Okay.
I tried really hard, but I just do not care at all about Mad Men.
I watched the entire first season based on the glowing, outrageously laudatory recommendations of friends. I watched half of the second season only to realize the rest hadn’t been recorded by my wonky DVR (sidenote: what the fuck Time Warner, get on that shit. Alway Sunny NEVER records.). Upon realizing this, I simultaneously became aware of the fact that I really did not have a strong desire to see the rest. I didn’t frantically search the internet for rips, buy them from iTunes, or peruse my channel guide.
The costumes are great. I guess the acting is as well. The story though…never really drew me in. Don Draper’s murky past and laconic persona seemed forced and dragged out. There never seemed to be any drama in Sterling Cooper winning or losing accounts. Most importantly, the whole time I was watching the show, I could not help thinking this show would be ten times more interesting if it focused on Betty & Joan rather than the men.
Betty’s ability to rise above the social mores facing women in the 50s made her such a captivating character. Joan’s artful juxtaposition between the guarded desperation about being an unmarried woman “of a certain age” and the naked sexuality of an almost liberated female caused her to steal every scene.
Point is: it would have been so much more interesting to have told the story of smokey, misogynistic 1950s Madison Avenue from a primarily female point of view. At least in my opinion.
