Mad Men: Why I kind of have to force myself to watch it

There's no question that Mad Men is one of the best dramas on TV. The whole package works so well bringing you into this totally different era. I'm too young to have any firsthand knowledge of the 50s and 60s so it's all kind of a novelty to me--the fashion, everyone smoking and drinking at work, the attitudes towards women and race. And the advertising world is a perfect setting to illuminate what American society was like back then. The acting and writing is top notch, with really well-developed and complex characters and surprisingly twisty plotlines.

But despite all this, I generally have to force myself to watch the show. It's still summer, and there isn't a whole lot to watch on TV, but five episodes of the new season aired before I finally got up the motivation to catch up. Why? Because well, I just don't think Mad Men is a fun show to watch. I mean, there actually is quite a bit of humor in the show (in large part due to Roger Sterling one-liners) but there's always this undercurrent of...creepiness. Everything always just feels so unsettled and like a disaster waiting to happen, and sometimes episodes have this really deliberate, labored pace with long, quiet, drawn out scenes of the characters just being...creepy! Don, Betty, Peggy, Pete, Sally, that awful Glen...they can all just be really creepy! Sorry I keep using that one word but I can't really think of a better one.

I mean, once I get going on the episodes, I don't regret it. I really liked what the writers did last season, really shaking things up with the bust-up of both the Drapers' marriage and the original Sterling Cooper agency, and this season it's been really interesting to see the results of those changes, especially in Don. I'm glad Joan is back at work (though her husband is yet another creepy one...) and one of my favorite things about the show, Don and Peggy's strange and complicated but close relationship, continues to be explored.

But the creepiness factor is just always there! So while I have no problem saying that Mad Men is one of the best shows on TV, I can't really say it's one of my favorites. Am I the only one who gets overly bothered by its creepy atmosphere?

Summer standouts

I think I'm in a bit of Olympics withdrawal...there was so much to watch every day but now it's like I don't know what to do with myself! Thankfully the new fall season is starting next week, with Gossip Girl and 90210 coming up first. But the summer really hasn't been all that bad in terms of TV viewing...there was So You Think You Can Dance of course and Project Runway's on again (though this season's been a bit slow somehow) and these three picks:

1. My Boys. This season was way too short and it ended on yet another irritating cliffhanger but it was still really fun. I'm kind of torn about the PJ/Bobby thing. I was secretly rooting for him to be the one on the plane and was so happy when he was but then the anti-climactic way it all played was kind of...disappointing. And here's the problem: I kind of like Elsa and she totally doesn't deserve Bobby dumping her at the altar. I'm not sure that PJ and Bobby are enough of a "they belong together" type couple to make it ok. I wonder how much this is a result of me just liking Kyle Howard in general...I've always rooted for him in all of his failed series (Grosse Pointe, Opposite Sex, Related...) and of course it doesn't hurt that he's playing a really improbably nice and decent filthy rich guy. (The rumors that he's dating Lauren Conrad are a little disturbing though...)

Anyway, besides that, I liked that Stephanie writes the fastest book ever and becomes a semi-celebrity only to end up hooking up with Kenny, who she's always despised. Mike's been more annoying, but Andy's always great and Brendan "pursuing" one of Bobby's friends for a business opportunity did make me laugh. So when is this show coming back??

2. The Middleman on ABCFamily. That other ABCFamily summer series (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is inexplicably getting all the ratings this summer despite it's terrible acting and cliched characters and horrid writing, but this is the show I think people should be watching. It's not for everyone...it's pretty wacky, but it's so much fun. It's based on a comic book series so the details of the world are nicely fleshed out from the beginning. The main character is Wendy Watson, an aspiring artist who finds herself recruited by a superhero of sorts called the Middleman. He's one in a line of nameless Middlemen, and doesn't reveal any other name. He's a straight, square guy, who like, drinks milk and has an endless supply of funny expletive substitutions. The two of them fight a series of wacky and weird alien occurrences. Wendy (often called Dubbie or Dub-Dub) also has her normal life to deal with, including Lacey, her roommate, who has a crush on the Middleman, and Noser, a musician who perpetually hangs out in the hallway outside her apartment. It's just a really fun, quirky show and I hope it can come back for another season!

3. Mad Men. It's back for a second season and as intriguing as ever. The tone of the show has always been a little dark but this season things feel even more unsettled. At the end of last season it seemed like Don was going to be re-committing himself to his family, but he's straying again. But this season Betty's being more assertive. Peggy's even more confident at work and at play, but acting like her surprise pregnancy never happened and the baby being raised by her older sister doesn't belong to her. This week we got a little more insight into what happened to her, and a surprising connection between her and Don. In other news, the office gets a Xerox machine, Joan is over 30 but now engaged, and Pete uses his father's death in a plane crash to try and get new business. I can't help feeling like things are sort of building towards a disaster of some kind somewhere though...

