Mad Men

Mad Men is a strange case of a television programme.  When I was first told about it and read reviews I was sure that this was not a television programme for me.  After all, I'm the guy who grew up on a diet of ST:TNG and Red Dwarf, I'm a 1990s X-Files fanboy who enjoys debating the existential nature of Mulder's sister, which Star Trek captain was best and how Buffy the Vampire Slayer should has finished at the end of Season 5. There's literally no reason why a drama series set in a Manhattan advertising agency in the 1960s should appeal to me in any way whatsoever.

Well, it does.  And it's great.  Perhaps because of great storytelling and brilliantly observed characters?  Perhaps it's the way that Mad Men takes us on a journey through some of the biggest social and political upheavals of modern times?  Perhaps because it does this without ever forcing politics on its audience, instead dropping hints and clues through the actions and dialogue of those on screen?  Perhaps it's all these things.  We see people living through momentous events in world history such as the Cuban missile crisis or the assassination of JFK, and though these events are important, the grind of daily life continued much as did at any point in history.

There's a lot in Mad Men for people who want to find it, lots more than just a drama about the life and times of an attractive womaniser in 1960s Manhattan.  It's a drama series that recognises that the lives of people, you know - the stuff we all do day in and day out, are the fundamental building blocks of an interesting story.  Just some of the many themes in Mad Men include sexual equality in the workplace, sexual liberation, changing attitudes towards traditional minority groups, the usurping of an older more conservative generation by a new more liberal one, the advent of mass consumerism... I could go on.

All of it would be a bit boring though without some outstanding characters and people to play them.  The series' main character is ostensibly Don Draper (played by John Hamm), an impossibly well-dressed advertising executive in his late-30s who's mere presence in the room is enough to melt the heart of all but the most hardened of 1960s Manhattan socialites.  He is an incredibly complex character with a hidden past who is idolised by all around him - quite literally all men want to be him, all women want to be with him.  For me though the series is really about women, the liberalisation of sex in society in the 1960s and the generation of the first cracks in the corporate glass ceiling.  In this sense, one could argue that the series' main character is really Peggy Olsen (played by Elizabeth Moss - who was president Bartlet's daughter in The West Wing).  Olsen starts out in the advertising firm as a humble secretary, but as the series pan out she changes considerably as she tries more and more to be like Draper.  She is baffled, angered and entranced in equal measures by the world around her, spending half her time trying to fit into this man's world and the other half raging against the conservatism still inherent in it.

Mostly Mad Men is an excellently observed character drama that's about a society that once was and has now passed - but it was only 50 years ago.  It's an amazing television show that shows once again how Hollywood's best writers all work in TV these days.  Yes - people really did used to drink copious quantities of hard liquor in business meetings and take their clients to brothels.  Only 50 years ago!

And if you're wondering, the best captain in Star Trek was clearly Picard.