On How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Give Up on Mad Men
So, last night I watched the season premier of Mad Men. I stayed up until 1:15 watching the ironically commercial laden two hour show about bullshitters and ad executives in the 60's. 70's? The show jumps years so quickly, sometimes I can't keep track.
I haven't been a devoted fan, but I do follow it. Something last night really caught in my craw. The acting is downright bad. The lines are picked up and delivered like Jimmy Johns sandwiches. The exchanges between the actors have gotten so puerile, so wooden. The ONLY character I actually enjoyed watching was the copywriter/artist guy with the beard. Everything else was just lame.
Don's philandering again overshadowed his existential awakening, of which he has been on the verge of doing for six seasons now. This guy is never going to wake up, and I'm tired of waiting. Betty. Why is Betty even on the show? She should have been written out two seasons ago. I like the new wife, but she is not going to hold the show together, much less her character arc. I like her, but her character needs to have and affair and go the way of Betty; another in a long line of women who get used and thrown out with the garbage by Don Draper.
Christina Hendrick's character, Joan, was absent, so instead we got to watch some stupid scenes between Don and a doctor whose wife he is schtupping. Just basic throwaway, who gives a shit dialog, against just one guy talking, giving his lines, waiting for the other guy to say his lines, rinse and repeat. Oh yes, and lets throw in some more quaint references to stuff from that time. We get it, Mad Men, you are a show about the nostalgic past. Quit insisting upon it!
Peggy is now just Don, and though the actress excels at that, it's basic, lacking complexity, and completely expected. We've seen this arc for a while now. I was just hoping the writers could have done better with it. Even the bit where Roger Sterling is crying over the loss of the guy who shines his shoes, and not his own mother's death was expected. What should have been crushing/full of pathos was just comical and totally telegraphed. With a cry like this, the effect went the wrong way.
So, shitty writing, elementary acting, wooden performances, more Jon Hamm modeling. It's getting as bad as Gilmore Girls. Just because you can say a bunch of lines really fast doesn't mean you should.
I've just gotten cynical, I guess. This show used to be so interesting, and the production values, the acting, the writing was all solid. But now I expect more out of it. I demand better, but instead, the show phoned it in for two hours. The best part of the entire premier was Christina Hendricks selling Johnny Walker bourbon every commercial break.
And because the wife is fighting off something again (either a bronchitis relapse or a second bout of the flu) and had to go to bed early, I couldn't bring myself to finishing Game of Thrones without her. That's a show that has been getting better each season. So I opted for wasting an evening watching Mad Men. Hooray.
I haven't been a devoted fan, but I do follow it. Something last night really caught in my craw. The acting is downright bad. The lines are picked up and delivered like Jimmy Johns sandwiches. The exchanges between the actors have gotten so puerile, so wooden. The ONLY character I actually enjoyed watching was the copywriter/artist guy with the beard. Everything else was just lame.
Don's philandering again overshadowed his existential awakening, of which he has been on the verge of doing for six seasons now. This guy is never going to wake up, and I'm tired of waiting. Betty. Why is Betty even on the show? She should have been written out two seasons ago. I like the new wife, but she is not going to hold the show together, much less her character arc. I like her, but her character needs to have and affair and go the way of Betty; another in a long line of women who get used and thrown out with the garbage by Don Draper.
Christina Hendrick's character, Joan, was absent, so instead we got to watch some stupid scenes between Don and a doctor whose wife he is schtupping. Just basic throwaway, who gives a shit dialog, against just one guy talking, giving his lines, waiting for the other guy to say his lines, rinse and repeat. Oh yes, and lets throw in some more quaint references to stuff from that time. We get it, Mad Men, you are a show about the nostalgic past. Quit insisting upon it!
Peggy is now just Don, and though the actress excels at that, it's basic, lacking complexity, and completely expected. We've seen this arc for a while now. I was just hoping the writers could have done better with it. Even the bit where Roger Sterling is crying over the loss of the guy who shines his shoes, and not his own mother's death was expected. What should have been crushing/full of pathos was just comical and totally telegraphed. With a cry like this, the effect went the wrong way.
So, shitty writing, elementary acting, wooden performances, more Jon Hamm modeling. It's getting as bad as Gilmore Girls. Just because you can say a bunch of lines really fast doesn't mean you should.
I've just gotten cynical, I guess. This show used to be so interesting, and the production values, the acting, the writing was all solid. But now I expect more out of it. I demand better, but instead, the show phoned it in for two hours. The best part of the entire premier was Christina Hendricks selling Johnny Walker bourbon every commercial break.
And because the wife is fighting off something again (either a bronchitis relapse or a second bout of the flu) and had to go to bed early, I couldn't bring myself to finishing Game of Thrones without her. That's a show that has been getting better each season. So I opted for wasting an evening watching Mad Men. Hooray.