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windex's avatar

What is your opinion about the TV show "Mad Men"?

Asked by windex (2932points) October 27th, 2009

I’m almost done with season 1 and even though I find it pretty disgusting, I can’t stop watching it.

Everyone just smokes, drinks and cheats on the wife. The smoking and drinking part doesn’t bother me, it’s all the cheating. There isn’t a single honest character on the show. Yet it’s so fascinating to watch.

Your thoughts?

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17 Answers

pinkparaluies's avatar

Mad Men is one of “my shows” that I tune into every week along with The Office and Californication. I absolutely love it. Just because a television show isn’t all sugar and spice doesn’t mean it isn’t just as entertaining ;)

nunoAfonso's avatar

never seen it. is it any good?

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

That’s the FX trend ever since “The Shield”. Now on cable TV everything’s about how rotten people can be. Once a dirty cop was shown mutilating a suspected criminal’s face on his own kitchen range, all the other edgy shows couldn’t stop trying to one up each in terms of how gnarly they could be. After a point, it all starts losing it’s shock value. After the shock value has gone, you’re left with story and characters and some of these shows are somewhat weak in this regard.

“Sons of Anarchy”, I’m looking at you when I say this.

Facade's avatar

I’ve seen a couple episodes, and it’s interesting. I just forget to watch and have missed most of it so, there ya go. Very good show though.

pinkparaluies's avatar

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Doubt that cheating on your spouse can be compared to all of that.

aprilsimnel's avatar

The writing’s been a wee bit clunky between this season’s Episodes 2 and last week’s one, 10, I think, but man! Episode 11, which was on Sunday night, was fantastic. Emmys are deserved all over the place. Jon Hamm’s performance was career-defining. Move over, George Clooney.

And then there’s Episode 6.

Poor Guy.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic – I think this show is a story of one man’s redemption arc, myself. Maybe that of a few others as well. And I think it’s getting people to think about what constitutes the “real self,” and how to incorporate those things they don’t like about their selves into the whole during a time where even mentioning such concepts got a person pegged as an egghead or worse. It’s more than just cheating, smoking, drinking and great clothes.

Though the women do wear fantastic clothes. Except Peggy.

gemiwing's avatar

It never appealed to me. Then again, I spend way too much time watching Top Gear to find much time for a drama set in the 50’s.

drdoombot's avatar

I feel like it’s a show I should be watching.

inkvisitor's avatar

It’s one of two shows I watch – I just finished the latest episode this evening. I was really turned off by it the first few episodes of the first season but it definitely grew on me.
It doesn’t move too fast but the character development is strong. The setting is also great (I’m a weakling for midcentury stuff).

(and my avatar ..teehee)

dalepetrie's avatar

I just saw the first 3 episodes tonight for the first time. It’s incredibly well written, well acted and the look is positively amazing in terms of a period piece. The way the men treat women, it’s one thing to have always been told how it used to be in less enlightened times, but it’s really affecting when you see how nonchallant they are in saying things that today would make people treat you like you had leprosy. I also love the clever way they deal with being in the past, some of the dialogue is incredibly plausible that someone might have said 50 years ago, but strikes us as incredibly funny given the hindsight of history. I’m thinking of the first episode when the new girl is being shown the typewriter and being told how overwhelming all this technology can be (and then throwing out the practical for the time but incredibly sexist by our standards comment about how men designed to make it easy enough for even use girls to use). I also loved a comment about how it would be great if there was just a some “magical” machine that could make an exact copy of a document. Or for example, some of the really crass things that were just part of the game, like when the one character came back from his honeymoon and they other people in the office hired a family of “Chinamen” to sit in his office, it was just bizarre, like anyone would think that was funny…so it really shows an entirely different culture and sensibility, making it positively fascinating to me. I think I’m going to like it a lot, but to be honest, my wife was getting pretty stressed out watching it (though she enjoyed it immensely). I guess overall it’s nice that we’re far enough removed from this type of old boys club culture that we can look back on it with a mix of dread and nostalgia, just shows how far we’ve come when you think about it.

MacBean's avatar

Mad Men is, hands down, the best show on television right now, and it’s one of the top five of all time.

OreetCocker's avatar

Counting down the days until series 3 hits the Uk!—oh, that and the fact that Christina Hendricks is the hottest woman on the planet :-)—

Dr_C's avatar

Christina Hendricks (aka “Ginger Jugs”) is amazingly hot, the writting is pretty good, overall an entertainig show. Recomended.

ubersiren's avatar

I’ve seen every episode so far and I love it. I thought similarly to you about all the cheating in the first season. However, the third season is almost over and I have assessed that the show is more representational than literal. It started out with a heavy “sin” factor and now has lightened up (without revealing too much). The show started out in one time period and is “growing up.” It’s a story about the ad men who falsely believe they are kings and how false kings will falter.

troubleinharlem's avatar

I love it – my mum got me into it. It’s pretty accurate and it’s overall a good story with good characters. And besides that, it’s historical. (:

pratik5's avatar

Mad Men is an American period drama television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The show is broadcast on the American cable network AMC and is produced by Lionsgate Television. I like it too much.

Robles's avatar

This is very good tv drama. A drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper. Joan Holloway is my favorite. She is very delightful and lovable.

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