I bought the DVD of Season One based on sheer buzz from friends.
It didn't knock my socks off at first --- it's not a show that's so out-of-the-box that it screams to be noticed --- but gradually the characters and scenarios grew on me. The writing was above average and even though the story lines seemed a bit thin from time to time, the acting was so good, the set design was so spot on, it got me hooked. And it did pick up momentum as the season sped toward it's conclusion.
Season Two's premiere episode left me dry. Even looking back, it's a strange one. The dialog is stilted, much of what comes out of the character's mouths doesn't seem to fit and --- ABSOLUTELY...NOTHING...HAPPENS. I kept reading people raving about Season Two, but couldn't quite see what they were enamored of. But Season Two got better...way better....the increase in the tension was elegant, effective. Good plots twists, nice character refinements.
Now Season Three.... As of this writing, we are now a third of the way into this year's installment and still not much has happened. Worse, virtually all of the story lines this year seem as banal and self-indulgent as that on the average soap.
We are just now getting into more Draper back story --- the only thing I could find interesting in FOUR HOURS of footage. Instead we have: -The Sal-in-the-closet plot. Boring...and done to death elsewhere. Perhaps if we were to explore '60s style repercussions or the threat within them that Sal is/might be up against, it might be interesting. So far, that hasn't happened. Nothing has. And the opener with the bellboy? Right, that was believable. Try Red Show Diaries, Matt. It was about that plausible. -The John McCain and Cindy Brady Show --- This grandfather/granddaughter sub-plot is taking up far too much time...it's literally a quarter of every episode and it belongs on Lifetime! The fact that the actors are grating and the characters weak and annoying don't help. I really hope there is a point to including this drivel later on. It's really hard to sit through. Thee you on the thee-thaw Cindy...like never! - Joan's Marriage - This is moving abysmally slow. Christina Hendricks is a great actress. She needs more to do. - Roger's Marriage - Again, standard soap opera fluff. OK, maybe that's too harsh...Doug Sirk standard fluff. That's better.
The exception here are Peggy and Pete. Despite the fact that the baby subplot seems to come and go in the show's writer's minds, almost at whim, Elisabeth Moss has ensured we still care about this character and her travails. Same with Vince Kartheiser's flawed and funny Pete.
All of this is not bad for passing-time-TV. It's the standard we've come to expect from networks that cow-tow to limited attention spans and low intelligence. But that's not why I started watching Mad Men....it's now become like EVERY OTHER SHOW.
To listen to Matthew Weiner's excessive self-accolades within his excessive commentaries you would think he'd created a Great Work of Deconstructionalist Art. I just think he was a writer who had a great idea at one time, but now hasn't any idea how to make that idea compelling any longer and has now fallen back on tried and true clichés.
It didn't knock my socks off at first --- it's not a show that's so out-of-the-box that it screams to be noticed --- but gradually the characters and scenarios grew on me. The writing was above average and even though the story lines seemed a bit thin from time to time, the acting was so good, the set design was so spot on, it got me hooked. And it did pick up momentum as the season sped toward it's conclusion.
Season Two's premiere episode left me dry. Even looking back, it's a strange one. The dialog is stilted, much of what comes out of the character's mouths doesn't seem to fit and --- ABSOLUTELY...NOTHING...HAPPENS. I kept reading people raving about Season Two, but couldn't quite see what they were enamored of. But Season Two got better...way better....the increase in the tension was elegant, effective. Good plots twists, nice character refinements.
Now Season Three.... As of this writing, we are now a third of the way into this year's installment and still not much has happened. Worse, virtually all of the story lines this year seem as banal and self-indulgent as that on the average soap.
We are just now getting into more Draper back story --- the only thing I could find interesting in FOUR HOURS of footage. Instead we have: -The Sal-in-the-closet plot. Boring...and done to death elsewhere. Perhaps if we were to explore '60s style repercussions or the threat within them that Sal is/might be up against, it might be interesting. So far, that hasn't happened. Nothing has. And the opener with the bellboy? Right, that was believable. Try Red Show Diaries, Matt. It was about that plausible. -The John McCain and Cindy Brady Show --- This grandfather/granddaughter sub-plot is taking up far too much time...it's literally a quarter of every episode and it belongs on Lifetime! The fact that the actors are grating and the characters weak and annoying don't help. I really hope there is a point to including this drivel later on. It's really hard to sit through. Thee you on the thee-thaw Cindy...like never! - Joan's Marriage - This is moving abysmally slow. Christina Hendricks is a great actress. She needs more to do. - Roger's Marriage - Again, standard soap opera fluff. OK, maybe that's too harsh...Doug Sirk standard fluff. That's better.
The exception here are Peggy and Pete. Despite the fact that the baby subplot seems to come and go in the show's writer's minds, almost at whim, Elisabeth Moss has ensured we still care about this character and her travails. Same with Vince Kartheiser's flawed and funny Pete.
All of this is not bad for passing-time-TV. It's the standard we've come to expect from networks that cow-tow to limited attention spans and low intelligence. But that's not why I started watching Mad Men....it's now become like EVERY OTHER SHOW.
To listen to Matthew Weiner's excessive self-accolades within his excessive commentaries you would think he'd created a Great Work of Deconstructionalist Art. I just think he was a writer who had a great idea at one time, but now hasn't any idea how to make that idea compelling any longer and has now fallen back on tried and true clichés.