When does a television show hit too many nerves? "Mad Men" is getting interesting – and disturbing. In the first season of AMC's "Mad Men," it was easy to be distracted by the art direction, the stunning re-creation of late 1950's and early 1960's Americana. In Season 3, the slicked-back hair, the chic sheath dresses and the constant smoking and drinking serve the story. And like a volcano lets off a bit of steam and makes the earth around it shimmy before the lid blows, "Mad Men" has teased and danced around the revolutions that collide in 1963, the year this season is set.
Sometimes, I turn on the tube for relevance and grit. But mostly, by the time I pick up the remote, I'm too burned out to think. Just give me laughs or eye candy, in other words -- the pastels of a "Miami Vice" could always trump the incoherent script.
"Mad Men" is making me think about the kind of country we were and all the bruises inflicted, deflected and absorbed on the way to now. The Woman Up bloggers skipped a week. I guess we were all taking it in, though
Bonnie is joining me in a last-minute reflection before Sunday's episode. (And some absolutely can't stand the show.)
Last Sunday, an "untended to" wife looked stricken when she realized her husband is more Ann-Margret than Ann-Margret. What is she going to do?
Bonded by a pack mentality and fear of the smart women they are just starting to see as competition, the guys in the office continued to isolate and torment copywriter Peggy Olson, who is also shunned by a mother appalled by her move away from the nest all the way over the bridge to Manhattan ("You'll get raped, you know that," Mom says). How will Peggy fare as she struggles to become a modern woman?
Little Sally Draper lost her best friend, Grandpa Gene, and the only way her parents could handle her rage and grief was to send her to the TV, where her brain took in the reality of real-world violence. Talk about a volcano ready to blow.
So I wait to see how the characters will cope, wanting yet dreading authenticity.
It's only TV, right?
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