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Critics go crazy for Mad Men, you?

By fred | July 22, 2007

The behaviors of all guys, how they get married, cheat on their wives and treat each others. All those situations, and lines such as “Try not to be overwhelmed by all this technology. It looks complicated, but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use.” when revealing an old typewriter, it’s all great.

Yes, seeing Don Draper trashing out medical reports before going to a very important meeting without even one single idea of what to say, only to come up with a genius idea and save the day at the very last minute, in a room filled with clouds of cigarettes’ smoke, yes it can be good. Once.

But over and over again, they’ll need something more to actually make the show, and make it “entertaining”, to have us coming back week after week.

And I simply didn’t really see such a thing. The show is well written, and it features a quality of great shows you’re used to watch on bigger networks, like Weiner’s old home, HBO. But The Sopranos had more than good quality in writing, directing and acting.

It had compelling stories and characters that you felt for, and wanted to see day after day. It had intense moments, really funny moments. You were not left indifferent with what you were watching.
With Mad Men, I have to say I was.

You don’t need an impressively strong or new concept for a show to work, like a mysterious Island or some superpowers, but you do need something more than a different tone and an interesting atmosphere. As important as they are, you need more than details.

Watching the every day life of people is boring, unless there’s something. That something can be nothing, if it’s a pretty damn hilarious bunch of nothing, or else it has to really be something.

There are drama filled with every-day lives of cops, doctors, or mafioso. But you don’t come back to shows like The Shield for its details, as important as they are. You could leave if they were missing, but they only aren’t enough to attract & keep an audience.

It’s the stories, it’s the characters. Watching Mad Men, I just didn’t care.

And if I were to never see another episode of it, I wouldn’t care either. Because I wasn’t grabbed by any story. Really, to me if feels like they could, or could not, mention the whole tobacco plot again. Maybe they have more to say, but I don’t feel like I need to know more.
Maybe the boss will make it, or collapse and jump its window. Maybe the young wanna-be will succeed, maybe not, either way I’m not really concerned.

Maybe things will change with the next episodes, maybe Mad Men has what it takes to make a good show, but will always be missing a reason to be watched, or maybe the show just isn’t for me.

Posted in Reviews
Shows: Mad Men