I don't get Mad Men

[NFS4]

the add generation won't get it. the show is amazing. there aren't many shows that have characters as complex as madmen.

Exactly. Everyone needs instant gratification these days. It's well known that Mad Men seasons have a very definite pattern. They start slow, build quickly around episode 6-7, then hit you in the face around episode 11-12. Episode 13 sets you up for the next season.

Rinse and repeat.

Maybe it just needs more explosions, car chases, a laugh track, and aliens to appeal to ATOT doubters.

 

[radhak]

I've watched the first two seasons of Mad Men, and a couple episodes of season 6, but i don't get the show.

If you don't get a show in the first few episodes of a season, let alone the whole season, why would you continue to watch the next season? Then skip a whole bunch, restart watching at the latest season, and expect it to make sense, let alone 'get it'?

I caught a piece of Mad Men in the middle of an episode in its second season, was gripped in the first 10 minutes, and went back to watch from the pilot, and could not stop. I can't think of many productions from Hollywood that can match that.

Earlier in these few years i enjoyed .. (to name the most diverse)..House, Harry's Law, Garrow's Law, The Killing, Big Bang, Suits, Hannibal, House of Cards,

Srsly? Big Bang? Then you should watch Two and half men; Mad Men's not for you. I could barely finish a full episode of Big Bang, and I tried with different episodes before giving up.

House has been funny, even interesting at times, but more in the 'nothing else to watch, might as well'. I'd never watch it serially, or compulsively. Same with House of Cards.

<Have not watched the others in your list, so can't comment>

 

[clamum]

Just started watching it last weekend and I'm addicted. Roger is fucking awesome.

 

[NFS4]

Srsly? Big Bang? Then you should watch Two and half men; Mad Men's not for you. I could barely finish a full episode of Big Bang, and I tried with different episodes before giving up.

You shut your whore mouth! I love Mad Men for the story/depth of characters, and I love Big Bang Theory for the humor/character interplay.

 

[NFS4]

Just started watching it last weekend and I'm addicted. Roger is fucking awesome.

"When God closes a door, he opens a dress."

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Just started watching it last weekend and I'm addicted. Roger is fucking awesome.

Don Draper or even Pete Campbell more intriguing than Roger.

 

[NFS4]

Don Draper or even Pete Campbell more intriguing than Roger.

Let's put it this way, John Slattery makes EXCELLENT use of the little screen time he gets. He enters the scene, drops a nuke, and walks off.

 

[clamum]

Don Draper or even Pete Campbell more intriguing than Roger.

Pete Campbell?! LOL. Fuck that little bitch. That's one motherfucker I wish I could choke through the screen.

 

[NFS4]

Pete Campbell?! LOL. Fuck that little bitch. That's one motherfucker I wish I could choke through the screen.

I love Pete's "disgust" face

 

[clamum]

Hahahaha! OMFG, is that from a later season? Motherfucker is losin his hair more than I am. I'm only on season 2, just over half way through.

 

[NFS4]

Hahahaha! OMFG, is that from a later season? Motherfucker is losin his hair more than I am. I'm only on season 2, just over half way through.

Current season. He's definitely losing it fast

 

[Red Storm]

Pete Campbell?! LOL. Fuck that little bitch. That's one motherfucker I wish I could choke through the screen.

Agreed 100%. Annoying little shit. He's a Don wannabe but doesn't realize he will never get to sit at the grown up's table.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Roger sterling is such an awesome character. I'm going to start wearing vests because of this guy.

"Holy sh*t! It looks like Iwo Jima out here!" XD

 

[clamum]

Agreed 100%. Annoying little shit. He's a Don wannabe but doesn't realize he will never get to sit at the grown up's table.

Exactly! He wants to be Don so bad but he's just naturally not a "Don." Funny watching him try though.

Also, I agree with NFS4 about the actor playing Roger. Just excellent.

 

[CraigRT]

Tried. Can't do this one.
I just don't get roped in like I do with some shows.

 

[desura]

I so agree with the OP.

It's about time that there's a backlash.

Basically, I view Mad Men as a liberal arts mentality gone really badly wrong.

It's ostensibly about ads, but really, it's more a Betty Friedan feminist tract. The show reportedly has a lot of female writers, and I'm sure that they are more intent on focusing on gender roles than they are on the ads of the period. That's your modern-day liberal arts education.

Other things that irritate me. It's so very obviously shot in LA. There are so many scenes where it's obviously bright and sunshiney outside, so they simply draw down the shades.

Don Draper is also something of a vampire, so there's that going on.

It's really a horribly overrated show that is missing a core vibrancy. Instead, it was from the start cynical. Not worth spending time on.

I myself got through I think 3 seasons and then just lost interest like 3 episodes into season 4.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm sure that they are more intent on focusing on gender roles than they are on the ads of the period.

