A voice of his own

[frenchani]

Daniel Mendelsohn has written a rather harsh critic (although it isn't a rant but a three page analysis) on Mad Men in the New York Reviews of Books. I don't agree with everything he said  - in my opinion the writing is more uneven than weak, and there are moments of great acting here and there (Vincent Kartheiser above all is really good)-,  but I

Comments

[frenchani]

Not sure. Buffy's writing is much better than Mad Men, and I don't think that what he said about Mad Men applies to BtVS:

"By this I mean that it proceeds, for the most part, like a soap opera, serially (and often unbelievably) generating, and then resolving, successive personal crises (adulteries, abortions, premarital pregnancies, interracial affairs, alcoholism and drug addiction, etc.), rather than exploring, by means of believable conflicts between personality and situation, the contemporary social and cultural phenomena it regards with such fascination: sexism, misogyny, social hypocrisy, racism, the counterculture, and so forth."

Buffy precisely explored by means of believable conflicts between personality and situation, the themes Joss wanted to tackle, that is "growing-up", "feminism", "human freedom", "sexuality", "leadership" etc.

Buffy worked like old mythologies which is Mendelhson's special field.

Besides, he is my soul mate and I have never thought that Buffy was that soapish so he would think like me of course! ;-

[frenchani]

But what would be the difference between soap operas and non soap tv shows then?

[frenchani]

His essays is causing reactions, but even fans of Mad Men, well some of them, agree that his critique might be relevant!

http://gawker.com/5751209/

Mad Men is entertaining and Mendelhson himself admits to be still watching the show and actually being "not immune to its appeal" but at the same time he is an academic and he's aware that this isn't the tv masterpiece so many people claim it is.