Have you watched Don Draper ? If no, then quit doing whatever you are doing right now and log in to your Netflix (wait.. You don’t have Netflix? You still watch TV! Stop reading my blog 😉 – and no Netflix did not pay me to write this)
Don Draper is the central character of Mad Men, a classic TV show that Agam and I got hooked to in just a couple of episodes. In spite of our time crunched lives, we managed to finish four seasons (52 episodes) of the show in less than two weeks. The last we did something like this was -uh never. Just like after the Oscar’s, I started digging for good quality television series after the Emmy’s this year and Mad Men was the first pick.
Don Draper = Marlon Brando + George Clooney + Clive Owen + Gerard Butler + Daniel Craig
The guy has such an appeal, that I can stare at his wallpaper for 45 minutes without complaining. And I am not exaggerating. For the ones who know me, it takes a lot for me to accept that a man is handsome. I just think this word is so hyped by my generation that it has lost its meaning. Call me old school, but there is a difference in handsome and cute. Clooney is handsome, DiCaprio is Cute. Simple.
Draper is a model for everything he wears or carries. You remember those Raymond commercials, and then later Reid and Taylor, which had the perfect looking men in perfectly fit suits and sun glasses, that’s what every scene of Mad Men looks like. (Psst.. I am a sucker for formals. Too bad Silicon Valley has not much taste in men’s fashion ;)) I have often wondered while watching the show how much time and money the director and producer spent on Don’s appearance and styling.
I feel like I am painting a very shallow picture for the show. It is really not all about the man. (Too bad! I am a woman – I digress – it is my birth right.)
Back to Mad Men though; the show is your window to America in the 1960’s. The time – before women were accepted as equals at work place and civil rights were being fought for and when Kennedy died and when the world almost came to an end. It is historically accurate, visually stunning and very craftily written. The dialogues are subtle but impactful.
The characters are thought through. They have very well defined personas that are used as a foundation in each episode. Each character is complex. There is that Madison Avenue charm on each character that hides their respective – Village, Brooklyn, Rye, Westchester innocence. There are some additional strong characters worthy of mention –Peggie Olsen, Pete Campbell and another one of my favorite – Roger Sterling.
In all the show was worth the marathon. I recommend it to couples who love spending quality time in their living rooms in front of the TV, and to the single men who always wondered what it takes to impress a girl. For the single women, just watch Donald Draper. If you get bored, watch Roger Sterling. If you are still bored, wait for season 3 and you will see Henry Francis, and if that is not your type then there is a guy Joey in Season 4 who might enchant you.
Some of my favorite dialogues –
“The reason you haven’t felt it is because it doesn’t exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You’re born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.”
“When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed, because we want so much more. We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.”
” I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent.”
And the best –
“People tell you who they are, but we ignore it – because we want them to be who we want them to be.”
Shivi 