Not fair at all. Sure Peggy is a bit of a trail blazer but that stuff was happening in this period.

It completely went through what cigarette ads were like and the moral conundrum within, the process of stealing other parts of pop culture to make ads and how the quality was never the same as the original (bye bye birdie), and in some cases exact individual campaigns and a retrofitted thought process (the Carousel scene with Don is amazing).

Its not a documentary on ads, its a show. The series also tries to incorporate many parts of the larger society of the time (Cuban Missile Crises, Kennedy Assassination, etc.).

From a perspective like yours, the entire advertising industry is a "liberal arts mentality gone really badly wrong." Instead of selling products on merits and facts, the whole point is that these guys become professionals of selling on emotion and psychology.

 

[desura]

Not fair at all. Sure Peggy is a bit of a trail blazer but that stuff was happening in this period.

It completely went through what cigarette ads were like and the moral conundrum within, the process of stealing other parts of pop culture to make ads and how the quality was never the same as the original (bye bye birdie), and in some cases exact individual campaigns and a retrofitted thought process (the Carousel scene with Don is amazing).

Its not a documentary on ads, its a show. The series also tries to incorporate many parts of the larger society of the time (Cuban Missile Crises, Kennedy Assassination, etc.).

From a perspective like yours, the entire advertising industry is a "liberal arts mentality gone really badly wrong." Instead of selling products on merits and facts, the whole point is that these guys become professionals of selling on emotion and psychology.

The ads are non-existent. We don't ever *see* them. It's all behind the scenes stuff.

The focus of the show is more about feminism and gender roles than it is about ads. Yes, I actually expect a documentary-like thoroughness in showing the ads of the era. That's what it is supposed to be about. That's what the title hints at.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Exactly! He wants to be Don so bad but he's just naturally not a "Don." Funny watching him try though.

Also, I agree with NFS4 about the actor playing Roger. Just excellent.

I actually think he is Don, but came too late. So much of the show is about generational change, how someone like Don could be tremendously successful at the beginning of the show, but I suspect at the end he'll be completely left behind.

Pete is a demonstration of that, as he's not even able to get of the ground acting as Don did. Case in point:

Spoiler

When he starts sleeping around, he assumes Trudy will just take it as Betty had with Don. Much to his dismay, he finds that the new generation of women are not so passive.

(Spoiler for people who haven't seen the current season.)

 

[AnonymouseUser]

After 5 episodes my SO and I couldn't figure out why anyone watches this show.

 

[crashtestdummy]

After 5 episodes my SO and I couldn't figure out why anyone watches this show.

It's definitely not a normal narrative. It's really hard to watch an episode and be able to list "what happened". It's really a character study, looking at how various personalities respond to a world that dramatically changed over the course of the 60s. You don't watch it for the events, you watch it for the people as an end to themselves. Think of it as a serious, dramatic version of Seinfeld.

I personally like the show a lot, but I wouldn't blame anyone for disliking it.

 

[Gunbuster]

I wish they would wrap the show so Christina Hendricks could be in something else...

 

[BudAshes]

I so agree with the OP.

It's about time that there's a backlash.

Basically, I view Mad Men as a liberal arts mentality gone really badly wrong.

It's ostensibly about ads, but really, it's more a Betty Friedan feminist tract. The show reportedly has a lot of female writers, and I'm sure that they are more intent on focusing on gender roles than they are on the ads of the period. That's your modern-day liberal arts education.

Other things that irritate me. It's so very obviously shot in LA. There are so many scenes where it's obviously bright and sunshiney outside, so they simply draw down the shades.

Don Draper is also something of a vampire, so there's that going on.

It's really a horribly overrated show that is missing a core vibrancy. Instead, it was from the start cynical. Not worth spending time on.

I myself got through I think 3 seasons and then just lost interest like 3 episodes into season 4.

So is this an ironic post making a complaint about mad men from the perspective of a character on the show? Or are you just an idiot who watches 3 seasons of something he hates?

 

[BudAshes]

Also Mad Men is easily the best made show in the history of television. Nothing comes close that I can think of. It's a show so good that even though I hate tv drama's I still enjoy watching it every time my gf puts it on.

 

[clamum]

I actually think he is Don, but came too late. So much of the show is about generational change, how someone like Don could be tremendously successful at the beginning of the show, but I suspect at the end he'll be completely left behind.

Pete is a demonstration of that, as he's not even able to get of the ground acting as Don did. Case in point:

Spoiler

When he starts sleeping around, he assumes Trudy will just take it as Betty had with Don. Much to his dismay, he finds that the new generation of women are not so passive.

(Spoiler for people who haven't seen the current season.)

Eh, just don't agree with ya. If what you say is true, to me they did a real shitty job of making Pete like Don. I just don't see the parallel.