It's Mad Men day!
So, in honor of the 3rd season premire of Mad Men (tonight, 10 pm on amc!) I've decided to spend most of my afternoon creating an entry in order to convince my lovely friends list to jump on the bandwagon of this intensely popular, critically acclaimed show.
Mad Men is a show on AMC dealing with the lives of the executives at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. But it's so much more than that. It's full of dialogue but it never becomes boring. It's dramatic but it never becomes melodrama. It's twisty and turny and dark and sexy but incredibly interesting and before you know it you're longing to live in a place where it was still ok to make sexual advances on the secretary pool, smoke anywhere, have a two martini lunch and still find time to drink scotch in your boss's office. Yeah, it was a different world in the 1960s, but it's one you can visit any time when you watch Mad Men.
The Characters
Domestic Life
Don Draper (Jon Hamm)
"I'm enjoying the story so far, but I have a feeling its not going to end well." 2x02 Flight 1
The show's crux is Don Draper. He's a mysterious man who keeps things close to the chest. He doesn't like people in his business and he stays out of their way. But he's a born salesman and can, very literally sell ice to an Eskimo. He drinks and smokes and tries to be as good of a husband and father as he can be, but he is prone to havehot, illicit, sexually phenominal extramaritial affairs. A lot of the time he can be more open with his affairs than he can be with his own wife. This isn't the life he wanted for himself, but it's the life that he has now, and he will fight to keep what he has.
Betty Draper (January Jones)
"As far as I’m concerned, as long as men look at me that way, I’m earning my keep. Then every once in a while I think, no." 1x07 Red In The Face
Betty Draper is the dutiful wife of Don and the mother of his children. She is the perfect housewife and does what a housewife should-she doesn't ask questions and believes everything her husband says to be true. Does she have her doubts? Yes. She sees other people's marriages crubling and is glad to have Don, but every so often she can tell that he's not entirely faithful. There is still so much she doesn't know about the man she married, and it gets to be too much sometimes, but there is the children to think of. In season 2 she undergoes quite a change of personality, and it's heartbreaking to watch the blinders come off.
Sterling Cooper
Roger Sterling (John Slattery)
"You know what? I am very comfortable with my mind. Thoughts clean and unclean, loving and… the opposite of that." 1x02 Ladies Room
Roger Sterling is (quite obviously) one of the partners at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. He, like most of the men he employs, drinks like a fish. He too has a problem with stepping out on his wife, but she isn't content to just let things lie. He's got a bad heart (in the physical sense) and in a panic when confronted with his own mortality went back to his wife and vowed to stop his cheating ways. Yeah. That happened. His most notible affairs are Joan and Jane.
Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse)
"New York City is a marvelous machine filled with a mesh of levers and gears and springs, like a fine watch, wound tight. Always ticking." 1x04 New Amsterdam
Not a whole lot is known about the Cooper in Sterling Cooper. He is a shrewd business man who his employees would like to know more about. He's an art lover and not a fan of shoes. He's gone a bit eccentric in his old age, but he'll support Don even though he knows that he has his secrets. Also, he loves his wife and is known to take meals with her in his office.
Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser)
"This is ridiculous. If I’m going to die, I want to die in Manhattan." 2x13 Meditations in an Emergency
If there is one word to describe Pete Campbell it would beasshole ambitious. He's a man and dammit he's going to do man things (like get married, cheat on his wife, return a chip n' dip to buy a gun, etc etc) but to top it all off, you can't help but love the guy. I didn't start the loving till during season 2, but some people like him and understand his motivations right off the bat. He is by far one of the most interesting characters on the show. Pete thinks he knows what he wants, but he doesn't at all. He tries really hard to be just like Don, but when he realizes Don isn't what he seems either, all sort of goes into a tailspin for him. Once again, we still don't know everything about him besides his misguided sense of duty and a wayward need to please others.
Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)
"I’m in the persuasion business, and frankly I’m disappointed by your presentation." 2x02 Flight 1
The most clear character progression this show has, Peggy starts off as secretary in the pool and shoots up the ladder to become the only female copywriter at Sterling Cooper. She's made her mistakes and some of them she can't get away from (coughPetecough). She's openminded enough to make a friend out of gay guy at the office and ballsy enough to ask for her own workspace. I started off not being able to stand her (she played Zoey Bartlett on The West Wing and I haven't seen a more annoying character) but Peggy is wonderful (and I really hope she and Pete end up together somehow, if they both get over their own issues).
Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks)
"I feel like I’m stuck somewhere between Doris Day in Pillow Talk and Midnight Lace, when what I need to be is Kim Novak in just about anything." 1x10 Long Weekend
Joan! She's the leader of the secretaries at Sterling Cooper, and arguably runs the show for everyone. She doesn't think anything of using the fact that she's a woman to get ahead and has dated both Roger and Paul. Right now she's engaged to a doctor, and her only moment of weakness on the show involves him (I hate that guy, but I'm trying to be spoiler free here). She took Peggy under her wing when she first got to the company, and is only a little resentful of her ambition. I think that's mostly because she doesn't understand it. She's good at what she does, and I think is a feminist in her own way.
Harry Crane (Rich Sommer)
"They don’t care about us. We’re just a bunch of salaries on a ledger. They’ll draw a line and get rid of everything below it." 2x13 Meditations in an Emergency
my bias! Let me show you it! If I had to pick a favorite out of all the side characters, it would have to be this bow tie wearing, doofy guy. Harry Crane started off as a junior copywriter but moved his way up into being the head of the Television Department-which he created himself. He tries so hard to be a good guy, but there is a predjudice or two and a mild infidelity here and there that can get him into trouble. He's a newlywed and he's going to be a dad soon but he doesn't get paid much. I really wish we knew more about him. Look at him. I love this guy.
The Greek Chorus: Paul Kinsey (michael Gladis), Sal Romano (Bryan Batt), Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton)
"Don’s been screwing me for the last three years, I’ve got nothing." 2x01 For Those Who Think Young
Ken Cosgrove: You’re not like everyone else around here.
Salvatore Romano: I don’t know if that’s true. 2x07 The Gold Violin
Series creator matthew weiner never intended for these side characters to be so popular, but they became a greek chorus that followed Pete around and explained the jobs as they happened. Harry was also part of the greek chorus but my love for him allowed him his own spot. These three here are the odd ones out. Paul (who bares a great resemblence or Orson Welles is an educated man who dated *gasp* a colored girl! Ken, though he chases tail quite a bit is a guy with a sensitive streak, he's a writer. Sal is gay, very obviously so to the viewer and not so much to everyone he works with, or his wife. He has a bit of a crush on Ken.
I'll be honest, sometimes Don's emotions get a little too heavy. These three lighten it up.
I don't like these people and you'll see why in Season 2
Jane Siegel (Peyton List)
Duck Phillips (mark moses)
I know there are characters I left out, but these are the main players that are in an overwhelming majority of the episodes. So, you should probably start watching. I can't wait to rewatch everything (my season 1 dvds get here tomorrow!).
And, if we're being honest, I'm probably going to do a picspam later because this cast is so gorgeous and it's mad men day!
Also, I'm keeping this public. Tell your friends!
Mad Men is a show on AMC dealing with the lives of the executives at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. But it's so much more than that. It's full of dialogue but it never becomes boring. It's dramatic but it never becomes melodrama. It's twisty and turny and dark and sexy but incredibly interesting and before you know it you're longing to live in a place where it was still ok to make sexual advances on the secretary pool, smoke anywhere, have a two martini lunch and still find time to drink scotch in your boss's office. Yeah, it was a different world in the 1960s, but it's one you can visit any time when you watch Mad Men.
The Characters
Domestic Life
Don Draper (Jon Hamm)
"I'm enjoying the story so far, but I have a feeling its not going to end well." 2x02 Flight 1
The show's crux is Don Draper. He's a mysterious man who keeps things close to the chest. He doesn't like people in his business and he stays out of their way. But he's a born salesman and can, very literally sell ice to an Eskimo. He drinks and smokes and tries to be as good of a husband and father as he can be, but he is prone to have
Betty Draper (January Jones)
"As far as I’m concerned, as long as men look at me that way, I’m earning my keep. Then every once in a while I think, no." 1x07 Red In The Face
Betty Draper is the dutiful wife of Don and the mother of his children. She is the perfect housewife and does what a housewife should-she doesn't ask questions and believes everything her husband says to be true. Does she have her doubts? Yes. She sees other people's marriages crubling and is glad to have Don, but every so often she can tell that he's not entirely faithful. There is still so much she doesn't know about the man she married, and it gets to be too much sometimes, but there is the children to think of. In season 2 she undergoes quite a change of personality, and it's heartbreaking to watch the blinders come off.
