Mad Men. A historical odyssey years in the making for me. I exclusively watch TV of my choosing in situations when I am working out, which means I'm watching TV for roughly 2 and 1/2 hours a week. At 7 seasons worth of 40 minute episodes, it took me a very long time to finish Mad Men, especially since I took a break for 2 years, and then started over, and got distracted by a few other things during the process of finishing it. But I'm finally done, and now I get to review it.
Mad Men is a show which primarily follows 60s-70s era advertising genius Don Draper and the people who orbit his magnetic life. His basic spheres of life are his home life and life at work, where he works for an advertising agency. This sounds like a kind of dumb premise for a show, and in a way it is. It's the prototypical modern TV show, less driven by a clever premise or hook, and more by excellent acting, artistic directing and writing, and an almost novel-like dedication to theme, character development, and art. It's more of The Great Gatsby, and less of Alias, for better or for worse.
And in this case, it works out much better. The performances are jaw-droppingly excellent. Highlighted by superb work by Jon Hamm (Don), Elizabeth Olson (Don's advertising underling), January Jones (Don's wife), Christina Hendricks (the office manager), and John Slattery (one of the heads of Don's advertising agency). These are, in a welcome trend in television, cinematic performances, and really are extended for the whole 7 seasons, with very little in the way of poor performances by any of the main cast. Some of the supporting actors do not shine quite as brightly, but there are precious few bad performances in the hundreds of hours delivered here.
The show is shot beautifully, and is directed just as well. The show has excellent costuming and set design that communicate clearly the time in which the show is set. All of the actors have a very classic look to them that never breaks your disbelief at the time period. Beyond the look of the show, the writers and directors skillfully weave prominent historical events throughout the episodes to give it a life-like feel. These include episodes on the moon landing, Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, the Vietnam War, the hippie movement, and civil rights debates.
The show deals with many themes, and does each in a thought provoking way. Perhaps the most important theme, and the one that runs through the character arcs of most characters in the show, is who am I? It's a classic idea in novels and cinema, and it plays well here. Each character in some way has to struggle with their nature, the face they portray to the world, and is constantly wondering if anyone could love the true them. Everyone is seeking for someone with whom they can be truly honest, truly themselves, yet struggles with the shame of things that they did previously, and struggles with watching themselves repeat the errors of the past again and again. This makes for a very dreary 7 seasons in terms of tone in the aggregate, and I wonder sometimes if the show went on just a few seasons too long. But the dreariness ultimately serves as food for thought, and rarely feels preachy, although it is a bit repetitive and tiresome by the end. There are also plenty of uplifting moments throughout the show that season it a bit, so it doesn't feel like the negative tone is overwhelming, but it's probably just a touch too heavy handed.
Other prominent themes include the troubled nature of the treatment of women and minorities throughout the time, and marriage and adultery. Each of these is told in a manner so that it feels like the story is touching on these themes, rather than that the story is beaten to fit the political agenda behind the show. On net, I felt like these themes were also predominantly thought provoking and humanizing to the characters, although they again forward a rather dreary picture of the human condition.
On net, I think Mad Men is an excellent show, and one of the finest works of televised art ever put to film. If you haven't seen it, it really is a magnum opus, and a crushing blow to the old and ever wavering stereotype that television can't hand with movies in terms of art. I'll give it a 9.6/10.
-TRO
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