"Man why you gotta go racialize my favorite show!?"
I'm beginning to enjoy Mad Men more and more. Honestly, I've always enjoyed it. It's easy for me to suspend my overactive sense of ad-land justice to watch a show that at it's juiciest moments is all about advertising. For the un-ad schooled, advertising people love themselves, their work and a few choice agencies and ad personalities in an unparalleled fetishistic way. So the show Mad Men has a built in audience that view it as porn. I'm kinda one of them.
After watching last nights episode I felt the show is beginning cleverly make up for the lack of black characters in what was a pretty homogeneous 60's work environment, by infusing some of the racial & gender tensions that rocked the status quo of the day. Did I say it "was" homogeneous? Advertising has changed some, but for the most part, as far as diversity is concerned, advertising has been out paced by most industries, even harder to reach endeavors like professional golf and NASA. I think Matthew Weiner the show's producer, is trying to show how the basic sentiments and attitudes of race and privilege remain the same in advertising and in a lot of ways America at large. He's begun to aggressively knead in, where in the past he has more than subtly stitched in issues of race and gender. This weeks mentions of rising African American or "Negra" markets was cool. I've had a similar ignored conversation this decade. The Medgar Evers reference and later dream sequence that featured a Medgar Evers look-a-like bleeding at the table was really intriguing. Then it was supremely underscored by the line "see what happens when you speak up." Genius! I've had that conversation this century too.
Even though I really signed on for a show that was all about pitching marvelous ideas and even more fabulous hissy fits, I'm really digging the coagulated plot lines. It's really coming along nicely, as Dr. Dre would say, "the Mutha-F'n saga continues!" https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png
3 comments:
Anon, thanks for proving my point about no progress.
I love last Sunday's episode. I've enjoyed the show for some time; but with every television show I have to ask, "what for?" Mad Men gives me plenty of reasons and last week solidified the show for me. All I ask is that a show give it to me straight, and they did it without preaching, without turning it until that cliche social-storytelling episode, and without making the characters more or less than who they are.
miajere, well stated. I wish I said what you said.
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