In this day and age where you are assumed to be up to speed with all famous tv series as there are new ones coming out every week, it feels like a waste of time to be checking out old tv shows. I would like to ask you to have an open mind and consider Mad Men. It is absolutely not too late to start watching Mad Men, and I will explain to you why.

Many years many people have been enjoying it. The women’s (fashion) mags I read even said multiple times that Mad Max was amazing and that everybody should watch it. Why? Obviously because of that irresistible key character: Don Draper. Mr Draper and his old boys network play childish games with each other, while the women slowly start to discover that there might be a small chance of them being one of the guys once. In this series, that is portraying life in the 1960’s, people are constantly smoking and drinking, while having funny conversations. The intro tune alone is a reason to watch this show, as it is excellent. Plus, the actresses and actors are very attractive people. If this does not convince you, I will do my best to think of more reasons to give Mad Man a chance:

It is fine starting late 

It is the first dilemma you will have to deal with when your friends tell you for the hundredth time that you should start watching Mad Men: “How many seasons is it running now then?” An important question, as you will also have to decide if you are going to start watching the earlier episodes, or maybe just check out a few later seasons.. Immers is de

In my opinion Mad Men is a show you can start watching anytime. The lives of the characters will be clear to you pretty quickly by just simply doing your best to connect the dots. You just have to look at it like it’s your first day in a new company. You hear your colleagues talk about stuff, and you do your best understanding any of it. It is a pretty easy task when it comes to Mad Man. Obviously there will always be things from the past that you have not seen, but in general the show is very much in the here and now. Plus, as soon as you are hooked, you will start watching those first seasons aswell.

You will probably learn a thing or two about marketing

John Hamm, the guy that plays Don Draper, has done a lot of totally different parts since Mad Man came to an end (Million Dollar Arm for example). But I rather see him in the role of arrogant, cheating marketing man. Don Draper might be a worthless man when it comes to his private life, in the office he is the king. No matter what people say, as soon as he start talking, people listen. He comes up with the best marketing campaigns you can imagine. He is so awesome, fans have started to collect his quotes about marketing:

“But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness”
“The day you sign a client is the day you start losing one”
“Our worst fears lie in anticipation”
“What you call love was invented by guys like me… to sell nylons.”

Pretty well-spoken, right? What I like about that marketing thing in Mad Men, is that you start to think about it yourself too. Everytime people in Mad Men start pitching ideas, I tend to yell out loud what I think I would do with a campaign like that.

It gives some interesting insights in the world in the 1960’s:

The chance is really big that you have not lived in the 1960’s or that you were still young in that day and age. You could go to museums or check out old pictures of that time, but Mad Men offers the whole picture all in one. From the apartment of Don with its brown/orangy furniture to the squares and circles in the office; welcome to the 60’s.

The series also shows what life in an office was like in the 60’s. Women were only working as secretaries, if they worked at all, and everybody is just sitting in their own office, which is pretty hard to imagine these days. What makes it even more 60’s, are the assigments the ladies and gents get. How do you make people buy Heinz products? Well, you just make a simplistic poster with ‘Home is where the Heinz is’ on it. How do you reach housewives? by putting “A woman’s touch can dry the tears of a child” on your poster. That’s stuff you cannot really get away with in the year 2016.

The costumes in Mad Men are phenomenal 

Even though you could say that this is part of the 60’s atmosphere, I feel like this needs to be a section in its own. When making Mad Men Janie Bryant (designer) has used more than 30.000 costumes. Bryant used to work for HBO production Deadwood, which has a western setting. Those cowboy hats and chaps are now Jackie Kennedy’esque outfits. The most beautiful dresses, heels and suits are used to make Mad Man even more successful than it already is. You could say it is easy to let clothes speak for themselves in for example an over the top fairytale show like Once Upon A Time, but Bryant knows very well what she wants the clothes to communicate when she selects outfits for the many difference characters in Mad Men.

Peggy for example, played by Elizabeth Moss, often wears checkered pantsuits. Bryant does that to show that it’s a woman that is sure of herself and wants to make a good career for herself. Every character on the show has its own carefully thought through dressing style to show off their personalities even more. Even if you do not really care about fashion, you need to give Bryant some credit. Think about how she makes the gorgeous curves of Joan Holloway (played by Christina Hendricks) stand out in the tightest and still office worthy dresses. Long live the hourglass!

 

 

The series suprises you everytime by how there are not a lot of big events happening, and still the show is mighty interesting. 

One of the very few times someone died on this show, it was seriously a big shock. Normally there is not a lot of drama going on in Mad Men. Of course our favorite ladies man Don Draper that is going through divorce and finds love again et  cetera, but the fact that this death had such impact, says something about this series.

If you want to tell someone what is so great about Mad Men and what happens in the show, you will probably struggle a bit to come up with a good answer. On the one hand there is a lot of stuff going on, but on the other hand: not really. You just watch how people work in an office of an advertisement agency, but it is not like every conversation they have is very meaningful. Sometimes people just ‘are’ and that is great to watch too.

 

 

After seven seasons Mad Men has now come to an end, and the last episode was not bad. So please give this show a chance, as it is really unique and original.

What is Mad Men? It’s a moment before you need more Mad Men. 😉