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Why I Love...Mad Men

The cast of Mad Men
  • Posted at 4:55pm
  • 09 April 2008
  • by JackSeale-RT
  • 20 comments

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner used to write for The Sopranos, a show about male vanity, pride and rage. Mafiosi were the ideal metaphor, graphically showcasing men's destructive impulses. Mad Men has no guns, strippers or heaps of rigatoni, but its heart is just as black.

It's set in a 1960s advertising agency - another macho hierarchy dedicated to doing something immoral, if not in this case actually illegal. Peeking into the brainstorming rooms of super-smart Madison Avenue is the hook, but the real point of Mad Men is to dissect the stunted male mind.

Those times when you stare out of your office window for ten minutes straight, unable to face opening an email headed "Q4 figures" and wondering when your boss will realise you don't know what you're doing, are Mad Men Moments. Here, modern consumerism's treadmill of jobs, mortgages and status symbols has just arrived, and the lost little boys at Sterling Cooper can't deal with it.

They spend all day trying to look like urbane, in-control adults who can see where they're going in life. Maintaining this lie is slowly driving them barmy. And writing ad copy is, of course, professional lying. It's also not proper work, leaving hours to fill with back-stabbing and one-upmanship.

Uncomfortable parallels to one's own 9-5 existence are key to Mad Men's success, but so is its meticulous period backdrop. The early 60s are the recent but distant past, innocent but brutal: everyone smokes, everyone drinks and drives, sexism and racism are overt. This world doesn't have today's fashion for confessional self-analysis - appearances must be stiffly maintained, down to the slim suits and skinny ties that look both stylish and suffocating.

A show about feckless men has to feature unhealthy attitudes to women and, sure enough, everyone here supplements their loveless marriages - their wives being the biggest mystery to them of all - with loveless affairs. The closest Mad Men gets to emotionally mature characters is its women: Peggy, the rookie secretary who apparently has no ego, and Joan, the iron-breasted queen of the typing pool who's more coolly manipulative than any man.

So why watch this borderline nihilism? Because when it's as classy as this, it's compelling, like a genteel blood sport. Mad Men's protagonists reveal themselves slowly in measured two-handers, written with the utmost skill to tease out their neuroses. Plus there's always the possibility that someone will crack and go American Psycho on their colleagues.

At the centre, as in The Sopranos, is a crumbling monolith of a man. The boss of the copywriting mafia is Don (ha!) Draper. He's the biggest faker of all: his entire life, including his name, is a lie he's constructed to escape his past. He's rudderless, but his wit, good looks and intense vulnerability mean we want him to survive.

Mad Men's most quietly terrifying scene sees Don leave his daughter's birthday party to pick up a cake, and not return. Hours later we see him, sitting in his car, next to the railway line, blankly staring at trains as they thunder past. We've all been there, eh lads?

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Comments

  • Posted on 18 May 2009
  • at 2:44pm
  • by HelenHackworthy-RT

Hi, kerry,

Alas, the series is no longer listed on BBC iPlayer, but BBC4 is repeating a couple of episodes very late on Thursday nights if that's of use?

TV listings search results: Mad Men

Helen

  • Posted on 18 May 2009
  • at 1:06pm
  • by kerry

I've missed a few episodes from season 2 - does anyone know if/when they are being repeated?

  • Posted on 13 May 2009
  • at 6:00pm
  • by LauraPledger-RT

BBC4 have confirmed that they have now secured the rights to show series three of Mad Men. No word yet on when it will air, though.

  • Posted on 11 May 2009
  • at 10:32pm
  • by Chris

Did I dream it, or did they say that the third series will be shown next year, after the last episode?

  • Posted on 11 May 2009
  • at 4:25pm
  • by LauraPledger-RT

FAO Fan - Unfortunately there is no word yet on whether the BBC will screen the third series of Mad Men. As soon as we know more, we will update you.

  • Posted on 10 May 2009
  • at 10:56pm
  • by David

Like all the other people who have commented I think that mad men is one of the best series I have watched in years and restored (a little) my faith in TV, I googled mad men and found a site that confirmed that there would be a third series filmed in the US (there were rumours that the american makers would not commision another one (google it and you will read all the machinations). Whether the BBC will buy it is another matter! I did not understand the comment that viewings were poor as everyone I talk to thinks mad men is wonderful. So everyone needs to lobby the BBC and ensure they buy the next series. If I remember the google said that the series would be broadcast in the US August or September time.

  • Posted on 30 April 2009
  • at 1:02pm
  • by Sue

In Alison Graham's recent review of Mad Men she observes that audiences have been disappointing. Hardly surprising in view of the programme scheduling! I am unable to receive BBC4 so have to watch the repeats on BBC2 at all manner of unearthly times of the night as the showing of episodes have been continually moved around and bumped back recently in favour of The Wire and snooker. Did the programme schedulers have a death wish for this brilliant series? I am retired so am able to stay up late at night to watch it and have purchased the first series on DVD so I can watch the first series again and capture the series many nuances. This for me has been an outstanding series, inteliingent, well scripted and acted. Every character even the minor ones have depth and each episode is well plotted. I look at the clock from time to time while watching not out of boredom but to see how much time of this sheer enjoyment is left. I cannot fault a single episode. Regardless of origin (US or British) this is quality viewing.

