5 Reasons to like 'Mad Men'

Note: Whilst this blog primarily pertains to Movies, in the style of Empire Magazine I think I'm justified in writing/blogging about television for the fact that movie actors also star and appear there; and that the medium also has cinematic styles/tendencies/leanings. Though a tenuous link, one of the main characters of Season 1's Mad Men appeared prominently in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers! It's like justifying writing about Desperate Housewives because Teri Hatcher was in Tango and Cash; like writing about House because that dude was in Sense and Sensibility; writing about LOST because Sayid (Naveen Andrews) was in Karma Sutra and The English Patient, Matthew Fox in Vantage Point, and Evangeline Lily in The Hurt Locker - you get the idea!

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Earlier today, I tried to justify why I liked Mad Men. (To my sister actually, who had been following with me for the first seven episodes, but wasn't going to hold her breath to find out what happened next - unlike for Dexter, or the first three series of Weeds!). In my mind, it made sense. But when manifested through speech, I found myself coughing out phrases and ideas with no sense of coherence or engagement. It made for a weak argument.

Unsatisfied with this, I hereby write to elucidate (hopefully more coherently) what I actually think and feel!

1. Numero Un

I like Mad Men for it's sense of authenticity, and a genuine whole-hearted attempt to replicate and dramatise a time period so completely: visually, musically, and the contentious social issues of the time (homosexuality, divorce, feminism, xenophobia, amongst numerous others). And not just any time period. But a focus on an arguably exciting period of American politics: the battle between Nixon and Kennedy for the Presidency.

Much of the drama is set against this backdrop, and from the unique perspective of the lives of Advertising Executives on Madison Avenue (hence the name Mad Men), as well as the people immediately around them - a burgeoning clique of people (essentially men) who wield potentially great power, for how it might influence, or rather did influence modern America from the 1960s onwards...

It's the equivalent of fifty years from now writing about the lives of bankers during the recession: I'm sure there's a lot more to be said for bankers than dull people who work stupid hours and cheat on their partners with their secretaries. But with plenty of sex, politics, and power games.

2. Numero deux

But what keeps it interesting for me, and hopefully the audience too, is that Mad Men's protagonist, aptly named Don (short for Donald Draper), is someone who has reached the pinnacle of the metropolis lifestyle from 'nothing'. This 'nothing' is something that's kept extremely private, from the people at work, from his family, and even the audience.

Part of the interest in the protagonist is the thought that: what exactly was so bad about his upbringing, childhood, growing up that he is so wholeheartedly ashamed of, and needing to hide, that he needs to over-compensate so lavishly, opulently with this convincing facade? He's losing himself the longer he stays there, as he muses to the owner of the company: 'I want more', and not in the material sense. He's reminded from time to time that there is more out there: a close colleague surprisingly and unexpectedly at one point questions his belief in an 'energy' or soul following a life-threatening (career-ending) heart-attack; and time spent with a prostitute who associates herself with the underground bohemian, impoverished jazz-loving non-conformists of the day. For the latter, there is a mutual loathing. They hate him for his vocation to populate lies. He hates them because he despises their freedom of living, loving, and expression. He's hypocritical because he does exactly the same thing, but hidden, private and ashamedly, behind a veneer of 'sophistication'.

There's an intrigue for what drives and motivates him: we don't know. We continue to watch for more clues. At the top of his game, where he seemingly has everything, yet actually has nothing, will he ever find peace and content? There are flashes that he has this potential, and we, as an audience empathise. We believe he just might.

If the entire psychology of Donald Draper were to played out in a particular episode, Mad Men would not be worth watching. Much like the character of Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.

3. Numero trois

Admittedly, the pace is very much on the slow side - a facet sure to alienate a commercial consumer audience. But for it's lack of pace, it makes up for subtlety, leaving ample space for thought and imagination to work for the small snippets of info we are presented with. It's challenging to watch, and not in a negative way. But in that it really challenges you to think about what's going on.

4. Numero quatre

I like Mad Men for the allusion to that lifestyle: so lavish, self-assured, materialistic, even male chauvinistic, very James Bond-ian - but for every step of the way there's a real sense that that world could fall apart at any given moment. It's never over-indulgent, self-absorbed. More self-critical and analytical actually. There are mechanisms at work from the very first episode that set to destroy this male illusion of security, even superiority. I think that makes for very compelling drama, and I continue to watch with enthusiastic intrigue.

5. Numero cinque

(I also like Mad Men because it won quite a few awards at the 2010 Golden Globes - over Dexter - and I want to understand and appreciate why!)