Mad News, August 19-22
- Canadians will now get to see Mad Men at the same time as Americans. Yay Canada!
- America: The National Catholic Weekly, comments not-all-that-favorably on the role of Father Gil:
Father has…broken the seal of the confessional. Which, by the way, is grounds for automatic excommunication. For the record, the seal means that you cannot divulge anything about a confession, and are forbidden from discussing confessional material outside the confessional–even with the one who confesses. Nor, after confession, can the priest act on anything he has heard inside the confessional. Father Gill, who presumably has just been studying in Rome, would have known that even mentioning something like that to Peggy is strictly verboten.
After Mass the camera zooms in on the parish bulletin, which lists the priest’s name: Father Gill, S.J. Ugh–he’s a Jesuit! With a wandering eye and a big mouth. (And note to the costume designer: if he’s a Jesuit, he’s wearing the wrong style cassock.)
- Steve Penner sees Mad Men as an object lesson for young women, who don’t realize the strides that were made so recently on behalf of women’s rights.
- Here is another good LA Times article on the women of Mad Men, that connects their characters up with the other show themes:
“Don has a lot in common with all these women,” [Weiner] said. “He’s unable to express himself; he wants to be a different kind of person than he is. His image of himself is not really who he is. All these women are like that: If you buy into something, you have to live by the consequences.”
- James Lileks of The Bleat explores the relationship between Mad Men and the Sopranos. We’ve discussed him and his delightful Gallery of Regrettable Foods in comments.
- More Mad Men wallpapers from Nobody’s Sweetheart. I especially like the Betty one, but the Peggy one is definitely long on what everyone’s talking about. The artist sure knows how to pick a moment!
- A local Wellesley, MA article profiles the mother of two writers who work on AMC shows: one on Mad Men, and one on Breaking Bad.
- Geeks of Doom reviews the season 1 DVDs, and seems to admire more than like the show.
- The Village Voice fervently hopes that Mad Men brings with it Kennedy-era nostalgia.
- War of the Ratings Articles: Metro says that AMC’s ad blitz failed to bring in new viewers, but the new Blu-Ray release of the season 1 DVD set is an Amazon Top Ten seller.
- TV Guide interviews John Slattery.
- The Financial Post writes about how modern ad agencies, influenced by Mad Men, are going retro in their approach.
- In the kind of ordinary ‘what’s on this weekend’ article that I normally skip, the Orlando Sentinel recommends this weekend’s Mad Men with this intriguing bit of hint-dropping:
Pity anything that goes against the Olympics on Sunday. But if you want first-rate scripted drama, try AMC’s “Mad Men” at 10 p.m. Sunday. The episode provides crucial insights into Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss, pictured) — information that fans have wanted since last season’s cliffhanger. We learn more about the relationship of Peggy and her boss, enigmatic Don Draper (Jon Hamm). We learn about Don’s new secretary and latest lies. We hear Mozart as it has never been played before. And Moss gives a brilliant, subtle performance.
By the way, the ratings article I quoted above, all gloomy and doomy, failed to mention that the dip the past two Sundays corresponds to premiere Olympic coverage. Ten pm events were the top-rated gymnastics, swimming, and volleyball competitions and the media is abuzz with what a ratings juggernaut NBC’s Olympics coverage has been. Makes me wonder if things will improve after this weekend.
- Buddy TV reports that Colin Hanks signed for three Mad Men episodes, but is unclear if they are consecutive. It seems to me that since, as the article points out, Hanks plays a visiting priest, the visit is time-bound and the episodes would kind of have to be consecutive. But what do I know?
- Tango has a somewhat cutesy article on “love slogans,” based around Don’s statement that “What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.” They examine eight slogans that “sell nylons” (metaphorically) for what they say about love.
- Two essays try to look at Mad Men through a political lens, and fail. The National Review tries to pretend that Mad Men is a conservative family-values kinda show:
The characters share, however, a deep-seated sadness and dissatisfaction with life….
