4.11.2012

mad men episodes 3 and 4, or why i really hate shows that aren't available online

I was at my parents' this weekend and as such had access to lovely, on-demand cable for four solid days. This is the sort of thing that a young 20-something living in New York doesn't really normally have access to, unless they live in an apartment with five roommates who are willing to split the cable (and even then, she's living in Brooklyn, so her rent's less than it would otherwise be) or have a very high income job, like finance or something (what I'm saying is, of all of my friends under the age of 28, living with other people under the age of 28, I know maybe three people who have cable, and I know a lot of people).

Anyway, the point is that for NO APPARENT REASON, AMC has decided that they don't want people to be able to legally stream their shows in a timely basis. AMC, I'm trying to be a good guy right now. This is what's happening. Except I haven't turned to the little devil on my shoulder yet, because I'm trying to keep things legit, AMC. I'm really trying. I haven't yet spent extra money on a season pass from Amazon, but that sort of seems like my option, to which I say, you're going to get pirated. Amazon's online streaming interface is wack at best, and completely WTF at worst, and people my age, we want things when we want them.

ANYWAY. The real point is that, thanks to my parents' awesome cable, I was able to catch up on Mad Men, and I have to say, I'm excited.

SPOILERS?



Let me say, right now, I am so happy that Joan called out her asshole husband for raping her all those seasons ago. I find it troubling that that occurred in an episode orbiting sexual violence, with the Student Nurse murders and Don's insane fever dream in which he strangles a woman to death and pushes her body under the bed. Did those things happen in the same episode? I feel like they did. I watched Tea Leaves and Mystery Date at the same time, though, so I might be unnecessarily drawing connections.

Anyway, Mystery Date was incredibly heavy on the sexual violence, is what I'm saying. The only person who treats any of it with the sort of attitude you'd hope to see is Ginsberg, who is a delightful addition to the cast. Everyone else gets visibly excited talking about the murders, and Don just sort of flops back into bed after dream-murdering his ex-fling. The under-the-bed imagery freaked me out even more, as it recurred over and over as they repeated that the only survivor of the Student Nurse murders made it out by hiding under the bed.

Basically, these were some pretty twisted episodes.

That said, I'm really excited about the additions of Dawn and Ginsberg. I think most people remember that things sucked majorly hard for Black people in the sixties, and it was so awful to see Dawn see Peggy look at her purse, even though she tried to hide it. Alternatively, I feel like a lot of people have completely forgotten the intense anti-Semitism that was around at that time, and as always, Roger Sterling is available to say awful things to remind us of the prevailing ideas of the time.

Basically, Sterling Cooper Draper Price is turning out to be perhaps the most liberal ad agency on Madison Avenue, with their lady copywriters, their Jewish guy, and their Black secretary. It's also incredibly interesting to see how the outside world is circling the edges of SCDP, which remains, in the midst of the riots in Chicago and the street fights in Brooklyn, a calm, air-conditioned place where the biggest conflicts are in who gets the bigger office, and that Don's new secretary is named Dawn.

I'm just going to repeat what I said about the premier - I love this show for not apologizing for what actually happened. I want to hug it and kiss it and say that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and we're seeing some pretty messed up repetitions now. Do what you can for us, Mad Men. Remind us that good people do bad things, and that even our favorite characters can be unintentionally racist.

/sigh. I guess I'm buying that season pass after all. Damn you, Weiner. Damn you and your excellent show.