Mad Men is staggeringly good television. I'm sure lots of people have written about how it looks, the style, character development, story etc. The aspects of the programme I've mentioned make it look beautiful, and sound cooler than Dick Whitman's army career. You see what I did there? I took the word "cool" and used 2 of it's meanings in one sentence. Clever bastard.
This is not the main reason I love it so.
TV and Gaming. For me it is all about escaping. I am an unstoppable soldier fighting hordes of aliens one minute, the next I am a superhero taking to the skies. Mad Men is the same, but not at all similar. It's a different kind of escaping. I'm not just dreaming of flying away from a financially crippled life with no direction. I'm actually living someone else's life, its just there for the taking. Its as easy as taking a Stanley Knife from a baby.
Why escape there? I mentioned above how this place looks, its like everyone is so good looking they come with a coating of gloss. The big city shines, and the suburbs glow colourfully.
The men are hurtingly handsome, immaculately dressed in suits and ties that scream "look at how fucking good I look". They are the boss of every situation they come across. Or at least act like it. They drink scotch during the day and smoke wherever they want. The smoking I can deal with, but I may look a little out of place with my 2 litre bottle of Strongbow hanging out of my gob. So fuck, it was created by someone else but in my imagination it belongs to me. The amount of responsibility these gentlemen have is only matched by their lack of responsibility towards it. Why? Because it can be handled in whichever way they want it to be. That is a man, right there.
The women are sublime. I could've said "beautiful, sexy, gorgeous" and I woul've been correct, but sublime describes accurately how they are. Not just their looks, but an all-round persona. The show gives us an idea of how complex they were, in a time when they were perceived as dinner-serving bimboids, a simple clone of one another. But they weren't. They were an emerging force, using their intelligence, as well as their bodies to bend men to their will. They are both submissive and over-powering. Intelligent at playing the game. The men may have created the rules, but the women own your ability to play it.
That said, there is something about a woman that you can bend yourself. While I'm for equal opportunities in the workplace, it would be nice to know that after a hard day at the office you were returning home to food, a beer, and love. All of which prepared by the most sublime woman you ever set eyes on.
Think for a second about a simpler time. Have you ever left your phone in the house when going out for a night? We are a people so obsessed with our phones that it is seemingly the end of civilisation if we are without our mobile robot arm extensions. Sounds a bit silly really. So what if you lived in a time before mobile phones, before internet and search engines, before CCTV. No texts from drunken friends waking you up at 3am. No electronic letters advising you that the only way a woman you want will love you is if you take a pill that will grow your cock to the size of a tree. Definitely no incriminating evidence of you fucking that trampy bird outside a nightclub in Sunderland. None of it was necessary, and it sounds like fucking bliss.
Imagine your whole day, stroll into work at 10am, greeted by a wonderful secretary, fix a drink and talk with friends, have a couple of meetings that more resemble a jolly boys outing, finish early, see the mistress, go home to a gorgeous wife with dinner ready. You tell me one guy that doesn't want that and I'll show you a lying sack of crap.
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