Scandalously attractive women and the social values of the early 1960's (rampant sexism and misogyny, casual racism and black servitude, massive homophobia and morbid anti-communism) take you unawares, and you realize how valuable the progress of the interceding years has been. For some it may be too much, and for some chauvinists it may be too much to see what they've lost but in my view that counts for Mad Men as a plus. It is interesting to note how quickly one absorbs and enters the world of 60s middle class America.
This contrasts with the glacial sweep of plot development, a pace which is often held against it, in that "Nothing Happens", but that is for me, is its strength. Characters slowly bloom and tensions build without being rushed and hurried. Peggy, one of the leading female characters develops from a lowly sectary and innocent new comer throughout the show. A highly camp, clearly gay character has the emergence of his sexuality drawn out so long it seems that it will never happen, and is the more revelatory when it does.
Christina Hendricks has become something of an icon due to her role in Mad Men. A redhead with a bosom carved by Zeus himself, she is femininity, or at least the 60s idealisation of womanhood: sexual yet proper in her public conduct, powerful yet subservient to her male bosses. The women of Mad Men are a varied lot, whose diversity seems to me to symbolise the journey of femininity in 1960s American and Western European society.
Betty Draper is Don's long suffering wife, a beautiful former model. She is the hausfrau of middle America at once crushed by convention, but at the same time materially rich. Peggy Olson is the rising female ad exec struggling in macho world, symbolic of the journey to a empowered womanhood. Peggy is hemmed in by convention, sexism and religion yet through this adversity struggles on. Joan is the ball busting matriarch of the office, whose bosom and sexuality have a power in the office like that of the sexuality of yesteryear: enthralling and in thrall to patriarchy. So there is the emergent feminism in Peggy, the subservience of Betty, and the sexuality of Joan.
Of course the titan of Mad Men is Donald Draper , an enigma of a man whose poise and talent contrast with a vulnerability lacking in many male characters. He is played masterfully by Joe Hamm. A part of a brilliant cast he stands out amongst the male actors. His part has depths and is developed to the point that I feel I know Don Draper. I admire Malcom Reynolds for example ( I am aware comparing Sci-Fi and for want of a better word period drama but Mal is another male lead with vulnerability like Draper who was developed like Draper) but I don't know him the way I feel I know Don. His back story is complex and detailed filling in slowly as the show progresses.
The brilliant characters are aided by immense production values. Mad Men straddles the period where the 1950s becomes the 1960s, and as such the style sits somewhere in a glamour dream time of sleek dresses and sharp suits. The houses and offices of the series effortlessly evoke the 1960s and it really does 'work'. The minor details, like the introduction of photocopier for example, are that: minor details. Its very very well done and eminently believable. This builds to create one of the great TV shows.
All in all you should watch it. It's cheap on DVD and is engrossing.
Do it.
All in all you should watch it. It's cheap on DVD and is engrossing.
Do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment