Sunday, August 29
A mad, mad world…
My wife and I have recently gotten hooked on the TV show Mad Men. It’s an AMC show, has won a ton of awards, and is unbelievably well written, acted, directed, etc…We’ve worked our way through season 1 & 2 and are halfway through season 3 on DVD. (Season 4 is currently on Sunday nights.)
It’s about the world of advertising in Manhattan in the early 1960s. It centers on the character of Don Draper one of the most complex, messed up, creative characters in the history of television. It’s so very easy to hate him, pity him, cheer for him, and curse him in each and every episode.The most fascinating aspect of the show is the social commentary on 60’s that it so creatively gives. It has set itself in a time when John Kennedy was elected president, Marilyn Monroe committed suicide, the Cuban Missile Crisis was happening, and the issues of race were just starting to heat up.
It’s unbelievable to watch as everyone seems to smoke and drink, especially women who are pregnant. And so amazing to watch the archaic way that childbirth happened in hospitals (it makes me wonder how the heck anyone was born healthy during that time. But it does explain a lot about me, I guess…born in 1963) I watch the show and have to ask, “What we’re they thinking?”…”How could they see the world they way they did just 40-50 years ago?”…”Seriously, were they that oblivious to the fact smoking caused cancer?”
But then I think…
So what is it in our culture today…things we spend time doing, habits that are common to life, priorities that we have evidently embraced…that people will look back on some years later and wonder, “Seriously, what were they thinking?”
Mark Nelson at 9:40 PM 3comments
