Musings about "Mad Men"

WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SEASON SIX THERE ARE SPOILERS IN HERE: TURN BACK NOW
Okay, as usual...as I have mentioned before, I am late getting on a train to obssesion-ville. I have now watched all of the seasons of "Mad Men" and LOVE it, and think Don Draper is a horrible man but I would react to him the way all women seem to. Off would come the clothes. He is a MAN. Okay, now that is out of the way...I have some questions, obsersvations, etc.

Oh, by the way, if you haven't discovered this wonder, Well, a link was supposed to go there, but it didn't work, so here it is: http://www.couchtuner. It is a treasure trove. Most any television series you have missed, wanted to watch or hear of is there. With the exception of the best show ever made..."24". Anyhow, I watched all of the "True Blood" current episodes and I don't have HBO, all of "The Borgias" and have no Showtime, all of "Game of Thrones", and, shamefully, "The Walking Dead". Free. Free, people. Check it out.

Okay, back to "Mad Men". Firstly, I think it is amazing how accurate everything is. If you were alive for any or all of that time period (and I was. Peter Campbell's daughter would be my age), you probably have noticed that it's exactly the way people dressed, acted, how their homes were, the products they used...the whole thing. It's amazing. It's like a time machine.

Secondly, there is a lot of speculation and I agree with a lot of it. Let's examine the color schemes. Yellow and blue are prevalent. They seem to signal relationship difficulties. It's weird. When you go back and look, all of everything everyone is wearing will be yellow and blue. Ties, suits, dresses, scarves, hats. It's strange. In fact, Don seems to be the only one who never changes. Coincidence? Hmmm.... Joan usually wears purple or red, which I think signals her as who everyone believes to be the "loose" woman in the office. Her character has changed, and in the episode with relationship issues, she does wear blue and green like everyone else.

Also, Don had an abominable childhood, which left him pretty much a dirty assed dog when it comes to women. No woman seems to care with the exception of his ex wife who is a bonafide bitch in my opinion. His childhood and the flashbacks explain a lot of his character flaws and that's probably why they show them. I still love that sorry bastard. Maybe even more because of it. Also, does he have tuberculosis? Are the coughing fits mental and only when he remembers his childhood? I don't know.

As a lot of people did in the mid to laste 1960s, people got divorced all of a sudden. It wasn't as taboo as it had been. So, a lot of people on the show get divorced, and change their lives. Their clothes always reflect the changes and turmoil. People get pregnant and have abortions or give the child up for adoption secretly. Abortion was illegal at the time, still. Unmarried pregnancy was completely frowned upon. The two women who experience it were impregnated by men who weren't their husbands or boyfriends and all work in the same office and it was a secret. Strange, no?

Here is a link to see all of the theories: Again with the link not working. So here it is: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/06/07/the-latest-in-crazy-mad-men-season-6-theories-2 it's amazingly accurate. I do want to correct one thing I said. Don DOES where a yellow jacket. It's the episode where they are trying to get a margarine account. EVERYONE wears yellow, but you don't really notice it until someone calls your attention to it.

Also, for the record, I am pretty sure Megan is modeled after Sharon Tate. There are so many clues. However, that may be to throw you off. The clues are so subtle, though. With the exception of the bizarre Macy's looking t-shirt she wears on the balcony and it happens to be the EXACT SAME T-SHIRT SHARON TATE WORE FOR A PHOTO SHOOT.(If you don't know who Sharon Tate was, firstly, shame on you and secondly you are not a child of the 60s and go Google that or Charles Manson...it's horrific) They say it was coincidental, but it doesn't fit with ANY of the other clothes ANYONE wears in that show. Lately, every time Megan and Don are speaking, there are LOUD sirens that almost drown out their conversation. Foreshadowing? I think so.

This season deals with all of the racial tension of the late 60s along with the assassination of both Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy and the riots that ensued. There is an air of tension throughout the show. An African American woman breaks into the Draper home while the children are there and robs them. Why was she African American? Why have the weird scene at all? I think it was to drive home the changes in the times. The fact that she was black didn't seem to be the main idea, but it showed how crime was a factor in the feelings of (especially white) people and how seeing a black person in a home in a role other than a maid was not, in itself, unheard of. It also showed that no matter how far we had come in racial equality( and it was and still is evolving, but it was in it's infancy, then) it was still assumed a black person was a criminal. Interesting. Accurate and incorrect assumption and interesting. Let's hope we've passed that shameful era.

Vietnam is FINALLY addressed, as are the "dirty hippies" (assholes..not the hippies, the people who are upper class and trip on LSD and smoke hash and weed...isn't that why they hated Hippies? Well, that and the hippies' social consciousness..that is.) In one episode, Roger and his second wife go to DR. TIMOTHY LEARY'S house (I would kill to do that) and try LSD for the first time to expand their minds. They have weird trips and Roger keeps doing it. Of course, it ends up destroying their marriage, or rather hastens the demise of their marriage, which was already really over.
Roger also predicts we will WIN Vietnam. Uh, Roger, read the news. Watch the news. Listen to Ginsburg. He may act nuts, but he knows what is going on.

Don shows his human side instead of his sex machine side and helps an ex mistress get her son out of the draft. Very decent of him, and shows his opinion of Vietnam, without coming out and saying he thinks it's wrong. Wait, he might say it's wrong, I'm not sure who said it. So, Don DOES have a human, socially aware and caring side. Of course, he can't keep it in his pants, but he is ..well I was going to say a basically good man, but I'm not so sure. He is pretty much a dog. I love him, though.

Anyhow, Season six is amazingly full of symbolism. Check it out. Read the article I posted. It is amazing. Oh, Pete's receding hairline and sideburns are amazingly hilarious. He is so pompous and ridiculous and people aren't taking him seriously, still. His attempt to be a Don Draper backfired when he got an apartment in the city. His wife kicked him out. He now lives sadly in the "Pied de Terre" he planned for assignations with women. There are no women. Well, except his loony tunes mother and her weird "nurse".

Nothing personal in this one, just observations about a show I got obsessed with. If you haven't watched it, give it a shot. It's really good. I hate Betty Draper to be clear, though. Really don't like her. She treats her children like garbage, and lastly SALLY NEEDS A BEATING AND I'D BE HAPPY TO GIVE IT TO HER. NOW.