They are too sophisticated to be happy. The characters are vaguely aware that somewhere, on a farm or something, there are people who at least have a basis for their lives. But the values of self-sacrifice, faith, devotion to family, even satisfaction in hard work, are horribly corny. This they have in common with other fictional Manhattanites, such as the girls of Sex and the City. They’ve sophisticated the meaning right out of life.
… Mad Men creates a brilliant and detailed picture of something very important, just as it slipped out of our lives.
Seriously? They are too sophisticated? They believe there are better values on farms? It’s the ’slipping away’ of the fifties that’s making them suffer? Holy shit, where do I even begin?
The other bad political essay is from Starpulse, and it just loves loves loves that Mad Men is sexist and the women are kept down. The essay, riddled with factual errors (Betty is visited by a “window salesman”), barely notices that the female characters have lives and agency; Tim Peterson seems to believe the show is all about the white men and how cool life was when they could still oppress the wimmenz and the blacks. To that end, the author puts up a strawliberal in the form of “the Tipper Gores of the world” (can’t he even come up with a more current reference? Geez Pete). Of course, there are no liberal complaints about Mad Men being un-PC (believe me, I read everything printed about the show), but Peterson can’t strut his macho stuff unless there are offended liberals to poo-poo.
These two essays…look folks, watch the show for what it is and for what it says, not for whether the characters would vote for Obama or McCain.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:01 am
Re the political essays: As I’ve said before, just as some people are born tone-deaf or color-blind, there are people in this world without any sense of irony.
The Orlando Sentinel teaser has me excited. Are we going to get confirmation of what I’ve believed since the first ep of the season, that Don knows about Peggy’s baby?
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 am
FYI, Canadians have always had Mad Men at the same time as Americans, if you have satellite or digital cable (as I do). It’s just that now Canadians who only get Canadian channels (very few of us since we generally prefer American TV) can see it.
And Deborah, I totally agree, watch the show for what it is. I think unfortunately, people tend to project their own politics onto everything.
Melville — I can’t wait for tomorrow’s show either.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 am
That dude writing for Starpulse is kind of a dingbat!
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
There was a teaser about this week’s episode in Matt Roush’s column on Friday (http://www.tvguide.com/Ask-Matt/080822):
“Once again, I would ask anyone on the fence to watch this Sunday’s truly pivotal episode — I don’t want to describe any of it in advance to ruin the surprises — but much more is revealed than I had expected, and I can’t think of a richer show currently on TV.”
I can’t wait!
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Can’t. Frigging. Wait.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
The article about how advertising agencies are inspired by Mad Men is so cool! I want to work at one of those agencies!
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Thanks for mentioning the continuing Season 2 desktop wallpaper project. I’m glad to read people are enjoying them.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Dyna, they’re amazing. I’ve been keeping track since first seeing Rich’s holiday card, and then his blog redesign. Maybe we need a BoK/Lipp Sisters header for S3…
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
In regards to National Review and Starpulse, time to quote Susan Sontag: “Interpretation is the mind’s revenge on art.” People see what they want to see.
Thank you for keeping this blog with all of the articles. It is great for the obsession.
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Jeez - you guys are amazing with posting all these articles! Thanks for all the great reading …
The National Catholic Weekly piece popped out above all … what an interesting viewpoint - and information. Funny about the cassock. However I would challenge the bit about wandering eye.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
This was what I was saying last week about the confidentiality of the confessional. The nuns really beat that into me!
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Jeez - you guys are amazing with posting all these articles! Thanks for all the great reading …
That be Deb. With a little help from our Basketcases.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Great links!
I like this piece by Steve Penner about how much things have changed for women (at least here in the First World, and at least in the world of business). I recently asked my 72-yo mother if she’d been watching Mad Men, since she loves good smart drama. She said she turned it off after half an episode, because she didn’t want “to have to relive those godamned anti-woman days again; once was enough.”
It’s related to that other writer you posted a few weeks ago, the one who didn’t seem to “get it”…I had to explain to my mother that the show was being critical of womens’ roles in that era. Fascinating to see that my mother doesn’t even notice that — and someone in my generation (Gen X, the first generation to be fully raised after Feminism) thinks Mad Men is practically hitting you over the head with its criticism of the sexist behaviors of the time.
