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Just when you thought American Movie Classics was mailing it in when they started showing "American classics" like Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and Army of Darkness, they crank out a hit. It seemed as if AMC was tired of being the middle man in providing adequate movies ad nauseum. So they tackled the small-screen world dominated by Law and Order and CSI dramas (not to mention the countless reality showcases and D-celebrity crapfests) and cranked out a television show you almost feel should be on HBO. That show is Mad Men.
Created by former The Sopranos producer Matthew Weiner, Mad Men depicts the loco world of ad executives during the swinging 1960s. "Mad" refers to the Madison Avenue offices most ad men held; "Men" in reference to the "No girls allowed" policy most firms held at the time.
Alcoholism, sexism, communism and homophobia pervade the show as business pitch ways to "get wrinkles out of those whites" and "give your man a basket full of kisses."
The show follows senior executive Donald Draper (Jon Hamm, We Were Soldiers) through his family, work and seedy underground life. At home, Draper is the perfect father of two with a former model of a wife, Betty (January Jones). Although Draper seems on the level, you learn he has crazy abandonment issues due to a childhood without a mother and a father who died at a young age. Add that to a seemingly depressed wife and there's conflict aplenty. And what's that? Draper has a beatnik mistress, too? Shocking.
Working in the corner office at the firm Sterling Cooper, Draper looks successful, and he is successful. But the ad world is uber-competitive and today's prized pooch is tomorrow's forgotten Huckleberry Hound (kinda remember him? I thought so). Since the beginning of the show, Draper has subtly been feuding with accountant executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), who has aspirations to take Draper's job.
Office life at Sterling Cooper is otherwise an evolving sex-romp. Secretaries sleeping with presidents, secretaries sleeping with lowly account executives and secretaries awkwardly doing the twist makes Desperate Housewives seem tame.
I know I mentioned alcoholism already, but man do these guys drink. The daily agenda for a typical mad man is as follows: Arrive at office hung over at 11 a.m., staff meeting where anti-Semitic and chauvinistic remarks fly around as much as highballs; lunch at noon drink again; back to work 2 p.m. for a pitch to the cigarette companies; day ends 4 p.m. when they leave the office to go drinking with clients.
Sure, the show gratuitously exhibits alcohol abuse (drunk driving isn't left out either), but it accurately displays how life was for these swinging cats. Other elements that I enjoyed include the film-like picture presented by the cinematographers, the low camera shots which capture the office feel perfectly and the elements of the '60s that let you know it's in the past.
An obvious example of that would be that almost everyone is constantly smoking. But, little things are amusing, too. An early episode has Draper's daughter running and playing in a plastic dry-cleaners bag. When the little girl trots past her mother, she is outraged. Is it because the girl may suffocate in the closed bag? Why, no; mother dear is upset because her dress is on the floor.
Another calling card of the show is excellent character development. Mad Men seems almost ballsy in the way it slowly develops every character, like they know they are awesome enough to warrant a second season. Some of my favorite characters include Peggy (Elizabeth Moss), the rookie secretary from Brooklyn whose maiden-head has recently been destroyed; Salvatore Romano (Bryan Batt), the rugged Italian who fears his homosexual lifestyle will be revealed; and Helen Bishop (Darby Stanchfield) the "gasp" divorcee who is a supporter of that Irish-Catholic upstart John Kennedy.
As soon as the show starts (with its catchy, visually appealing HBO-ish introduction) you don't want it to end. After Flight of the Conchords and Entourage went off the air, I thought my TV viewing before The Office premiered would be vacant. Thank you for making my On-Demand watching more purposeful.
Mad Men airs 10 p.m. Thursday nights on AMC.
scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu
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