Just started watching Mad Men

[unwashed brain]

My wife and I have finished the first 4 episodes and aren't sure if we're going to continue watching it or not. Frankly, I was expecting more of a fun vibe from the show, but instead I feel sort of like I felt after watching a few of the Sopranos episodes where nothing much happened.

I'm inclined to give the show a few more episodes due to its critical reputation but if the show retains this sort of sterile, slice-of-life feel I'm not sure we'll go much farther with it. My wife has had a hard time staying awake through some of it.

[Bridget Burke]

Originally Posted by unwashed brain

My wife and I have finished the first 4 episodes and aren't sure if we're going to continue watching it or not. Frankly, I was expecting more of a fun vibe from the show, but instead I feel sort of like I felt after watching a few of the Sopranos episodes where nothing much happened.

I'm inclined to give the show a few more episodes due to its critical reputation but if the show retains this sort of sterile, slice-of-life feel I'm not sure we'll go much farther with it. My wife has had a hard time staying awake through some of it.

Mad Men is a fairly serious show with flashes of fun. The "slow" episodes let us really learn about the characters. Periodically, the action speeds up. Then events can really blow your mind

[twickster]

The first four episodes are pretty reflective of the series as a whole. The show is an examination of the social (and business) mores of the time, not a sitcom.

If you're not enjoying it now, it's not worth continuing.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I disagree with twickster. I initially watched just the first disc's worth of episodes and said "meh," and wrote off the rest of the series. A few months later I was having dinner with my family and my sister was so enthusiastic about the show that she convinced me to give it another shot, so I Netflixed the rest of the season and it really clicked. This was when season 2 was just about to come out on DVD, so I devoured those in short order. Now I'm happily awaiting the release of season 3. I think it just takes a few episodes before you really start feeling involved with the characters.

[Dewey Finn]

Tim Goodman in the San Francisco Chronicle described the show as "essentially a slow character study of one man's existential crisis." Now, given that, I'm not surprised that you're not getting a "fun vibe" off of it.

I like it, partly for the look at life in the early 1960s.

[myskepticsight]

I am only 9 episodes in because I only watch them on my iPod while I do cardio at the gym, so it's been slow going lately. I think the show is very interesting but I am inclined to like serious, character-driven shows rather than action-driven ones.

I am no longer giving up on any critically acclaimed TV show I am interested in watching after I tried The Wire, 2 eps in was bored and gave up, and went months before I tried again and LOVED IT! Mad Men sucked me in because I wasn't even alive until the 1980s so it's very interesting to see a modern show set back then. Some shows take a bit to get into but then you get sucked it and it's a great payoff.

[h.sapiens]

There are some scenes that I would describe as "fun" (e.g. most of the episode "My Old Kentucky Home" from season 3), but more of it is character-driven drama.

I especially appreciate the costume and set design, which are fantastic. The advertising agency setting is especially interesting to me, because I am a graphic designer, and I started my career in the late 80's, before computers took over everything. There's a bit of nostalgia in that aspect for me.

[Cat Fight]

Originally Posted by h.sapiens

There are some scenes that I would describe as "fun" (e.g. most of the episode "My Old Kentucky Home" from season 3)

Sure, if you're into minstrel shows.

I was hooked a few minutes into the first season (though it wasn't the first episode). I don't think I'd continue a show if it hadn't hooked me after four episodes.

[Erdosain]

Originally Posted by Cat Fight

Sure, if you're into minstrel shows.

I was hooked a few minutes into the first season (though it wasn't the first episode). I don't think I'd continue a show if it hadn't hooked me after four episodes.

That musical number was so wrong, it was hilarious. The look on Don's face was priceless. Roger consistently makes me laugh.

I agree that the OP should give up on the show. Why struggle through it of you don't like it? In my opinion, it's the best show on television.

[LVBoPeep]

It's one of my favorite shows, so I hate to say don't continue it. Have you gotten to the part with Joan in that red dress? I remember that being where I just said, "Wow, this is awesome". But I mostly liked it then, anyways. It does stay very consistent in tone and action throughout the series, in my opinion, so if it isn't for you now, it might not be for you.

[gallows fodder]

Yeah, fun as in "funny," it is not. Incredibly well-written, it is. Every episode has a theme -- sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle -- and every single scene in that episode contributes to that theme, in sometimes surprising ways. There are no throw-away scenes, moments, or lines. Everything contributes to the meaning of the whole.

Figuring out the themes and the ways in which each scene fits into them is really fun for me. Really good writing (and acting and directing and art design) is a big televisionary turn-on of mine, and this show delivers in spades.

[astro]

"Funny" humor is not the main forte of Mad Men. It can be amusing, but it's usually pretty pointed, and can even be quite brutal. Still one of the best shows out there.

