Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies





	[quote name="fabio"][quote name="Vested Id"]Pleasantville argued that the essence of the 50s was as portrayed in shows like The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best, and that while this world may be perfect it's ultimately barren because of what gets left out - namely sex and normal human emotions, which it makes almost equivalent. Even though today we have to deal with things like AIDS and global warming we're richer people because we're complete human beings.[/quote] Pleasantville's point was that the "perfect" portrayal was merely a superficial view of fascist conformity, and that as soon as you pulled back the curtain you found all the spiteful insecurities that drive such a system. [quote]Mad Men literally reverses that formula by portraying the 50s/60s realistically (disputable but certainly when compared with Pleasantville), and the bargain it's presenting is that when you look at that world as it actually was, with the flaws mixed in with the good things the postwar era was superior to the world we live in in almost every way. Whether that's true is another issue but it's the show's whole cultural import. Not everything is about narrative fabs.[/quote] Right, so its whole appeal is it's a super fantastical<sup>*</sup> quaint naive (from a modern point of view) world with nothing else to offer. Having no interesting narrative at the heart of that might work for a movie, but a TV series? [quote][quote]I'm guessing the initial rave buzz was from hipsters ecstatic to see their retro dress style validated, and the television without pity crowd who can't stop creaming themselves over Don Draper, despite him doing nothing but be insecure and mope.[/quote] Hipsters ruin nothing, geeks ruin Mad Men by reducing it's appeal into pat notions they're comfortable with, like how hats are sorely missed and how women should be feminine. [/quote][/quote] Hipsters: harmless. Geeks: leaving the world a cultural ruin? They're both groups that despise the present cultural and social status quo. That's why a show that's nothing but pointing out how bizarro these areas of the early 60s were appeals to them. What gentrified urban area do <b>you</b> live in where hipsters aren't the ones fetishizing old style hats? [quote]Also I think you're ignoring the obvious point, remarked on by everyone, that Don Draper is obsessed over because he's a lost type.[/quote] I think the appeal is more obvious than that: Don is a handsome guy with his pick of women and a high status job where the only demand is coming up with a catchy slogan once a month while nursing over your office's open bar. Joan is the similar fantasy for Television Without Pity fatties: looked down upon by men like them except she's hot enough to game the system. [/quote]