Mad Men

Just finished this. An incredible and consistent show from beginning to end. It really shows a time capsule of rich white men who lived like animals. Every single woman on this show is too good for every single man. They are taken, formed, and betrayed by men, and forced to smile and carry on. It begins with this dynamic, which is the dominant theme throughout, and commentary on workplaces of the era (although in many places it still remains exactly the same, even if it’s more hidden in plain sight). Every character arc completes elegantly, and I cried some ugly tears in the final episodes. This show is a lot about Donald Draper. However I think it’s even more about the world around him. How people react and respond to him, how they fall in and out of his good graces, how special they feel while in a moment of his twilight. Betty, a unique and beautiful character that fights but eventually succumbs against all of Don’s ruthlessness, from innocence to bitterness, spending the rest of her life rebuilding herself into something. Peggy, the only one who blossoms while shadowed in his limelight, who looks for love under every rock and crevice, spends the show, much like Joan, fighting a stunning uphill and outnumbered battle against men in the workforce. Both treated as lesser than men, Peggy in her servitude and Joan in her beauty, are violated daily, their struggles becoming paving stones for women that came after. Pete and Trudy. Trudy again a woman hopelessly out of Pete’s league on an individual level, together only by virtue of societal expectations, name, and heritage. He spends, much like Don, his whole life betraying the trust of those who love him. Roger, semi-comedy relief, silver spooned hedonist, makes, much like Don, every mistake imaginable. As a rich white man however, consequences seep through him, leaving only a hollowing out that he refills with a sequence of young women, until he finds happiness with an equally jaded match. Later characters like Ted, I pitied. They tried to be better but were absorbed into the dysfunction of the ad world, where alcohol and betrayal and cloak and daggers twisted him into perhaps not what he had intended to become. You become who you associate and surround yourself with. Donald Draper is the man we love to hate. He gets away with everything because, as a side character eloquently put it, he’s handsome. Don’s advice only works on eloquent, handsome people in the society in which they exist. They do not apply to everyone else. It’s unfair. Throughout the show we watch him implode, get away with it, implode, get away with it, each implosion chipping a way a piece of his soul. A womaniser leaving charred flesh in his wake, he is selfish, childish, and often, extremely pathetic. They pepper his glory and his humiliation in similar measures, and for the keen viewer he soon becomes an object of derision. The man who has everything, clasping for more in a sad, almost comatose way. There is just enough glory to redeem the character, not necessarily about his upbringing which, while tragic, does not excuse him, but rather the existential punishment he attempts to suffocate with alcohol and infidelity. He searches for depth while choosing against it every time. He was given opportunities to elevate above it over and over and his implosions crippled them. Megan was another woman who was dramatically too good for him. Like Betty, she was fierce and kind and committed, until taken, formed, and betrayed by Don. I felt such pity for her, she tried, and tried, and tried again to give him a good life. It all wasn’t enough to stay in the shadow of his limelight. His daughter Sally is one of the most interesting of the show. She eventually sees her parents for who they are, in the most believable portrayal of growing up in this environment. Glamour from the outside, the rotten core is something that eats Sally alive. It’s an amazing show, full of brilliant writing, characters, jokes, social and class commentary (could have been even more) and emotion. I think it was maybe one season too long, the final company merger could have happened sooner and faster. Seeing the characters move on with their lives was quite heart wrenching. You spent 7 seasons watching them be in those spaces, everything seems the same as it always was, but when you look back, everything has changed. A must watch. —- I've seen this before, around when it came out, although I never watched the final season. With this rewatch I'm going to correct that oversight. I'm 2 episodes in and it's just amazing.