> Have any of you checked this show out yet?
Great
> pacing, moodiness, tension, detail,
> intelligence--unlike, say, the gross-out, in
your
> face, cartoon noir of something like Sin CIty.
A
> scene in this week's episode--where a
clearly
> existentially troubled Draper, on an aborted
mission
> to pick up a birthday cake for his daughter's party
in
> progress, winds up at night, stopped at a
railroad
> crossing, a passing train reflected over his face
in
> the windshield--is one of the most chilling moments
in
> a TV show i can recall. This Mad Men...it is the
shit!
I caught the first three episodes. I think it's excellent.
Has some real noir elements. I was also struck by the scene
at the railroad crossing. Without so much as a word uttered
about it by the character of Don Draper you know he's
thinking about the old war buddy he met on the train at the
beginning of the episode who referred to him by a completely
different name. Though you don't know (yet) what it was all
about.
For the uninitiated on the list, Mad Men is a new series
(apparently the biggest new show of the summer on any
network) about guys in an ad agency on Mad(ison) Avenue in
the early 60s. It's from the guy who produced The Sopranos.
It's primarily about men coming to terms with changing
times--having to accept women and minorities as equals,
dealing with the reality that cigarettes cause cancer (the
agency has the Lucky Strike account).
The show has it's David Lynch-like moments where there are
hints of darkness just below the surface in otherwise idyllic
scenes of suburban houses with white picket fences. It
attempts to show the time period as it really was, without
romanticizing it by appealing to any kind of nostalgia. It's
not a past that you want to return to.
Jeff
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