[jellyblue]

More than most tv shows, Mad Men is thematic in the way that literature is thematic. If you don't like thinking about layered implications and themes in, say, novels or other literature, I'd imagine the show's appeal would be rather one dimensional (nice costumes!)

[EvilTOJ]

While I love period pieces that explore culture as it was 'back in the day' I just can't get into Mad Men. I've tried watching a few episodes, but it's just so boring. Not even Christina Hendricks could keep me interested in watching the show, and she's going to have my love-babies.

[chela]

I completely lost interest after

SPOILER:

the riding lawn mower incident, did Joan ever come back and what happen to the guy with the chopped off foot?

The big draw for me were the office scenes, good good stuff there but then I became completely bored with Don's personal life - and his constipated facial expressions.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by chela

I completely lost interest after the

SPOILER:

riding

SPOILER:

lawn

mower

SPOILER:

incident

, did

SPOILER:

Joan

ever

SPOILER:

come back

and what happen to the

SPOILER:

guy

with the

SPOILER:

chopped

off

SPOILER:

foot

?

There! Fixed your post for you out of respect for the OP.

[Enderw24]

Oh, and to answer your questions.

SPOILER:

Yes

and

SPOILER:

He never played golf again

[chela]

Ok, thanks, but you have perfectly captioned what bugs me about MM and Don Draper, slow dialogue impregnated with hidden spoilers.

[Renee]

We watched the whole first season, and liked it, kind of. I wouldn't say we're too likely to watch the second season. It was OK. If you're not loving the first 4 episodes, I doubt you'll get more involved as it goes on.

[twickster]

Originally Posted by Enderw24

There! Fixed your post for you out of respect for the OP.

Or, use the "report this post" button and ask a mod to add a spoiler box. Please don't eff with material inside quote boxes, other than to snip out parts (which you should indicate you've done with either "...." or [snip]).

Thanks for your cooperation.

twickster, Cafe Society moderator

[twickster]

What fascinates me about Mad Men is the evocation of the world of the grownups at a time when I was a child. At the time that the show was set, I was the same age as Don and Betty's* daughter. My dad was a corporate executive, though not in advertising, and my mom was stuck in the suburbs, though she had neither the looks nor the class background of Betty. Anyway, the world in Mad Men has some deep similarities to the world I grew up in, and it's interesting to see, as an adult, the full version of what I caught glimpses of, from below, as a child.


*completely OT -- I just noticed the "Don and Betty" thing -- my BIL's parents were Don and Betty, and a couple more different from the Drapers it's hard to imagine ....

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I just finished the second season. The setting is fabulous and I'm enjoying the show, but I'm getting frustrated with Don's character. He seems to move wherever the wind blows him. Was there any point to the episode where he ditched Pete Campbell at the convention in California and hooked up with the orgy people? (If this were on HBO they'd have been orgy people, anyway.)

[AuntiePam]

Eleanor of Aquitaine, I rushed to [url=Alan Sepinwall's blog[/url] after every episode of the show. He always cleared up any confusion I might have had. His columns are a wonderful companion to the show.

[gwendee]

I have a little bit of fascination with the show. The Drapers are the generation between my grandparents and parents. My grandfather was in advertising. I grew up near where they live.

It's clear to me that it's well made television. The characters are complex and interesting. I do not enjoy watching it. I may catch up in the future. Right now I have too many real problems to watch Don Draper's and consider it entertainment.

My mom says she stopped watching because "everyone's so damned whiny".

[jharvey963]

Sort of off topic: I've been watching a lot of "Angel" reruns recently and just realized that Pete in Mad Men played Connor, Angel's vamp-slaying son on Angel.

J.

[luv2draw]

I just started watching it via Netflix as well. My first 2 jobs (late 60s/early 70s--I was late teen/early 20s) were in publicity depts. of major corporations--same family as advertising, if you will.

The series kind of creeps me out as I recognize a lot of similarities in the characters as my then current co-workers. Like the men being such dicks to women and women taking it and even smiling about it and wanting more. I pretty much didn't take that kind of crap from them in the workplace even at 18 and didn't see why others did.

I'm up to disc 3 of season 1. Not sure how much more I'll really watch. Something better catch my eye other than reminiscing about clothing I didn't really care for at the time and what will happen with Peggy.

There are so many other things on my queue.....

[vivalostwages]

I find it fascinating, not so much for the era--though it is certainly intriguing--but for the fact of Don Draper's assumed identity and his whole backstory.

His wife is a cold, mean, effing bitch, I must say.

[Martini Enfield]

As others have said, it's not a "Fun" show about Those Wacky Ad Men set in The Sixties™. It's a slow drama that happens to be about Ad Men in The Sixties™.

My wife and I really like the show and get a lot out of it, but I can understand why someone who prefers a show in which Significant Things Happen Every Week might not enjoy it as much. FWIW, my Dad assures me that the show is spot in regards to fashion, social mores, and attitudes for the time period, at least from his experience in office jobs at the time.