This is a clip from the AMC program Mad Men. I really enjoy this show. If you haven't heard/seen it (or couldn't tell from the above clip) it is about an advertising agency in New York in the early 1960's. I like it because, unlike most recent period pieces centering on that era, this show does not try to cover up the awful parts of American society in the late 50's/early 60's. Men are the real workforce, women are secretaries (one woman does become a copywriter, but is met by quizzical disdain from the men of the office as well as, interestingly, the women). Sexism is rampant, minorities are delegated to being elevator operators, bar waiters, and janitors. Drinking is common in the workplace, and cigarettes are smoked non-stop. It is an unflinching look at the societal norms of the time.

But it is also more than that. The look of the show is amazing. It is brilliantly filmic. It has the look of an Edward Hopper painting. Hopper is one of my favorite artists. His paintings (some of which are included below) are fairly straightforward. If you were to see them in a gallery, you might pass over them to examine something more eye-catching. But underneath the seemingly simple exterior lies so much drama and tragedy.









The second picture (1932's Room in New York) is my favorite Hopper painting (although his most famous is the amazing Nighthawks). The two figures are physically close to each other, yet are miles apart, so disconnected. It is heart breaking. The dichotomy between the everyday scene and the hollowness of life in that society is almost unbearably tragic.

Mad Men has the same feel to it. The veneer is so strong and Manly, yet there is emptiness inside. That it takes place in an advertising agency is completely apropos: a company that doesn't really sell anything. It sells other's products for them. It's entire business model is a front, just as the swaggering bravado of it's ad men is a front for emptiness.

Just as a Hopper painting may seem common or even simplistic, the characters in Mad Men may seem like the personification of Cool. Some watching may even wish to be back in the time of well fitted suits, french cuffed shirts, and three martini lunches. But those viewing that way are missing half the story.

Mad Men is not necessarily a celebration of that period, but more so a cautionary tale of how happiness and depth are not measured in suits and cigarettes, but in being able to openly communicate and express what is happening inside ones self.

I've included one more scene from the series, mostly for the last moments. Background: The two figures, dressed quite similarly to the figures in Room in New York, are engaged in secret affair. He is the president of the ad agency, she is the head of the secretarial pool. Both feel an emptiness that they express to each other, but no one else. The way they move in the hotel room is almost ballet. And the final shot, the two of them standing on the curb unable to express anything, at that point not even to each other, looks more like an Edward Hopper painting than a scene from a basic cable TV show.