Summer season finales

I know, I know, it's fall now (and the weather is finally agreeing with the calendar here in the Northeast) but two really awesome series that ran this summer recently had their season finales. It's funny, summer series never used to be a big thing at all, but with the cable networks producing their own original series and not adhering to the regular broadcast seasons, things have gotten a lot more interesting. These two shows, Damages and Mad Men each had 13-episode freshman seasons and they were both just phenomenal in their own way, really way better than any of the new fall shows, in my opinion. Looking at my TV schedule this fall, I have a mix of quirkiness, guilty pleasures, and geeks of all kinds but not too much of what Damages and Mad Men were: thinking shows for grownups.

Let's talk about Mad Men's big finale twist first: Peggy hasn't just been gaining weight, she was pregnant. And she gave birth. And seemingly rejected her baby. Pretty much all in the last couple of minutes of the show. WTF? It was definitely a shocker, and a lot of people have been buzzing about how that just strains the credibility of the show. And I'd really been liking Peggy, as she rose in the ranks from secretary to junior copywriter based on her talent. It's just so bizarre that they went in this direction. I can't speak firsthand, but it seems to me that gaining weight because you're pregnant is entirely different from just plain gaining weight. And I mean, was she so clueless that she didn't realize she wasn't having her period? She didn't feel kicks? Or was she in colossal denial? The writers have got some serious explaining to do.

But outside of that, the episode (and entire season really) have just been excellent. Jon Hamm, who I don't recognize from anywhere really, has been so incredibly good as Don, and I've loved the slow reveal of his past. Betty's storyline has been a roller coaster too...she has this weird sort of creepy quality about her that makes her and Don the craziest couple on TV that I'm actually rooting for. Don's slideshow presentation with all the photos of his family really got me a bit misty. And how sad was it when he got home and saw that they had already left? It's weird, this slick, composed guy whose whole life is kind of a lie and who cheats on his wife...I'm totally sympathetic with him.

There's tons more to say but I really encourage everyone to go and check out this show before it returns for a second season. The time period is almost a character in itself, and it's really unlike anything else on TV.

Now onto Damages. Talk about a show that knows how to plot! The show had two timelines that were inching closer to eachother as the episodes progressed, and it was just really thrilling, with all the twists and red herrings and mini-mysteries. It's been really unpredictable and exciting, but not to the point where unbelievable things are happening. It's kind of hard to sum up the entire season, but it's been an incredible ride.

And things have been kind of set up for a second season, though it seems it'll have to be a very different kind of show. I originally thought this was going to be an extended mini-series of sorts, with only one season, but there have been rumblings otherwise. This season has been very tightly structured and plotted, revolving around the Frobisher case. Ellen's whole induction into Patty's world was really based solely on her connection to Katie and the case. But now with the case wrapped up, Frobisher presumably dead (shot down by Larry...how crazy was that?)...we're going to be delving into Ellen working undercover for the FBI to find out more about Patty? The writers are definitely going to have to come up with more than that. And I'm a bit skeptical. Patty's a really great character and Glenn Close is amazing and I'm sure there's tons that can be done with her, but I don't know if I necessarily want more. Again, it's the whole thing with letting a story end where it ends logically. I mean, some shows just aren't meant to go on indefinitely...right?

Mad Men mini-review

You know, it seems that as of late, American TV hasn't really had a lot of shows set in past time periods. Off the top of my head I can really only think of a few from the past decade or so: Dr. Quinn (1860s), American Dreams (1960s), That 70s Show (1970s, obviously), Freaks and Geeks (1980s)...what else am I missing? I really like historical dramas (as evidenced by my obsession with the BBC) so when I heard that AMC was doing an original series set in the early 60s, I was pretty excited. And now that I've seen the first episode, I'm even more excited. Summer TV generally has a reputation for being kind of "light" and not necessarily high quality, but this show isn't just good for a summer show, it's just plain good.

Set in an advertising agency in New York City, I think the most fascinating aspect of the show is just how different things were back then, which really even wasn't that long ago. This is a time when everyone smoked and drank, even at work; women were working but part of their duties were to be eye candy for the men; extramarital affairs were almost acceptable. Who knows if that fascination is going to wear off, but thankfully the characters and storylines set up in the first episode look like they're enough to keep the story going. The main character is Don Draper, the creative director, and he's joined by other partners and secretaries in the agency. There aren't any really recognizable faces here, but John Slattery is Roger Sterling, a founder of the firm, and Vincent Kartheiser plays Paul, a junior executive, and is really just as young-looking and creepy as he was playing Connor on Angel.

Am eagerly awaiting upcoming episodes!