance.
Am I sufficiently prepped? I don’t think so.
The show is a total immersion into a 1960’s advertising genre where men were men and advertising was cool. You could smoke and drink all the while dreaming up ads for Franks and Beans.
The show begins with a protest on the street and some white dudes throwing water balloons from their offices on the mostly black protesters.
CUT TO: An angry black mama and her soaking wet little boy demanding justice or there will be no peace.
I guess that sets the tone for the civil rights movement blossoming.
So far the color scheme of this show is hot pink and swirling kaleidoscope patterns. It reminds me of my Aunt Connie’s drapes in New York city.
I feel like bell bottoms are the sartorial comment of the day.
People in this 1960’s office look like the people in the pictures in my dad’s shoe box.
Nostalgia.
The main character, the Mad Man I presume, drops his children off at their mom’s house. I love the fact that all 3 of his kids are in a car with no seat belts and they are all piled into the front seat.
It makes me laugh. How did we ever survive back then? No seat belts. Mother’s drinking during pregnancy. Eating bacon and red meat like a shark inhaling guppies. Nobody cared, people just lived life.
I watch as the main characters, mostly Men, walk in and hand their over coats to secretaries. Can you imagine doing that today? You’d be arrested by the HR dept for littering the floor with over coats.
The Mad Men have morning meetings, where they talk about getting drunk at lunch meetings.
Fun.
I quickly see that office romance in this Ad Agency is a side order like bacon with eggs.
And if characters aren’t smoking, they will be soon. It seems that smoking cigarettes in the office is as ubiquitous as Mouse Ears at Disney World. Mad Men light up more frequently than a radar station in Kandahar. As the the ad executives finish one cigarette, they are reaching into their pocket to get another. It’s a mechanism, a prop, a symbol of how much has changed in 50 years.
Can you imagine someone smoking in your office now? They’d be punched in the face. They’d hire a priest to throw holy water on them and scream “the power of Christ compels you!”
Smokers are as welcome now-a-days as the clap.
Suddenly the main character, not sure of his name yet, but he is a good looking James Bond type, opens the door and screams at nobody in particular; “Can i get some coffee?”
You say that now and someone screams back: “get it yourself.”
Four martini lunches seem to be the way to strike a deal.
The show is a cultural phenomenon in 2012 and I can see why. It captures a classic era, the 1960’s, a time that changed the planet and a generation.
It was Vietnam, and Kennedy, and MLK, and the Beatles and Broadway Joe.
Wow, I can’t remember the last time I saw dresses this bright, this swirling, this pink and orange.
It’s as if Ringling and Brother’s and Barnum and Bailey Circus vomited a clown.
All in all, I like the tenor and tone of the show. I suddenly want to smoke and drink and make love to my Secretary.
Sadly it’s 9:30am and I believe all of the above are now arrestable offenses.
Ah to be 1960’s cool, without all the fuscia swirling bell bottoms.
And with that said I think I’ll watch again next week.
Mad Men is crazy.