Now I'm Mad

Mad Men, the AMC show set in the 1960s with action revolving around the antics of employees at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue, aired the last episode of its fourth season last Sunday. I'm mad!  Now I have to wait until July to feed my addiction to this marvelous show.

A coworker of mine got me started watching the series a couple of years ago and it didn't take long to be hooked by the fantastic writing and dead-on attention to detail. In one early scene, two housewives were chatting in the kitchen. One, quite pregnant, was smoking a cigarette and drinking. A child ran in with a dry cleaning bag over her head and said "Don't I look funny Mommy?" The mother jumped her feet and yelled, "There better not be clothes on the floor in the other room!" That's the 60s as I remember them.

Things have definitely gotten better for women in business since the 60s. I remember the feminism of the 70s and when I see how oppressed women were in the 60s, I understand its roots a little better. One character, Peggy Olsen, has gone from a secretary in the first season to an up-and-coming copywriter now, dramatizing  success at rising above the few choices available to women at the time.

Probably my favorite character on the show is Pete Campbell, who started out as a reprehensible young sales rep for the agency and has developed into an interesting, multidimensional and not wholly unsympathetic character this season. You never know what's going to happen -- thus the plethora of blogs and podcasts about the show.  It's great entertainment, in a completely separate category from the glut of 'reality' shows.  Here's to more series like Mad Men!