..but Im Mad about Mad Men

When I continued to reflect on the Sopranos and Mad Men I realized there was something else that was at work. In addition to being familiar with the mafia, the average person comes with certain expectations about mafia films and shows. Mafia members kill people. Mafia members steal. Mafia men often have girlfriends on the side. As a result, when these things subsequently occur on screen, they are not jarring or particularly surprising. The mob film that depicts a pacifist mafiosa, who never takes what does not belong to him, is completely honest and faithful to his family, and pays his taxes ceases to be a mob film, but has become some strange fantasy film on par with Willy Wonka and the Fat Free Chocolate Factory.

But, when I think about what my personal archetypes were for ad-executives in the late 1950's and early 1960's I have to confess that none of those things come to mind. I don't think of killing, cheating, stealing people. I think of Donna Reed. Of course Don Draper has never strangled a man with his bare hands or had someone shoot a bullet in another's head. But, he has killed co-workers to better himself in the way one kills another in the business world, and for white collar men and women this is really not as different as we would like to rationalize that it is. And I know I'm going to isolate myself a little with this next comment, but I have to be real about my own expectations. Yes, I can handle a show that tries to realistically portray life in the "secret" 60's when people looked happy on the outside and were actually miserable in their jobs and marriages. But, Donna Reed and Leave it To Beaver and Lucy existed during that time because there was a belief that people could and should aspire to something greater. That the goal of having a healthy, happy family was a goal worth having.

We currently live in a period of cinema and art where the most consistent thing we do is sit in the grey area and expose the truth that there are no truly good people. Anti-heroes have become our heroes. But in exposing the reality that even people who strive to be good do bad, we have become a people that are too content with the fact that we make bad choices. Donna Reed and I Love Lucy may have not been a true reflection of the average home at that time in our history, but they pointed to what life could be. However, when we spend all of our time elevating bad people to hero status we not only begin to accept that behavior as normal and good, but cannot help but condone it in ourselves.

Chuck Klosterman had this to say about the hero of Mad Men, "Don Draper is a pathological liar who charms women by grabbing their vaginas in crowded restaurants. He's not a good person, but he's kilometers beyond cobalt cool- and he's cool for unusual reasons. He's cool for being extraordinary at his office job. He's cool for keeping secrets and chain-smoking and cheating on his wife. He's cool for the way he talks to strangers."

Maybe I'm crazy, but all of that sounds really un-cool to me.

No Disrespect...

Ever since I saw my first episode of the Sopranos I was quickly hooked. I remember recieving the first season as a birthday present from my parents during the first fall of my graduate school career. The show was already in its third season by that time, and I had avoided watching it due to my love of films like Goodfellas and The Godfather. I did not think there was new ground to be explored in a soap opera focused on the mafia. But, I quickly discovered that what the Sopranos could do that a three hour film could not, was provide the viewer with an extended character study of all the principal players in the drama. Over the course of six seasons, the writers were able to explore the conscious and unconsious struggles that Tony and some of his family members were experiencing. It provided for rich television.

When the show ended and one of its writers left to begin Mad Men, I was initially intrigued by the smart ad campaign. The elegance of the initial advertisements that papered the sides of New York buses stood apart from many other products, movies, and shows being promoted in the same place. Without much time to watch television, I did not watch any of the first two seasons (this seems to be a trend in my life) but was encouraged by my brother to watch it after he provided rave reviews.

Two Christmases ago, he purchased for me the first season of the show on BluRay. It would be hard for anyone to deny the quality of the product. The acting, the production quality, the costumes, the scripts, and everything in the show was top notch. But as I worked my way through the first season I often found myself growing queasy while watching each episode. The parallels between The Sopranos and Mad Men were to me incredibly overt. Both shows explored the main characters two families (the one at home and the one at work). Both had protaganists with "mother issues." Both had men who were troubled by their past, but did not quite fit in at their current "outfits". Both were cold and calculated when it came to business choices, and both were willing to take another person out of the picture quickly if it was ultimately going to be good for business. But time and time again, Mad Men left me feeling extremely depressed, while the Sopranos did not.

If anyone has ever taken Social Psychology in college they have learned about the "familiarity breeds liking" effect. In research on interpersonal attractiveness, individuals are often more likely to be attracted to someone that they see more often. Basically research has shown the the whole familiarity breeds contempt is not as true as some would claim. I began to wonder if this was part of the reason I was comfortable watching Tony and the crew, but not Don Draper and his co-workers. I have seen numerous mafia films throughout the course of my life. The archetypes, the narrative arcs, the conflicts are all somewhat familiar to me. In addition, I grew up in New Jersey with an Italian-Irish father, so even listening to the characters on the Sopranos sounded like home to me. But, the world of advertising or what the business-clad white men of Sterling-Cooper spent their days doing on Mad Men was completely foreign to me. This seemed to me to be part of the problem I was having with the show, but it was not the whole story...