I realize that I’m a little bit late to the game, and in all likelihood you probably already know this, but Mad Men is a great show. It’s the sort of show that can make you envious of the characters, while at the same time feeling superior to them, sorry for them, and thankful that you don’t have to work with any of them.My wife and I have intended to watch Mad Men for the past couple of years, but never got around to it. Then a couple of days after Christmas, when the kids were occupied with their gifts, and we’d already spent most of the day lying around doing nothing, we ran out of things to watch.We considered renting a movie, but I don’t do OnDemand and leaving the house just seemed like too much effort. So we put in season one of the show, which I’d borrowed from my sister months ago.And we were hooked.That day began a binge of 31 days during which we watched 78 episodes of the show. Some quick math reveals that we spent about 57 hours watching Mad Men. So we spent more than two entire days out of a month watching one show.It was awesome. Want an e-mail every time I write something new? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.
Before I go on, let me remind you that we’re just through the first six seasons of the show. We haven’t watched the first half of the seventh season. So don’t spoil it for me or I’ll punch you in the throat.In return, I’m going to try and write about the show so that people who have seen it will know what I’m talking about, while also avoiding any spoilers for those who haven’t seen it.First, the alcohol. And the cigarettes. I wish that I kept track of how many cigarettes were smoked and drinks were consumed during the show. Don Draper drinks constantly: at home, at work, at business dinners, at picnics, everywhere.He’s a pretty good smoker, too. In bed, in the office, next to the pool, after he just got out of the pool. There’s one scene where a phone call wakes him up in the middle of the night, he answers the phone, starts talking and is half asleep and lights up a cigarette. Half the dude’s body is still asleep and he’s puffing away!And the sex. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that sex plays a pivotal role in the lives of all the main characters. Even though I watched 78 episodes in such a short span of time, there was a moment near the end where I forgot that two characters had previous “relations” together.Ordinarily that wouldn’t be something I’d forget. But when there’s so much action going on a scorecard really could have been helpful.The work. I know nothing about advertising. It still amazes me that people buy things just because they saw an advertisement. That must be how it works though, or else companies wouldn’t spend so much on advertising.But the work in this show seems ingenious! They come up with some of the best slogans and campaigns I’ve ever heard of. I should do some research and find out whether any of it is based in reality, but I don’t want to know. I can’t decide if I’d be more satisfied if it was all invented for the show, or if it was all based on real life campaigns. Either way, it’s fun to watch.The inappropriateness. There are countless scenes in the show where I thought, or actually said aloud, “What the f$#%?” Things happen in the offices of that firm that would result in multi-million dollar lawsuits today. Husbands, fathers, wives and mothers do things that would make a family values voter want to puke.And even though it’s probably all loosely based on how things were in the 1960s, it’s fiction, so we can be secure in our entertainment.The visuals. Don Draper’s hair. His supposedly large penis. His sunglasses. His apartment. The offices. The restaurants. The cars. Joan’s boobs. Megan’s teeth. Peter’s hairline. His sideburns. Harry Crane’s sideburns. The telephones. The televisions. Ginsberg’s mustache. Peggy's ears.There’s so much to look at in this show you almost don’t even need the dialogue. Good thing we have it though, because it’s so good.Peggy Olson on a date, explaining why Manhattanites are better than rural people: “They are better than us because they want things they’ve never seen.”Peggy on Don Draper, “He’s always exactly who you expect him to be.”Peter Campbell to his wife in response to her question of whether he’s been drinking on a Saturday after the Kennedy assassination, and shortly before they’re supposed to go to a wedding, “The whole country’s drinking!”Roger Sterling to Don Draper after Don has just met a new girl, “If you hit it off, come Turkey Day maybe you can stuff her.”A spurned woman to Don Draper, “I hope she knows you only like the beginnings of things.”The coolness. Say what you will about the people on this show and their drinking and smoking and sex and greed and personal shortcomings and moral ineptitude, but almost every feature character on the show is cool. They’re flawed, but they’re mostly kind. They’re wicked, but they’re mostly good.Joan, the strong female character who runs the office in more ways than one (I want to say more, but don’t want to spoil anything), summed it up perfectly in one episode.“Well I learned a long time ago to not get all my satisfaction from this job.”As long as you don’t expect too much from them personally, these would be awesome people to hang out with.So if you haven’t watched it yet, do it now. The last seven episodes of the series begin in April.Be ready.PREVIOUS POST: The Time I Saw a UFOIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: What Happened to Television Theme Songs?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Hey, how 'bout you Share this post on Facebook and Like my page Brett Baker Writes.