INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Web exclusive: "Mad Men"

 

“Mad Men”
10 p.m. Sundays
AMC

There were times during the first season of “Mad Men” that I’d watch and think: This may be the best television show ever made. While it’s early to make such a pronouncement — we’re only 13 episodes in, after all — the first two shows of the new season begin to cement that opinion. This is rich, nuanced TV, the equivalent of losing yourself inside a brilliant novel. You don’t feel like you’re viewing a show; it’s more like watching life take place.

If you haven’t seen “Mad Men” (and judging by the ratings, you haven’t) you need to. Really. 

When we left the folks from the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency, it was 1960. Despite whatever was going on in their personal lives, they were masters of their universe. They smoked and drank and chased skirts to excess, all with no apologies.

But now it’s 1962 — 18 months later — and the world is changing around them. The Kennedys are in the White House. John Glenn has orbited the Earth. Pepsi is seemingly replacing coffee as the morning drink of choice. Clients want smarter, faster — younger! — ad campaigns, and they want their ideas from younger account executives. Women are getting ahead and asserting themselves in new and surprising ways. The square-jawed, suck-it-up, stiff-upper-lip formality of life is slowly eroding.

Even the Gary Cooper-esque hero of the show, Don Draper (played brilliantly by Jon Hamm), isn’t immune. If it isn’t his doctor telling him to slow down, it’s colleagues undercutting him at work. Something’s happening here, but he doesn’t know what it is.

“It’s not a good time!” he blurts at one of his underlings. And though he’s talking about that moment, he might as well be referring to the era he’s entering.

His male colleagues aren’t faring much better, what with pregnancies, deaths and the push for youth. When abrasive young ad man Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) stands in Draper’s office and wonders what to do about a family situation, he’s expressing yet another metaphor for what’s happening to him and his coworkers.

Meanwhile, the women in the show are starting to come to terms with their respective situations. Draper’s gorgeous but distant wife, Betty (January Jones), is learning how to use her sexuality to her advantage, as is his former mousy assistant-turned-copywriter Peggy (Elisabeth Moss). And office manager Joan (Christina Hendricks), who always knew how to shake her moneymaker, may be realizing that that strategy doesn’t work as well when others find out how old you are.

Without giving much away, in Sunday’s second-season premiere, it’s Valentine's Day. Next week, the folks at Sterling Cooper, who’ve been working with a small airline, have to reconsider their efforts when a disaster occurs.

To share more would ruin the experience of “Mad Men,” which deserves to be watched fresh. Matthew Weiner, who wrote for “The Sopranos” before moving on to “Mad Men,” has created nothing short of visual literature here. You will be spellbound.