Month of Meta: Dinosaurs on Mad Men
I can't believe Mad Men is back this weekend. I was not happy at the end of last season, though I loved the season itself. Waiting for the premiere, I found myself thinking about a discussion I seemed to have constantly on message boards about that show during Season 4 that made me really sad, but people felt very strongly about it
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I feel like a lot of shows encourage that kind of judgment and intentionally flatter the natural arrogance the present has about the past, so it's not surprising some of the audience feels like they're supposed to be making that judgment. It's so common in shows about the past to give your protagonist progressive--sometimes anachronistically so--ideas that they argue using modern principles that probably wouldn't have meant much to anyone at the time.
(a) Oh my gosh, I so agree! and (b) I really hate it when shows do that. When someone pops in with a "you know, maybe slavery is bad" in Ancient Rome or something and it's based on nothing but a "you should like this character" nudge. It's not that you can't have a conversation about moral issues in a historically based show that reflect on modern times, but I much prefer some sort of thought go into it. If the character has anachronistic views, give them a reason for their revolutionary thinking.
Which of course means, when shows do it well, I adore it. :)
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I remember an ep of Dr. Quinn--which was a festival of anachronistic ideas--did a thing about somebody being hung one that was particularly funny. I can't remember exactly what they said now, but I think the young girl was questioning capital punishment in terms that were so obviously nothing anybody would say then. Like I'm sure there were people then who might have been against it, but probably more along the lines of it not being Christian.
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