Confessions of a Mad Men-aholic

A man stares on wistfully as his world falls apart before his very eyes. Destroyed by a monster of his own creation, the lines and objects that used to give order to his life break down all around him. The floor gives way, and he falls endlessly into the miserable abyss of his work. His own creations have become the tools to his destruction. Happy families sitting over a picnic. Enticing bottles of alcohol offering that first drop of fake happiness. The suggestive stare of a woman that hints at something more. This man witnesses the monsters he has created and has no idea what to do about it. He is helpless to his own condition. This new American dream is as hallow and empty as the bottles stacked under desk. He is the conductor of his own reality, but just a passenger along for the ride.

If this scene makes absolutely no sense to you then you are probably not too familiar with the hit AMC show Mad Men. (If so, sorry for wasting your time for the last paragraph. Move along. I hear a rerun of Two and Half Men is on Spike right now.) For those that don’t know, Mad Men is the critically acclaimed show created by one of the many talented former staff writers for The Sopranos, Matt Weiner. The series itself revolves around the rise and fall (and rise again?) of a New York ad man in the 1960’s, Don Draper. A man of questionable past and even more questionable morals, he chaotically juggles the challenges of his family, his work and his time with varying levels of success. The key to the show’s critical and popular success can be traced to its stellar writing and supremely accurate wardrobe and sets that can literally teleport the viewer into the real 1960’s. However, I believe that our societal fascination with this show runs far deeper than just the style of Joan’s tight blouse. I believe that we are inexorably linked to the 1960’s because we are facing some of the same challenges today.

While some argue that we have longed moved past the conflicts that divided the 1960’s between the era of love and decade of destruction, I would contend that we can draw many cultural similarities between our information age and the 60’s. Both eras have transcendent presidents who in the course of their candidacy dared Americans to dream the unimaginable and that the great American dream is not granted magically but worked for tirelessly through personal sacrifice and hard work. Also, we deal with the ever-looming threat of terrorism is eerily similar to the fear and anger that defined communism in America.  Finally, the issue of gay rights, especially in terms of gay marriage, is bringing out powerful a social upheaval that almost directly mirrors the civil rights movement of the Mad Men era.

When it comes down to it, we are looking to have an honest and social connection to an era that has mostly been reduced to corny generalities, grand sweeping stereotypes and over simplified social parameters for an era that was more complex than most people care to admit . One of the USC resident Mad Men experts, Sabrina Chong, explains it best.

'The real life events which weave themselves into the fictional narrative of Mad Men provide a reference point, in which the show offers an emotional connection to commonly misunderstood era,' said Sabrina. 'For example, take a look at JFK's assassination. We all studied it in our US history class, we may have even watched documentaries about that day, and we've all certainly seen footage of Americans mourning the loss of their president. But those experiences don't provide an emotional connection because we don't know them. We never voted for Kennedy or worried about the war in Vietnam. Even though Peggy Olsen isn't real,  she offers an emotional response to JFK’s death that we can completely relate to in this day and age while lying prone in Duck’s hotel room. And that is what makes a show like Mad Men so compelling.'

So where does this leave us? Is Mad Men a perennial series that ends up defining an age like The Sopranos did or is this just a passing fad, like The OC but for intellectuals? Only time will tell. But I do truly believe that this show is something special that goes beyond a simple time piece. It goes to show us that regardless of all the massive innovations that have taken place in the modern era; we are still defined by core emotional responses and stresses. In the end, we all still have the same coping mechanisms for this stress, whether it’s an ad men in a suit ordering an old fashioned or a dot comer knocking back a red bull and vodka.