Mad Men.....anybody watching?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Quasimodo, Aug 3, 2007.

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  1. Quasimodo

    Quasimodo Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago
    3 episodes in and I haven't seen any comments on this new AMC show.
    It "looks" great but drags quite a bit. I don't know where it is going but I am strangely drawn to it (maybe because I was a small child in the 60's)
     
  2. Phlo

    Phlo Formerly dave-o

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I love this show. It really nails down the beginning of the 60's. Good stuff.
     
  3. Frank G

    Frank G Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oregon
    I haven't seen anything yet, but am taping them as they go. The trailers looked interesting.

    Frank G
     
  4. Taurus

    Taurus Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, Texas
    I haven't seen a complete episode yet so don't want to post an ignorant review, but I also like the look of the show - that's not surprising since I am a fan of much of the architecture and interior design of that era i.e. simple/clean geometric lines with lots of glass and interiors (and furniture) using lots of wood using the same shapes. Audio gear back then, particularly speakers, can look really cool as a result!

    And somebody is always smoking in that show!!!

    I *did* notice though that a lot of talk centers around how women shouldn't do this or that because "X" is their real place in life. :rolleyes:
     
  5. Quasimodo

    Quasimodo Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago
    Some of the highlights for me so far:
    The gyno that tells the un-married woman who is going on the newly invented "pill" that if he finds out she is turning
    into the "town pump" he'll pull her off this new medication so fast her head will spin.
    The mom that yells at her young daughter with the plastic dry cleaners bag on her head (not because its unsafe but because her cloths might get wrinkled)
    Pregnant women drinking and smoking, everybody drinking and smoking, even the gyno smokes in his office during appointments.
    Adults hitting children (that aren't their children)
    ah, the good old days
     
  6. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I'm also liking it because of the look of the show. The characters leave me a little cold, but they're supposed to.

    What I found really interesting last night was that guy on the train who came up to Don Draper, exclaiming how great it was to see him again after the war, only he kept calling him Richard someone, or Dick someone. And they never picked it up again during the episode. I wonder who Don Draper really is. He doesn't talk about his past.

    The smoking nearly gives me a migraine.
     
  7. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    I believe the stranger called him "Dick Whitingham" or similar. Don Draper's identity is the thread through the last few episodes.

    I like the show for a certain view of life at the turn of the 60's, for the observations and analysis of unconscious people and the realisations of at least one man (if not his wife also) who is conscious of who he was if not who he is and the trap he is now in.

    It was great tv in th 3rd show I saw where he was absolutely befuddled putting a dollhouse together alone when the expectation is he is "everyman" and should know how to do it easily.
     
  8. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    It was "Dick Whitman." I watched the beginning again last night.
     
  9. I'm 14, and watched all have watched all six episodes the past few days---
    Being a fan of the people, the music, and just the whole time period myself, (check the Avatar--hehe) I haven't been "surprised", because I kind of knew it was all coming.......what a different time period---but strangely so similar to today, in a hidden way---
    I can't wait for episode 7 this Thursday, where Roger (the boss) and Don get into a fight at a bar, and "riff" their friendship (according to the preview).
     
  10. Ryan

    Ryan That would be telling

    Location:
    New England
    Hard to believe this is set only 15 years before I was born. The world changed a lot in those years and beyond..
     
  11. Anyone see last night's episode? (Episode 7)
    I thought it was pretty good--
     
  12. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Yeah, I'm liking it a lot. Best show of the summer, by far.
     
  13. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    It's a great show . . . has been compared to Barefoot in the Park for period accuracy and the "feel" of NYC.

    Creator and writer wrote at least one of the last few episodes of the Sopranos. It doesn't take long at all to see it's not your standard "dippy" sit-com or something. Very nuanced, w/nice backstories and weaving things in and out of episodes.

    My wife spent years working in the ad biz w/a woman who was at one of the big Mad Ave. agencies. Would be interesting to get her take. I've been in advertising for the last 20 yrs., and some of the dynamics inside an agency aren't all that different today, though obviously the woman's roles are far different.

    The smoking seems a little overdone, but I was only 8 in 1960--I do recall a lot of smoking.

    doug
     
  14. deem

    deem Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Caught a little of this show last night for the first time. Stopped while flipping through because of a pretty girl's face, but I ended up watching the rest of the episode because it was some of the best written dialogue I've seen on TV in awhile.

    Everyone is raving about the "look" of this show, and I'll agree it was very eye-catching by TV standards, but what really caught me was the great ear for language that the writers seem to have. At least that's how it seemed to me from the 5 or 10 minutes I saw...
     
  15. tomhayes

    tomhayes Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca
    Has there been a show set in the early 60's that didn't follow squares like on this show? The sexism, racism, and alcohol abuse make Larry Tate look like Tabitha Stevens.

    Plus, is there one character on this show that is likable? They're all horrible people. All of them.

    I watched 3 now and I'm done with it.

    How about a show about the early 60's about people who aren't squares, racists, or alcoholics?

    Oh, and they show LOOKS AWFUL? Why? Because it's being PANNED and SCANNED on it's first run. Why not run it widescreen and stop those horrible pans that crop up at least twice an episode.
     
  16. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    Entertaining, but I don't believe it nails anything down. It might as well be science fiction...fantasy at least.
     
  17. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Do they not run it panned and scanned on subsequent runs? I'm not very fussy about this, but if the second run looks better...

    That's one thing I love about shows on cable, that you can see them more than once a week.
     
  18. The On Demand Version(s) are not pan and scanned---
     
  19. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    They're running a marathon today starting at 10 am (eastern).
     
  20. orderandlaw

    orderandlaw Member

    It's not a perfect show, but the characters are so intriguing.
    And of course there's a big mystery building up about Don's secret life (and past life).

    What do you think about Peggy?
     
  21. Taurus

    Taurus Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, Texas
    On one episode I watched during the marathon a beatnik-looking guy showed up in one scene, or if he wasn't a beatnik, at least he didn't have a short/side-parted/greased-back haircut, wasn't wearing an impeccably tailored suit and didn't have a smirking and/or sour expression.

    This is why I don't watch this show, and only peek in periodically, mostly to see how fake, shallow and depressingly subserviant* the characters can be.

    * in the case of the women; except for the woman who owns the hi-end department store - actually I think she's the only bright spot in the whole show
     
  22. I don't think the characters need to be likable to like the show----It's the interesting-mystery aspect that draws the casual viewer IMO...
     
  23. Ryan

    Ryan That would be telling

    Location:
    New England
    Who wants to watch likable people anyways? :p
     
  24. tomhayes

    tomhayes Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca
    WHAT MYSTERY???

    Is it Don's background? Is that the mystery?

    Please let me know because the show seemed aimless to me. (I watched the first four.)

    And I *do* want to see likable people *UNLESS* they are ANTI-heros. The Sopranos has anti-heros. The Wire has humans. This show seems to have charactures.
     
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