Mad for Mad Men

My latest show of interest is "Mad Men" so if you've got any inside information about what's coming, keep it to yourselves. It takes place in the late 1950's-very early 1960s (there's a reference for some of the guys getting on the bandwagon for Richard Nixon) and centers around an NYC ad agency. In the opening episodes the admen are trying to salvage their Lucky Strike account now that the government and the medical profession is cracking down on cigarette advertising.

Don Draper is, I guess, the moral center (?) of the show. Amidst the womanizing, drinking, and working, he's the mystery man--no one really knows how he comes up with the great ideas or what he's like away from the office. We'll see--Mr. Moral Center has a mistress and is not averse to "accidentally" kissing a client. Oops. He does look mighty fine in that suit, though. Wowza.

The men don't stand out as much as the women...look at those dresses. I love them. Keeping your figure would definitely be important in working those dresses and those shoes. I know TV is a more stylized version of the real world, but the treatment of the women, and their attitudes toward each other, is fascinating. When the new girl shows up for her first day of work, she's told by several men to shorten the skirt, raise the heels, and tighten the sweater. She learns which men to avoid, which to "play with" and which are the ones that are marriable. One wife is having "nervous problems" at a time when psychiatry is seen as a fad, like last year's candy-pink oven. After running her car into a fire hydrant she worries that someone could be killed, or worse. Worse being their daughter having a scar on her face. Which would be OK for their son, but not their daughter. The neighborhood divorcee is not allowed to have any contact with the husbands--and what makes her even more ostracized is her strange habit of going for walks to clear her head. The children play house, their conversations peppered with phrases like, "I like sleeping on the couch" and "I don't like your tone." Every. single. person. has a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other. At work, in the afternoon--all the time. Men work and chase secretaries. Woman keep a neat house and raise quiet well-mannered children and don't ask questions. No wonder these were the parents the completely freaked when their children discovered the late 60's as teenagers. It's hard to imagine, growing up when I did, what women endured and the roles they played, how dependent so many of them were on men. Any woman who steps out of line is ostracized. For all the talk about "catching a husband" at work, when the new girl tries to get birth control pills, she's given a lecture about not being married and being "that kind of girl." Everyone talks about "that kind of girl" so somehow you're supposed to kind of be "that kind of girl" but just enough to land a husband, but not so much that anyone finds out or notices.

I can't say much for the interior design, though. For all of the lovely garden party florals and twinsets the women wore, the knotty pine and plaid wallpaper screams cheap cabin decor. And given the status of the characters on the show, I don't think it's supposed to be cheap. I can see how it's a short hop to autumn gold and avocado green. Will Pottery Barn decor be this dated in 30 years?