The Mad Men Account by Daniel Mendelsohn | The New York Review of Books

2011-02-03 ~ Mark

Although I can’t vouch for anything beyond the second season, Mendelsohn’s critique seems fair. (via)

Worst of all—in a drama with aspirations to treating social and historical “issues”—the show is melodramatic rather than dramatic. By this I mean that it proceeds, for the most part, like a soap opera, serially (and often unbelievably) generating, and then resolving, successive personal crises (adulteries, abortions, premarital pregnancies, interracial affairs, alcoholism and drug addiction, etc.), rather than exploring, by means of believable conflicts between personality and situation, the contemporary social and cultural phenomena it regards with such fascination: sexism, misogyny, social hypocrisy, racism, the counterculture, and so forth.

A few years ago, I read a collection of Mendelsohn’s criticism, most of it anyway, and found it quite enjoyable.

2010-12-242017-11-12 ~ Mark

Mad Men Recut: “Don Draper Undone”. (via via)

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

2009-10-27 ~ Mark

I think Jones suffers from a common problem some good actors have: the character she has created is so individual that you don’t really realize it isn’t a cliche. You know her, so you feel like she’s a type, even though she’s not. If this is a cliche, who was the last Betty Draper before Betty Draper? I’m not sure there was one.

Complexity, Beauty, and the Underappreciated January Jones. Most interesting character on the show so far, but then I’m only halfway through the second season.

2009-10-072017-11-12 ~ Mark

MAD MEN – “Have you ever been hunting?” I’m a latecomer to the best television show I’ve ever seen, only about 75% through with the first season. This is the best scene so far.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)