I agree that it’s a problem that more people haven’t taken a position against the show. That leads to a pile-on in any case and is never fun in any kind of Dope thread. It’s one of the risks one takes.
However, I disagree that I can’t support my argument. I’ve seen a couple clips. To me, they totally didn’t work. Is that a sample size and level of experience enough for a media critic to write a column giving the show a big thumbs down? No way. I thought it was enough to start a discussion on this message board.
A nominally plausible–yet uninteresting–response to my OP is to say I haven’t seen enough and point out my mistakes. Haw haw haw! Y’all “win.” But has it made for an thrilling discussion? I think not.
I think there is a kind of “critical mass” issue in Cafe Society, however. For example, I posted positively on the movie Divergent, was the first to post any kind of thread on the film, and barely anyone showed up. So maybe in the case of Mad Men as well, there just aren’t enough people participating in the forum to make this kind of post work. Live and learn.
Well, hopefully you know better now. There’s nothing more frustrating or pointless than trying to have a discussion with someone who knows virtually nothing about the topic. I mean, I get that you started this thread in the hopes that someone else would carry your water for you, but the real problem you’ve got here is that you don’t know enough about the show to even know if the topic you’re starting is interesting or relevant.
It’s not about “winning,” it’s about expecting people to be minimally informed before they come to a conclusion on an issue. We only “win” if you learn not to do this sort of bullshit anymore.
Considering that you’ve already said you don’t visit Cafe Society very often, why should anyone pay any more attention to your ideas about whats wrong with the forum than they pay to your ideas about what’s wrong with Mad Men? They’re both subjects in which you don’t have enough experience to make an interesting contribution.
Do you not see the categorical difference between how you started and something like:
“I caught a snippet of Mad Men where he gives this pitch to the Hershey about growing up in a whore house. I know it’s really popular show, but I thought Jon Hamm’s acting was off- is that typical for him? I didn’t care for what I saw- what do people like about this show and is it worth trying it out?”
That would opened up a good discussion. You came in and basically acted like a know it all and lectured about how bad an actor he was and how stupid show it would be, without having seen it.
I do see and understand your point. But do we need to walk on eggshells here or can we let it all hang out? I think people got a little too serious and too personal rather quickly. But whatever.
Who’s walking on eggshells? Your opinion got a good hard stomping.
I’m not personally a big fan of Mad Men - too many of the character’s problems are eagerly self-inflicted - but if I ventured a broad opinion on a show I’d barely seen, it would be presumptuous of me to expect to avoid scorn because of it.
Ok I’ll try, I watched several episodes of the show in the early seasons and didn’t like it.
Don is an unlikable prick, I didn’t even care about the false identity thing he was just unlikable. His wife is a Terminator, who is also paradoxically childish and immature while lacking human responses. It is painful to watch their “parenting”.
His boss is impossibly suave and hipster, did I tell you about the time I became the chieftan of a tribe in Papua New Guinea? Hah that was a lark, I wasn’t even supposed to be there I got shipwrecked on my way to pleasure the daughter of a Sultan, true story!
The past the show depicts is impossibly sanitized, there should be racial slurs and faggot and cocksucker in the dialogue for almost every episode. Lots of uncomfortable spousal abuse too.
When the gay guy comes out they really downplayed the actual reception he would have received, I can remember people saying gays deserved execution in the late 80s-90s!
There are all these sophisticated independent gorgeous women, whose goal in life is Don’s dick. I got so tired of a constant parade of hot modern women for Don to mount.
I basically hated the characters with a burning passion, except Peggy but her arc was so obvious it felt manipulative. And found the show both sanitized and over sexed.
You actually watched it and came to your own opinions. You didn’t watch a snippet and called it dumb and call the acting laughable without even trying to understand it.
I’ve been here 11 years and have enjoyed IMHO, where people are cool. This is like Great Debates. People not being cool.
I particularly love the folks who have visited just to emphasize my wrongness and worthiness of punishment, one of whom admitted he hadn’t even seen the show. Talk about a value-add!
I haven’t ever watched “Mad Men”, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I’m really not quite understanding what you’re getting at.
My grandfathers were roughly Don Draper’s age (slightly older actually), and neither of them talked/sounded like a weirdo, and didn’t have any weird mannerisms. My dad was in his early 20s at about the same time as the show’s set, and he doesn’t have any weird speech patterns or mannerisms either.
It’s not like the show takes place in 1891; it’s between 1960 and 1968, which is not so far removed from the modern day that we’d have seriously different speech or mannerisms. I mean, I remember stuff about 6-7 years after when the final season took place, and I’m only 42.
Not everybody in that period was alike. Not everybody in this period is alike.
At the beginning of the show, the 50’s were morphing into the 60’s & Don seemed to have it all. Except we learned there were chinks in his armor. The clip you discussed came from the end of the 60’s–Don’s world has changed. He’s failed at two marriages–largely his fault but he still feels the loss. And the audience has learned that the childhood we’d thought a bit grim was really dreadful.
The show is subtle & moves slowly; I’ve watched it from the beginning & find it fascinating. I remember the era; I’m a bit older than Don’s daughter & from Texas, not New York. But it doesn’t ring false to me.
It’s possible to watch the show & not care for it. But you haven’t taken the time, so nobody values your opinion. And your hipster claim to have been an early adapter of what* you* think is “the look” of the era doesn’t help.
Watch the show from the beginning–at least a few episodes. Then we’ll talk. Or find a subject of which you are not ignorant. Or a subject of which you know only a little but are open minded…