Sterling Cooper
Roger Sterling (John Slattery)
"You know what? I am very comfortable with my mind. Thoughts clean and unclean, loving and… the opposite of that." 1x02 Ladies Room
Roger Sterling is (quite obviously) one of the partners at the Sterling Cooper ad agency. He, like most of the men he employs, drinks like a fish. He too has a problem with stepping out on his wife, but she isn't content to just let things lie. He's got a bad heart (in the physical sense) and in a panic when confronted with his own mortality went back to his wife and vowed to stop his cheating ways. Yeah. That happened. His most notible affairs are Joan and Jane.
Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse)
"New York City is a marvelous machine filled with a mesh of levers and gears and springs, like a fine watch, wound tight. Always ticking." 1x04 New Amsterdam
Not a whole lot is known about the Cooper in Sterling Cooper. He is a shrewd business man who his employees would like to know more about. He's an art lover and not a fan of shoes. He's gone a bit eccentric in his old age, but he'll support Don even though he knows that he has his secrets. Also, he loves his wife and is known to take meals with her in his office.
Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser)
"This is ridiculous. If I’m going to die, I want to die in Manhattan." 2x13 Meditations in an Emergency
If there is one word to describe Pete Campbell it would be
Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)
"I’m in the persuasion business, and frankly I’m disappointed by your presentation." 2x02 Flight 1
The most clear character progression this show has, Peggy starts off as secretary in the pool and shoots up the ladder to become the only female copywriter at Sterling Cooper. She's made her mistakes and some of them she can't get away from (coughPetecough). She's openminded enough to make a friend out of gay guy at the office and ballsy enough to ask for her own workspace. I started off not being able to stand her (she played Zoey Bartlett on The West Wing and I haven't seen a more annoying character) but Peggy is wonderful (and I really hope she and Pete end up together somehow, if they both get over their own issues).
Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks)
"I feel like I’m stuck somewhere between Doris Day in Pillow Talk and Midnight Lace, when what I need to be is Kim Novak in just about anything." 1x10 Long Weekend
Joan! She's the leader of the secretaries at Sterling Cooper, and arguably runs the show for everyone. She doesn't think anything of using the fact that she's a woman to get ahead and has dated both Roger and Paul. Right now she's engaged to a doctor, and her only moment of weakness on the show involves him (I hate that guy, but I'm trying to be spoiler free here). She took Peggy under her wing when she first got to the company, and is only a little resentful of her ambition. I think that's mostly because she doesn't understand it. She's good at what she does, and I think is a feminist in her own way.
Harry Crane (Rich Sommer)
"They don’t care about us. We’re just a bunch of salaries on a ledger. They’ll draw a line and get rid of everything below it." 2x13 Meditations in an Emergency
my bias! Let me show you it! If I had to pick a favorite out of all the side characters, it would have to be this bow tie wearing, doofy guy. Harry Crane started off as a junior copywriter but moved his way up into being the head of the Television Department-which he created himself. He tries so hard to be a good guy, but there is a predjudice or two and a mild infidelity here and there that can get him into trouble. He's a newlywed and he's going to be a dad soon but he doesn't get paid much. I really wish we knew more about him. Look at him. I love this guy.
The Greek Chorus: Paul Kinsey (michael Gladis), Sal Romano (Bryan Batt), Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton)
"Don’s been screwing me for the last three years, I’ve got nothing." 2x01 For Those Who Think Young
Ken Cosgrove: You’re not like everyone else around here.
Salvatore Romano: I don’t know if that’s true. 2x07 The Gold Violin
Series creator matthew weiner never intended for these side characters to be so popular, but they became a greek chorus that followed Pete around and explained the jobs as they happened. Harry was also part of the greek chorus but my love for him allowed him his own spot. These three here are the odd ones out. Paul (who bares a great resemblence or Orson Welles is an educated man who dated *gasp* a colored girl! Ken, though he chases tail quite a bit is a guy with a sensitive streak, he's a writer. Sal is gay, very obviously so to the viewer and not so much to everyone he works with, or his wife. He has a bit of a crush on Ken.
I'll be honest, sometimes Don's emotions get a little too heavy. These three lighten it up.
I don't like these people and you'll see why in Season 2
Jane Siegel (Peyton List)
Duck Phillips (mark moses)
I know there are characters I left out, but these are the main players that are in an overwhelming majority of the episodes. So, you should probably start watching. I can't wait to rewatch everything (my season 1 dvds get here tomorrow!).
And, if we're being honest, I'm probably going to do a picspam later because this cast is so gorgeous and it's mad men day!
Also, I'm keeping this public. Tell your friends!