I shouldn’t be too hard on it. After spending the last three weeks watching the astounding Deadwood, I immediately jumped in. No break. No breather. Just a whole set of new characters to grow attached to, and an old set to forget.
That said, judging by the first episode…
The problem lies with the crassness of the writing. It’s like a smart show for stupid people. A camp guy can’t speak without it being given an ironic reference to his hidden sexuality (HE’S GAY!). Someone else makes a sarcastic jibe about inventing a machine that can copy paper (THEY ARE REFERRING TO PHOTOCOPIERS!). And, my favourite, the Lucky Strike CEO coughs whilst claiming he’s smoked his harmless cigarettes all his life (THEY ACTUALLY ARE NOT HARMLESS!).
Aside from the bizarre – and needless – references to contemporary technology, it’s all justified somehow by claiming that People-Back-Then didn’t know better.
This is, quite frankly, a crock of shit. It rings completely hollow in Man Men, making the writers seem false as smug.
Certainly people were less prone to come out as gay, for example, but a camp man who has never had a girlfriend would certainly raise questions. And if anyone received medical advice against smoking, then witnessed a tobacco boss hawk up in a meeting, I’d guess they would at least think about quitting.
And yes, it does revel in its misogyny. The office workers are stepford wives, submitting to their ad men masters with glee. They might work to improve their lot within the system, but not one complains about it. Even behind closed doors, far away from the ears of men, they don’t make one complaint. Instead, they aspire – and encourage each other – to move the countryside and never work again.
It’s akin to making a TV show set in the Deep South, that focuses on black slaves being abused, whilst they tell their children that keeping their heads down and being nice to the white-folk is what’s best for them in the long run.
I end with a quote The Guardian:
“…Or is Mad Men’s success down to something more sinister? Does it tap into a nostalgia for a time when it was acceptable to be sexist, racist and the rest?”
I can’t think of one reason why that’s not true.
August 31, 2010 at 6:03 pm |
It takes a while to find its feet.
The first few episodes are, as you say, clunky and clumsy. But as the stories develop (particularly Don’s) you realise that the writers aren’t revelling in a time when sexism and racism was ‘okay’. They’re actually illustrating why sexism and racism and all the clammy, unsustainable Madison mores very slowly became not okay. It’s not their fault if, like bigoted Al Murray fans, people are watching it for the wrong reasons.
It’s fantastic drama because, like the old principle, the joy lies in seeing how the characters change – in this case, as they travel through an era where they gradually become more and more irrelevant.
If you really want to get mad about Mad Men, have a look at Dylan Jones’ dismal cover story in this month’s GQ. It’s so punchably pseudo-macho and misty-eyed over the idea of three-martini lunches and subservient women. He’s not so much wallowing as wanking over it.
September 1, 2010 at 8:20 am |
I think the issue I had the complete lack of subtle foreshadowing as to the changes coming in the decade.
I think just the tiniest thread dangling that these office women were on course for *some* change, however subtle, would have dispelled all my issues… almost like the writer’s turning to me to say, “Don’t worry. We know what we’re doing”.
September 1, 2010 at 5:06 pm |
That happens soon! It’s dropped in here and there. Talk of Nixon/Kennedy, etc. There’s a fantastic episode set during the Cuban Missile Crisis… Can you not tell how Peggy has been introduced as dour and dowdy and subservient? That all changes. The woman who seems to ‘get’ the men (Joan) has, I’d say, the worst time. Betty’s arc is fascinating, too. Stick with it. If you focus on the three key women and Don – and think of everyone else as peripheral (including his mistresses), it starts to fall into place.
September 3, 2010 at 10:52 am |
Hmmm, I only watched the first episode and gave up. I’ve been told it’s great but not yet had the time to go back and give it a longer go.
That clumsy foreshadowing drives me mad though – there’s some in a Mark Gatiss novel that ended up being the main thing I remember about the book, despite it being pretty good (The Vesuvius Club).
December 7, 2010 at 9:05 am |
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