What a pity it is not shown on a mainstream channel at, say 10.00/10.30pm instead of some of the tripe and worn out old warhorses, long past their sell by date which it seems the BBC doesn't have the courage to dump!

  • Posted on 29 April 2009
  • at 7:05pm
  • by Fan

I cannot find any reference in next week's Radio Times to a third series. Please can someone put us out of our misery?

  • Posted on 21 April 2009
  • at 3:04pm
  • by Liz

I know it's all been said, but... what a brilliant, classy show! I only caught the "Mad Men" bug in time for Season 2, so am catching up with Season 1 on DVD, so am currently immersed in this other world. What is the show's appeal? It's intelligent, looks stunning and allows us to escape from our little lives for an hour... and, if you're female, black or gay, thank God for living in the 21st century!

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 8:39pm
  • by Alan

Just thinking ahead to tonight's episode to come.

I have sometimes passed a whole spellbinding episode without taking a breath or so it seems - so brilliant is this series.

The pacing and the screenplay are simply stunning. As for the set, design and atmosphere well I am totally in awe of the whole thing. TV for grown-ups as it should be.

I must remember to breath this time around!

  • Posted on 02 April 2009
  • at 1:14am
  • by Matt

The period atmosphere is amazing. I remember thinking that in one episode even the sunlight coming through the windows had a kind of 'vintage' look to it!

  • Posted on 31 March 2009
  • at 7:42pm
  • by Happy daze

Second series of Mad Men - absolutely superb The viewer can almost read John Hamm's mind,and at times his inner turmoil, from the merest expression in his eyes. Great! Class, Class, Class

  • Posted on 18 March 2009
  • at 3:28pm
  • by Ike

I love Mad Men, I think it much better than the wire and it does not need swearing or naked bodies like the wire does, to be good

  • Posted on 22 November 2008
  • at 8:46pm
  • by Helen

you should series 2 - look up some of the incredible scenes on YouTube

  • Posted on 28 May 2008
  • at 3:10pm
  • by oldfashionedgirl
After the final episode I just had to come back! The poingnant final scenes when Don returns home and the contrast between how he wished it to be and how it realy was, and the birth of Peggy's baby and her shattered dreams of a career left me longing for more. Yes, I suspected she might be pregnant in earlier episodes but the storyline was so cleverly written as to distract the watcher so that the final revelation came as a shock. I shall be suffering withdrawal symptoms for some weeks to come
  • Posted on 21 May 2008
  • at 4:26pm
  • by mannfay

Ive not enjoyed anything like Mad Men for so long I nearly stopped watching TV. It is unlike anything I have seen before. I long for every episode to continue......and can't wait for the next. One more to go. Please let there be another series.

  • Posted on 09 May 2008
  • at 1:43pm
  • by deano999

This series is sheer bloody genius! To think how awful was the reputation of American TV when I was young and how far it has come. I thought the Sopranos was the finest TV to ever make it over here, until I got into Mad Men. God, so many neuroses in one office! But what is superb is how tightly drawn are the characters: there are no short cuts for expediency's sake to get the story over and no-one ever acts out of character.

If you are reading this blog and have never seen Mad Men yet - SEE IT NOW! And don't worry about catching up, go to the Mad Men website for a resume - you soon wil get au fait with the characters.

  • Posted on 07 May 2008
  • at 10:11am
  • by oldfashionedgirl
What an amazing piece of serendipity when I chanced upon the first episode of madmen. I have been hooked ever since! Witty, subtle, dark with well drawn characters and an excellent sense of the period (without it being hammered home) there hasn't been an episode in this series that hasn't been totally absorbing.Alison Graham says nothing much happens -what does she want? Is she looking at the same programme I have been watching?I was 18 in 1960 and although British I well remember the sexism that existed then (I was subjected to it in a job interview)Sadly the series is drawing to a close, can we hope for another? can we hope for another!
  • Posted on 01 May 2008
  • at 4:29pm
  • by newface

But don't you see? It's about the women, not the men.

Don Draper is suave, talented and unreasonably handsome. Yet it's his chain-smoking wife and bits on the side (not-so-bitty: sharp, steely and stylish are the adjectives that spring to mind) that draw us in. Not to mention, Peggy, Joan, the "unfortunate" divorced single mother...

Don aside, the men deserve barely an adjective between them.

  • Posted on 20 April 2008
  • at 5:19pm
  • by wallisb235qg

It is a wonderful series, the characters are so sharp and witty - the 'hero' is an utter s--t, but totally charming, last week for example, he invited his boss back to a meal, 2 pieces of steak so his wife has salad, his boss makes a slight play for the wife so the next day Don (our hero) 'arranges' for the lift to be out of order when he and his boss come back from lunch and they have to climb 23 flights of stairs, they get to the top, our hero slightly out of breath, but his boss in bits, comes into the office and is promptly sick on the floor in front of the Agency boss and their most important Client! - absolutely magical!!!!!!!!!

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