Author Topic: MAD MEN  (Read 20288 times)

Jouster

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2008, 01:30:20 AM »
Hmmm...first I heard a lot of good things about this show, but lately I've been hearing the opposite. I just asked my friend if she had seen it and she quit a few episodes in because "it was really misogynistic."

My girlfriend said the same thing, actually, but she watched them anyway and tells me she doesn't feel that way anymore.  I think maybe she confused the viewpoint of the show with the viewpoint of certain characters, or maybe the creators weren't good at separating the two in the early going.  I'm comfortable saying it's not a misogynistic show.

Denim Gremlin

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2008, 02:23:43 AM »
saying the show is misogynistic is like saying it's selling lucky strikes.

this stuff is there but it's not what the show's about at all.
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masterofsparks

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #17 on: August 31, 2008, 10:29:09 AM »
saying the show is misogynistic is like saying it's selling lucky strikes.

this stuff is there but it's not what the show's about at all.

Well said. The male characters are definitely misogynists but since most of them are reprehensible human beings, it's not as if the show encourages or condones their actions.
I'll probably go into the wee hours.

yesno

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #18 on: August 31, 2008, 11:46:50 AM »
And my aunt can't watch it because it makes her want to start smoking again.

In reality the actors are all smoking herbal cigarettes.

cutout

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #19 on: August 31, 2008, 01:12:49 PM »
I sometimes feel the writers want us to know that the show is happening in the 1960s and that Things Were Different Then.

Susannah

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #20 on: August 31, 2008, 05:56:27 PM »
There was a pretty insightful piece on the show and its creator in the NY Times Magazine not too long ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22madmen-t.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=mad%20men&st=cse&oref=slogin

I think the article makes the point, and I agree with it, that the series captures beautifully a group of people on the brink of their own obsolescence.  They're all slightly aware of it too, and change subtly and gradually.  They're in the post-Kinsey, pre-Betty Friedan/pill/sexual revolution window; still making sense of postwar prosperity while Vietnam, the civil rights movement and everything else we're sick of hearing our baby boomer parents reminisce about loom on the horizon.*  There are lots of movies about this era ("Far From Heaven" comes to mind in particular), but setting it in the advertising world is particularly savvy--the characters are figuring out ways to package an era that will completely change their status quo.

*I'm kind of kidding about this, but also kind of not.

I thought the season finale set piece with the Kodak slide carousel was stunning, though--all the more poignant because my school just threw away a closetful of them to make room for the already-obsolete digital Proxima projectors that have since been replaced by interactive SmartBoards.

Joe Rogaine

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #21 on: September 02, 2008, 01:07:59 AM »
Found this

Open Letter To Matthew Weiner & The Staff Of Mad Men
You should never use anachronistic music.

You’re better than that.

Using modern music takes us out of the show. Mad Men excels at demonstrating the perverseness of the culture using real artifacts from the time. No later indie rock or punk song will ever be as subversive or weird as ACTUAL MUSIC FROM 1962 which sounds so weird and alien and uncool to us.


Using “Lollipops And Roses” to close the episode the other week was brilliant. Not only did it stick in my head for days, I only now just learned that it won a Grammy.


“Lollipops and Roses” (1962, Grammy Award, Best Pop Male Performance)


See? Stuff like that is brilliant. So much more brilliant than a Decemberists song that takes me out of the narrative and into some dorm room from the past. There was one episode last season that ended with “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and it was SO WRONG because we all know that album came out in 1963 and it was only still 1960.


Again, it just opened a gap in the fantasy world that annoys me because I am nitpicky and will sit around thinking about things like this. You’re better than that. Stick to accurate songs of the period. Those songs are just SO FUCKING WEIRD.


Also Mad Men has been reminding me of Twin Peaks a little bit. Not just because of the creepiness of “oldies station” culture. All these long ambiguous takes that could mean LITERALLY ANYTHING. Not that I’m complaining. It’s great. Those are just my notes. CARRY ON.

Sarah

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #22 on: September 02, 2008, 09:56:18 AM »
I'm enjoying Mad Men much more this season, but it frequently puzzles me.  I was glad to learn from that NYT article that Weiner is indeed being deliberately oblique, obscure, allusive, what you will, so I at least know now that it's not just a matter of my being dense.  Not entirely, anyhow.

Chris L

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #23 on: September 02, 2008, 10:22:03 AM »
I'm enjoying Mad Men much more this season, but it frequently puzzles me.  I was glad to learn from that NYT article that Weiner is indeed being deliberately oblique, obscure, allusive, what you will, so I at least know now that it's not just a matter of my being dense.  Not entirely, anyhow.

I agree.   Weiner is really harking back to the Sopranos' oblique, character-driven storytelling style this year and expertly pulling it off.  The Decemberists song briefly took me out of the episode this week as well but I'm all for unusual touches like that.   They just might want to avoid any episode-length dream sequences. 

 

Wes

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #24 on: September 02, 2008, 11:10:34 AM »
Quote
Also Mad Men has been reminding me of Twin Peaks a little bit.
Pete Campbell either has been to the Black Lodge or will end up there.
This may be the year I will disappear.

Chris L

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #25 on: September 02, 2008, 11:32:07 AM »
Quote
Also Mad Men has been reminding me of Twin Peaks a little bit.
Pete Campbell either has been to the Black Lodge or will end up there.

I think his idea of an "office dog" would go over much better there. 

Speaking of Pete, it was considerate it of him to give that blonde his business card, just in case he knocked her up as well. 

Sarah

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #26 on: September 02, 2008, 11:37:15 AM »
Even after all this time, there are moments when I expect Pete to show his true colors as Conor.  Then he'd really get whiney.

Another note:  Betty is one hell of a scary mother.  Don in dad mode is a softie by comparison.  In real life, those children would be d-o-o-m-e-d.

buffcoat

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #27 on: September 02, 2008, 02:16:19 PM »
to show his true colors as Conor.  Then he'd really get whiney.

One of the worst characters in television history.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Sarah

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #28 on: September 02, 2008, 02:18:30 PM »
Hence my concern.

B_Buster

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Re: MAD MEN
« Reply #29 on: September 02, 2008, 03:46:25 PM »
i just finished season 1

i'm really loving this show.

but i have to agree with MOS it can be really fucking bleak at times

I think it's wildly overrated. It's bleak because all the characters are creeps. In Season 1 all of the men were creeps, in Season 2 it turns out that all the women are creeps, too.

I have no idea why I'm still watching. Oh yeah, Joan Holloway, who turns out to be a big ol' racist!
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