Meanwhile, I like Penner wonder if women younger than me don’t even realize what strides women have made since the 60s? Then again: anyone who sees how women fair in the Middle East, Africa, China, India, etc…they have probably figured it out.
Ironically related back to Mad Men: New York City is now a place where women (single and/or older women) are allowed to brandish more power in public and in business than ever before in the modern world.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I am a late boomer, squeaked in just under the line, and I saw the changes happen with my own eyes, and I participated directly in some of them. Literally, mine was the first 7th grade in my town that gave kids non-gendered choices for their electives. The year before, boys took shop & mechanical drawing, girls took cooking & sewing. My year, everyone chose 3 of the 4. So I watched it happen.
And I don’t think younger women (or younger men) get it, or see what the problem was, how bad it was, why it was so bad, etc. “Othering” the Middle East kind of makes it worse; it’s something “those people” do to “their” women, and it allows people to remain blind to the pervasive sexism that still exists in American society. Not that we haven’t come a long way, but “Iron My Shirt” should have permanently put to rest the notion that we are no longer sexist.
August 24th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Yeah, I’ve noticed that for every fan of this show who gets that it is a critique of that time which draws attention both to how far we have come and to how much things haven’t changed in other ways, there’s one who sincerely sees the show as just one big celebration of the good ‘ole days, when women, ethnics and other troublesome types were kept firmly in their place - that place being below white men, however stupid, ridiculous or untalented. It’s really quite irksome but it just underscores that there are many, many people out there who have never learned how to read a text. Soe people never learned to read beyond primary school level and believe depiction = approval. So if MM contains sexism, it’s obviously condoning sexism.
Someone - a left-leaning man - on a board I post on said he didn’t feel like watching more MM because of the sexism. Surely, I said, this show is profoundly feminist in that it dissects cultural misogyny with a fine blade and lays it bare for all to see. It’s the finest critique on subjects most TV shows gloss over, ignore or refuse to acknowledge on any level, combined with excellent characterisation and brilliant writing. How could I, as a feminist, not love it to bits?
August 24th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
There’s some very smokin’ photos of Mr. Hamm in Best Life Magazine and GQ, plus article as seen on ONTD
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/27163413.html#cutid1
August 24th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Michelle, muchas gracias!
Jon Hamm was born to wear a skinny suit! Whew!!!
August 24th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
oh
my…
August 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Uh oh…more fabulous Hamm shots are deflecting the conversation. Again.
@Deborah: what is that “Iron My Shirt” reference? I don’t know it.
@Helen: WORD. 5 minutes of any of Weiner’s DVD commentary tracks on season 1 should convince everyone where this show’s heart lies.
My favorite moment of the commentaries is for the pilot; during the Menken meeting with the boys, when Draper steams “I’m not going to let a woman talk to me like this!” and storms out of the boardroom. And Weiner mentions that this was the first line he ever thought up for the entire series…and that he was still hearing that said at places he worked. IN THE 1980S.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
@Deborah: what is that “Iron My Shirt” reference? I don’t know it.
It was at a Hilary Clinton rally during the primaries. Some pinheads held up a sign (or maybe they were wearing t-shirts, I’m not sure) that said “Iron My Shirt.” Twits.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Helen: How can we see how far we’ve come if we try to pretend that sexism never happened.
This Canadian tripped over the news of getting Mad Men in late July while surfing at my local TV station site. My happiness would be complete if someone started up with The Closer.
August 25th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Well, at least someone agreed with my confirmation that Father Gil’s behavior was bad-bad-bad!:)
August 25th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Did Anita say anything about Peggy pretending that she did not have a child out of wedlock? Because I think Father Gill didn’t know that fact, which would mean he didn’t really break the confessional.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
She said Peggy was acting “like nothing happened. Nothing at all,” or something to that effect. Either way, there’d be no equivocating his way out of that type of breach for Father Sinks-ships.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] it said anything particularly new. We’ve linked to America: The National Catholic Weekly before, so it seemed a tad reduntant. That was a mistake on my part; putting together the news means [...]