I love Mad Men! There, I said it.
I am able to watch Mad Men from a distance, today 2008...as a black female who does so under my own terms and yet I am still intrigued not knowing what will happen next to the characters. How they will adjust to the turbulence that is just waiting to erupt in the sixties!
According to the shows creator Matt Weiner, "Mad Men uses the overtly sexist and racist atmosphere of a 1960 New York advertising office to talk about persisting issues that we're too "polite" to talk about openly."
Mad Men Intro & Theme
Music:A Beautiful Mine by RJD2
The show drew me in with it's cool graphic intro and seductively, jazzy theme music. The clothes, furniture and settings bring back memories for me! Every week I anticipate watching Don Draper maneuver through the corporate advertising world of the 1960's career and family life is building into a crescendo of tension that the viewer can see boiling just under the surface.
The environment is sophisticated on it's surface, the attire and manners are impecable. The kaleidiscope we focus through has a variety of ugly truths that are not fully distinct they linger in the background and we know that the full onslaught of the sixties is imminent.
The retro charm of Mad Men does not shy away from other examples of the hatefulness of conformist WASP culture. Anti-Semitism abounds and is only mildly frowned upon. Homosexuals stay well in the closet (although there are unmistakable signs that the door is going to swing wide open later in the season). And the 1960 middle-class world is so segregated that the only black people on the show are waiters and powder-room attendants.
The glamorous retro world we see, is filled with cigarette smoke and liquor is poured frequently.
It's a Man's world. And more to the point it's a white man's world.
The Corporate World and where Don Draper is king. The role of the woman at the office is primarily as administrative and clerical staff. The men are consumed by their own needs and egos! "Knowing that these unsuspecting sexists and bigots sit on the brink of their doom is all part of the fun." NYT
The glimpses we see of the women illustrates their position and status as they maneuver through life with boundaries. The women are unfulfilled and they want more from life.
When contemplating a new account, Draper asks his boss, Roger Sterling, played with perfect cynical pitch by John Slattery, "What do women want?"
"Who cares?" is his answer. NYT
While Don is coping with his inner turmoil and living with all the perks of being a man there is another existence for Betty.
"Betty Draper is getting angry," Weiner said of Don’s Stepford wife and the mother of his two children, played by January Jones. "She is an incredibly beautiful woman who married a man she barely knows because he looks good on paper. Her mother has just died, and she’s realized that when her beauty disappears she will cease to exist. She’s not enough for her husband, and she doesn’t want to accept it. She’s terrified of dealing with that problem because she cannot get divorced, she cannot be single, she cannot start over. She is somewhat puritanical. NYT"
While the black people on the show have been seen as porters, elevator operators and maids...I will be tuning into see how the protests, war,civil right marches that happened in the sixties come to life on Mad Men. I am trusting the writer, Matt Weiner,
:
I think that the show is very historically accurate in not pandering to a rosy version of history. African-Americans at this period, with very few exceptions, were marginalized and occupied a completely segregated universe. As times change, the show will reflect that. I felt it was inappropriate to pretend that black people were not present, but equally inappropriate to pretend they were accepted or had positions of power during this period. It was a choice in the conception of the show, as integral as showing the smoking, to show the fact that although racism on a personal level was, as it hugely is, tame. Institutionally, it was horrifying.
Just last week we see the introduction of a new character...it remains to be seen whether this is a brief appearance or the beginning of a continuous new story line.
The show had a tour of Jackie Kennedy's White House that was being viewed on one of those huge console floor tvs. So President Kennedy is in office. What happens next to the characters of Mad Men, that's the question. It should not be obscure and on the edge because it certainly didn't happen that way.
I love Mad Men the tv show, but living through the 60's again, Hell no...I do not want to go back!