Watching TV Just for the Commercials

America’s prosperity in the ’50s and the revolution of the ’60s have each been the setting of countless television shows and movies. But what has not hit the silver screen until Mad Men is the story of what happened in those lost years of the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Created by Matthew Weiner, who wrote and directed The Sopranos, Mad Men is AMC’s first original television series. The setting is New York in 1960. It is about the men and women who work at Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, one of the powerful, famous—or infamous—Madison Avenue ad firms. As the show promptly announces, Mad Men was a nickname that the advertising executives coined for themselves.

As early as the opening credits, the viewer is confronted with a stark contrast. On the one hand, the setting and characters create a sense of nostalgia for American prosperity of the post-War era. The men are dapper in tailored suits and white dress shirts; the women are beautiful, young, and sweet. The office is clean, organized, and working like a machine while the homes look pristine and problem-free. Everything seems to be wonderful as America, and Americans, stand on top of the world. On the other hand, the show does not hesitate to show that, while the setting may create a sense that life in 1960 was easier, the society of the time was fraught with vices and heinousness. Sexual harassment and infidelity were not just acceptable in the workplace—to have “something on the side” was standard. Xenophobia permeated all parts of society, from racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia in the workplace, to housewives’ incredulity toward and disdain for divorce. This strong contrast disgusts the viewer with the vices of the era but at the same time makes him or her yearn for these seemingly simpler, safer days.

The show’s characters also lend themselves well to this contrast. On one side, there is the idealistic man and wife. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is Sterling Cooper’s creative director. He’s tall, clever, confident, and has two kids and a beautiful wife named Betty. But he’s also an unfaithful womanizer and unabashedly sexist. Betty also seems to be the idealistic wife, right off of an appliance advertisement from the 1950s. She’s blond, conservative, and does all her household chores in a pretty dress. However, Betty is not entirely perfect either. She is naive to her subservience and rejects anything out of the ordinary, like divorce. Both characters are confronted with their faults over the course of the season. Don is forced to accept a powerful, entrepreneurial, and Jewish woman (Maggie Siff) as a client who he must take seriously. And Betty must get over her narrow-mindedness and accept her new neighbor, a recent divorcee.

The contrast of the characters as well as the contradiction of the time seem likely to produce interesting story lines. There are bountiful opportunities to address many different issues in a manner not previously done. The show could discuss the rise of women in the workplace and feminist consciousness as it was first gaining popularity at beginning of the decade. It could go into depth on how Jews or Italians struggled to overcome bias and xenophobia in order to gain acceptance. Moreover, it could highlight the beginnings of the generational and political rifts that would ignite the country a few years later.

Instead, these issues have only receive minor nods. Don’s professional relationship with Rachel Menken, his Jewish client, for example, only focuses on Draper’s sexism and anti-Semitism very briefly before jumping into melodramatics. Don and Rachel quickly become flirtatious, and, after rejection, Don goes through a midlife crisis. Similarly, the emerging political divide between left and right is only in the background: Draper’s firm competes to run Nixon’s election ad campaign while Betty’s neighbor stuffs envelopes for JFK’s bid. But the majority of the plot is concerned with a fight between Betty and her neighbor and Don’s revenge on his boss in front of the Nixon campaign people.

Despite the story’s current trek into banal melodramatics that could have just as easily shown in up in any show from Grey’s Anatomy to Desperate Housewives, the acting is very compelling. The actors are knowledgeable about the stereotypes they are imitating and very skilled at presenting the deeper complexity of these characters.

All in all, the show transports viewer to a few important years that are often absent from the spotlight. And its story lines can be entertaining despite their banality. Hopefully, the writers will use the next six episodes to allow the setting and characters to reach their full potential by focusing not on the melodramatics one could find on Wisteria Lane but on the development of intriguing issues of the time.