Mad Men

[RabbitEars]

I DVRed the first show and loved it so much, I immediately started watching again. The rampant smoking and non-stop sexual harrassment are fascinating to someone born in 1970. I also like how many of the women have bodies more like Marilyn Monroe than Paris Hilton, since that volumptuous look was the style at the time.

[monkey]

Man, the kids w/o seatbelts and the drycleaning bag over the head are almost giving me numb hands/anxiety issues. That said, I'm still really enjoying the shows. Jon Hamm is great - hope he gets lots more work from this.

[Laira]

I enjoyed the show - it's like the dark side of Pleasantville. It also makes me glad I entered the work force long after that era.

[Deleted]

I'm all caught up and I hafta say... this is a remarkably enjoyable series on a number of levels. The dialog is snappy, the scenarios appalling in their chock-full-of-every-"ism"-imaginable and, more than anything else, it documents the time when our culture started experiencing a massive shift in consciousness -- the seeds of feminism, of greed-fueled profiteering, of the sexual revolution, of advertising's ascent to a huge cultural force and of television's rise in influence.

And it struck me, quite obviously, that it was the men of this era, with their sharp dress and grooming, which set into motion the particular and peculiar personal attractions I hold today. These are the men my 5-year-old self was fascinated by in the locker room at the golf club when my dad dragged me there, a decade before there was any sexual awareness -- their suave confidence and old-school masculine demeanour.

Jon Hamm is really quite devastatingly good (and hot!) in this role. When you watch, you really hope for some huge smackdown delivered by the women to these cads (to put it mildly) but you hafta retreat a bit, knowing it'll be decades before it actually happens. I need a cigarette.

[Dharma]

I'm looking forward to tonight's episode. How will Peggy deal with Chip's return to the office from his honeymoon?

I find Don Draper to be a fascinating character. Actually, all the characters are interesting.

[strawberrylover]

I loved that line from Don Draper in the new episode: "What is this? Don't ever try to convince me that you were unloved."

Man, so much cooler than the reaction expected, the "Aww, I'm sorry. You had a bad childhood?" It packs so much more punch by being tender and aggressive at the same time.

Sorry Burn Notice. I'm gonna have to watch your re-runs, because Thursday nights are now all about Mad Men.

[monkey]

Yeah, Thursday nights are once again must-see TV for me, too. Any word on whether there might be a second season?

[Deleted]

I think the ratings have been dropping off so it's not a safe bet yet, but the critics love it and I totally trust AMC to give it time to grow. And I'm not just saying that b/c I brainwashed myself into believing good shows never die.

I love Mad Men. I was skeptical at first, but it's a lot better than I anticipated and I can't wait to see how the story unfolds. Who is this Dick Whitman and what has he done with the real Don Draper? Took his identity during the war, perhaps?

I get the feeling Rachel Menkin is living the life Draper/Dick Whitman was too cowardly (or otherwise unable) to pursue. He jettisoned his former identity and married in order to get ahead, and yet she's making headway in the same circles without having made those sacrifices. She has to suffer the slings and arrows of bigotry, but as it turns out those arrows aren't fatal. Did Draper make a huge mistake? Is his glib little ideology about to desert him?

The birthday party scenes, so well done. And I love the set design of Draper's home because it looks like an actual lived-in home instead of a MidMod museum, and the textures and colors are just luscious. The whole show has a delicious, tactile sensibility to it. Yum!

[strawberrylover]

Ooh, good thing you pointed that out, saltpeanut.

I had totally forgotten that scene on the train until you mentioned it. I like how the series is shaping up to be a mystery while at the same time keeping our interest with the un-PCness and lusciousness of it all.

And re: Rachel Menken. She's only living that life because it was handed to her on a platter from her daddy. I wonder what Dick Whitman had done that he had to lose that old identity. Murder perhaps? Shameful conduct during the war? Can't wait to find out.

[Deleted]

We're absolutely entranced by this show. The acting is uniformly superb and the sly nods to the upheavals in the social order over the past 47 years are simultaneously hilarious and appalling. The mysteries are absorbing and the sets, wardrobe and design are note-perfect.

We love the bitchy, closeted Salvatore, and giggle every time he's onscreen. This show is an awesome reminder of how insanely fucked-up those years were, for everyone other than rich, white men. You know, the years which are so fondly remembered (in certain quarters) as quite different from the way they really were. "Simpler times" were far from simple.