Mad Men . . .

What I've been doing lately . . .

planning, teaching, coming home and watching Mad Men.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a show about the "mad" ad men during the late 50's and 60's and their families.  It sure gives you a pretty accurate picture of what life was like for the middle-upper class during that time.

And boy are they mad.  The housewives struggle keeping up spotless appearances while their husbands work extra long hours coming home late or not at all.  It highlights interesting tidbits, like the total lack of litter control.  The main family in the show goes on a picnic and the father throws his empty beer can into the woods.  Then, the wife simply picks up the picnic blanket, shakes off the garbage and they all walk off.  Evidentally, there were enough clean places left to pick a new one the next time.

The men in the ad agency are constantly vying for recognition and raises and the one woman copywriter struggles to get paid 2/3rds of their paychecks for the same work.  Affairs and flirtations are commonplace and the office is filled with women doing all of the meaningless, dull tasks (yay secretarial).  And then come the weird and strained, husband-wife dynamics, the distanced relationships between fathers and children, the practice of women giving birth while heavily sedated, and other fun stuff.

And then there's Peggy.  She's amazingly successful for the time, becoming a copywriter after the men surprisingly (or not) discover that not all secretaries are brainless as they try to seem.  But, she just doesn't ever seem to fit in.  She's practical, cool-headed, learns from her mistakes, and is talented.  Nothing that is expected from a woman in these times of course.  (Either you are poor, or a secretary, or if you are wealthy, a housewife).  She isn't any of things, and people just don't know what to do with her.   She's simply before her time and she's so refreshing to watch.  She's my favorite character by far, though perhaps not the most "mad".

It's all so perfect looking on the outside, with corruption abounding inside despite people's best intentions.  It's simply fascinating and makes me laugh when people call them the "good ol' days".  They were simply different days with their own vices and problems. Today it seems that the middle class has fared much better in recent years, especially women, but we still fail at providing for the lower class, especially women and children. But that is another matter...

If any of this sounds interesting to you, there's four seasons on netflix and its in the middle of the fifth I believe.

Any of my lovely readers want to share what their fav. show is?