Comments | sistermagpie: Month of Meta: Dinosaurs on Mad Men

sistermagpie

Month of Meta: Dinosaurs on Mad Men

Mar 22, 2012 16:41

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 ( Read more... )

meta, mad men, tv

Comments 10

etrangere March 22 2012, 20:51:59 UTC

Loved reading this.

sistermagpie March 22 2012, 23:50:19 UTC

Yay! :-)

aubade_saudade March 22 2012, 21:44:00 UTC

from what my mother (she had me in her 40's) has told me (I've asked her about the 50's and 60's, particularly since watching the show) people all wore a sort of uniform in that era. her parents had immigrated to the US during the Depression and her mom had also had her late. my mother was considered a rebel because she wore short skirts like her cousins from the Caribbean which she'd visit in the summer (they wore their skirts above the knee, though NEVER pants in public) stopped trying to make her hair wavy (she had straight black hair) because it took forever to do, and wore nude lipstick. she wore black all the time, and ballet slippers because she was a ballerina and her dream was to live in NY. she'd gone to the Village a few times while playing hooky and saw some girls wearing all-black ensembles. so she looked like a mix btw a Caribbean girl and a beatnik, and her teachers would shake their heads and say, "But you're such a good girl, why do you dress like that ( ... )

sistermagpie March 22 2012, 23:49:37 UTC

I think you are explaining yourself well! I mean, one of the things I've always gotten from that era and before was that, like you said, there was a uniform. I think clothing today is sooo much freer in terms of what you can wear and what it means. Like, of course there are some things that people where to make a certain impression, but it's not usually so strict as if your skirt is too short you're not a good girl.

And I think the late 60s had a lot to do with that. That was when there was a conscious throwing off of a lot of "adult" uniforms. I think the show's shown some of the guys wearing some of the more casual looks, for instance. But it's not like somebody would look at a 40 year old man in a suit and think he should be dressed in jeans. He's part of the establishment and nobody's going to believe him as anything else.

morganlucas41 March 23 2012, 04:00:47 UTC

Great meta! This is really interesting. I've just recently gotten into Mad Men, and one of the things I love most about it is how layered it is. There is so much room for interpretation in, well, everything.

I think I agree with what you're saying here, overall. The 60's were obviously a time of huge change in America, and I love how the varied Man Men cast shows different aspects of that. The show approaches social issues in a number of different ways, just based on the different perspectives of the cast members. And I don't think it ever makes a pronouncement on anything being "right" or "wrong" - it just points out subtle differences. It's really why I like the show, because it makes you think.

Anyway, just wanted to say I really enjoyed this!

sistermagpie March 23 2012, 16:57:07 UTC

Thanks! And yeah, that's what I find fascinating about it too. Since really the group of characters they have aren't all that varied since it's a pretty small environment. And yet even so the show always finds ways that they're different and how that effects how they react to things. That's what makes all their interactions so interesting.

horridporrid March 23 2012, 22:57:48 UTC

I don't watch Mad Men (mainly because I think it'd be awesome enough to suck me in but good, and I just don't have the room for another addictive show), but this comment...

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 ( ... )

sistermagpie March 24 2012, 03:52:27 UTC

I have a friend who used to say that just once she wanted to see a show where the bad guy said cars were the way of the future and the hero was the guy telling everyone to get a horse.

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.

ava_jamison March 25 2012, 19:38:09 UTC

Great post! Very interesting. I agree with you. Wow, yes, about shows tending to want to flatter our own natural arrogance (and it works, most of the time! :) and once again, you've made me wish I still watched Mad Men. (OT but someone at work a couple of days ago was talking about Mad Men (and Breaking Bad) and she said that seeing Betty's dad explained Betty, and Betty's choices. I have not seen that episode, and so don't know exactly what she meant re: The Deal with Betty's Dad but... it's such a good show, I've no doubt it did just that ( ... )

sistermagpie March 25 2012, 20:45:58 UTC

That's interesting about her dad--there's really a whole storyline with him because he moves in with them for a while. He has a really close relationship with Sally, but I did somewhat hold it against him that he seems to give Sally the exact kind of encouragement he didn't give Betty. Or maybe it's more that he admired his wife for being strong, but she wanted Betty to be ladylike and he might have tried to oppose that early on, but then he just gave up ( ... )