1764: Makin' Magic

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Lord of the Cock Rings

When Keith complained about nothing ever happening on that show I guessed that he never stuck with it long enough to see episodes 7-10 of any season because that's when EVERYTHING happens.

6 hours of build-up... Sounds very necessary.

[StereoKill]

I stopped watching Mad Men in the second season, because as Chemda said, the momentum came to a grinding hault. (Not to say I don't like shows with dialogue. I love Breaking Bad.)

I think that while there are moments of glorification, I do think they do more often than not they are showing how empty and unfulfilling these guys lives are. It just depends on who's watching and what they're taking away from it.

I know guys who only see the glorification and started wearing suits and drinking Manhattans after watching the show. (One even tried dying his hair white to be a "silver fox" like Roger Sterling).

As a guy with what I feel is a pretty good head on my shoulders, I tend to see more of what Chemda sees, is the stress and unhappiness of these characters.

[Blitzgal]

Mad Men doesn't glorify it. This show is filled with people who should be on top of the world, living in the "glory days" of America where everyone knew their place, men were men, women were women, blah blah blah. But these people are so fucking miserable every moment of their lives. The happiest characters on the show are the ones who break out of their stifling roles and move past what society expects of them, like Peggy.

Don wants to live like the hobo he met as a child -- no roots, no expectations, a world wanderer. But he knows what's expected of him as a man, so he goes through the motions and spends so much of his time sloppy drunk that he loses weeks at a time. He keeps trying to find the right woman but is never happy once he gets her (as one woman told him, "You only like the beginnings of things.")

Roger married his trophy wife and now he hates her guts.

Betty hates her existence as a housewife but instead of breaking new ground after leaving Don and doing something new, she just got herself shacked up with another guy, and now she's fat as fuck and still miserable.

Pete started growing as a person but now he hates the suburban life and he hates his wife because she spends too much time doting on their baby, so he fucks around.

Lane....well we all know what happened to Lane.

TL;DR: These are wealthy white people living in New York in a time when as wealthy white people society was institutionally giving them every advantage, and they all hate their lives.

[Keith]

Any dragons?

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by Keith

Any dragons?

Nope, it is dragon free.

Edit: Buzzfeed just posted pics of one of the "hot" guys deported from Saudi Arabia (actually, no quotes necessary around hot, because damn):

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthi...being-too-sexy

[Daniel]

There's no way you can actually watch the show and see it as glorifying the characters or even the time period. I don't agree that the characters are all despicable, but they are definitely... unevolved, both socially and, in most cases, emotionally.

I honestly think that the show's success is mostly a case of it being so beautifully written, shot and produced that you can't help but get sucked into that world, but always as a tourist.

[HumdrumDinosaur]

Loved the episode, hearing JFOD's manic episodes always fills me with such mixed emotions. Enjoyed the debate about Mad Men as well because I thought both parties brought pretty good arguments. I think Keith and John were defiantly right that there are a lot of people watching because they think these characters are people to look up to. I think these people are missing the point of the show. I first watched Mad Men because I thought the 60's were an interesting decade. I feel after watching for a while it's pretty evident the era is portrayed as quite dark. You also really start to see the imperfections of many of the characters as well, as a previous poster already stated.

[Scumhook]

Originally Posted by Keith

Any dragons?

Yes, lots.

[da_ticklah]

It's a glorification of the industry but most people don’t want to be like these characters, most on the show are tortured souls. It's easy to separate the glamour of the show from the characters. in the 80's women the world over wanted to dress like the bitches in Dynasty. Save the financial status nobody wanted to be like those people.


Mad Men makes me understand social conservative white men

1. They had whiskey in the office
2. you could easily bang a secretary
3. black people largely do not factor into the equation until the secretary shows up in season 5, we're mostly bringing sandwiches, opening doors or sweeping floors.

[dead_mixed_tape]

Originally Posted by da_ticklah

It's a glorification of the industry but most people don’t want to be like these characters, most on the show are tortured souls. It's easy to separate the glamour of the show from the characters. in the 80's women the world over wanted to dress like the bitches in Dynasty. Save the financial status nobody wanted to be like those people.


Mad Men makes me understand social conservative white men

1. They had whiskey in the office
2. you could easily bang a secretary
3. black people largely do not factor into the equation until the secretary shows up in season 5, we're mostly bringing sandwiches, opening doors or sweeping floors.

This.

A few things, as I agree with both John and Chemda. I think a decent person can (or at least I hope) glorify certain aspects of the show while demonizing others. Most people probably disagree with the gender and race politics of the era (again, I hope) and most people think these people are pretty scummy in their personal and professional morals (do I need to iterate 'I hope' here again?). But I don't think there is anything wrong with idealizing the style of the working, middle-to-upper class of the time- some people might just prefer the tailored, skinny-tie look to the baggy clothes and big ties of the past 30 years or so. Also, Mad Men does a great job of showing the creativity that goes into executing great ads, and while I agree that advertising kinda sucks, I can't help but be impressed with some of these ad campaigns they come up with, especially in the context of a fictionalized show. It's artistic expression in a corporate world driven by making money- Mad Men sort of frames itself around the birth of the modern day American economy, which is one of the reasons it is so interesting.