I'm puzzled by the good reviews. I'm also puzzled by the bad reviews that only harp on how unsympathetic the characters are, or how much they drink and smoke. Mad Men is a terrible show, but it isn't because the characters are bad people who drink too much. It's because the writing is awful. I'll attempt to enumerate the ways.
With stunning regularity, major characters are suddenly written off of the show. Paul Kinsey, Sal Romano, Max Ginsberg, Bob Benson, Jim Cutler, the list goes on and on. Of course, it's sometimes okay if characters in a show leave, die, or otherwise get written away. But in Mad Men it always feels like it's for no reason. The character hasn't finished their story line or developed in some way, they are just suddenly gone, often without a good bye, and often in the middle of a plot line. Jim Cutler literally just disappears and is never mentioned again. It seems like sometimes the writers didn't know what to do with a character and just decided to bag it.
And, sadly, it isn't limited to characters - the same thing happens with entire plot lines. A large quantity of story lines go absolutely nowhere, reach unsatisfying conclusions, or are completely forgotten about. Betty's hands, Peggy's child, Glenn joining the army, the random waitress that Don spends half a season looking for, the list goes on and on. It happens so often that you start to distrust the show. On the rare occasion that a plot line is interesting, you spend most of your time worrying that it will be forgotten about. Perhaps the largest culprit in this regard is the supremely uninteresting story of Don's past. The show wastes HUGE amounts of time on this, and it is just bizarre to me. It has nothing to do with anything, doesn't fit the premise of the show, and doesn't seem to inform Don's actions or personality, except in the handful of episodes where they suddenly decide that it's super important. Need Don to do something out of character or that no normal person would do? Easy, just show a three minute flashback to his past. This would be lazy writing even if they did it correctly, but half of the time even after the flashback you still don't understand Don's motivation or reasoning.
Speaking of character development, or lack thereof, after SEVEN seasons most of the characters that have been there from the beginning are still barely developed, and the relationships between many of them are nonexistent. How does Don feel about, say, Ken Cosgrove? I don't know. How do Pete Campbell and Harry Crane get along? I don't know. Near the end of the show, Peggy shares a sentimental moment with Roger Sterling like they've been friends for years, and I caught myself trying to remember if they had ever even had a scene together before. I couldn't think of one. Maybe they did, but it speaks volumes that I can't remember. Part of the problem here is that instead of expanding on the existing characters we know and care about, there is just a constant influx of new ones. Even in the last two episodes we were still introducing new characters and spending more time on them than some of the main ones. It's hard to care about any of these characters because a) they're new, b) there are so many, and c) you know they'll either be forgotten about or remain just as undeveloped as the rest of the existing characters. There are so many characters that in any given episode about half of them don't appear because there wouldn't be enough time to show them all. Even Peggy, who is probably the second most important character, is only in about half of the episodes. It's ridiculous.
Another obstacle to any kind of character or story line development is Don's insistence on constantly leaving Manhattan, where the show is set. About once a season, Don packs up and heads off on some completely pointless sojourn, typically to California. We abandon everything else going on and get to be bored to tears by his aimless wandering and endless encounters with random characters we don't know or care about. This might be the most exhausting part of the show. Just why? The whole second half of the last season is comprised of this nonsense, which makes for a very disappointing ending to a very disappointing show.
On the topic of setting, the show is set in the 1960's. But the setting is entirely irrelevant other than constantly beating us over the head with hamfisted "remember this product/invention we don't use anymore?" and "check out this retro outfit" and "wasn't it racist/sexist back then?" moments. The latter is particularly annoying because they exaggerate it so much. At times, it seems like every male character is a chain-smoking alcoholic that can't say anything asexual or non-condescending to their female coworkers, all so that the audience can smugly sit back and say, "I sure am glad that we advanced beings of the future don't behave like THAT anymore." Please. The show doesn't tackle the subjects of technological or social advancement in any kind of meaningful or thoughtful way.
Finally, there are a number of characters that are annoying and difficult to watch. The primary offender here is Sally, Don's daughter. She is just insufferable. I'm sick of movies and TV shows always writing in the precocious, strong child that is smarter than all of the adults. Kids are stupid and don't know anything. I don't want to watch a 12 year old girl parade around with an attitude while her parents refuse to discipline her. Betty, Don's wife, is almost as infuriating.
In the end, I have no idea how or why I slogged through seven seasons of this garbage. The destination was nowhere and the ride wasn't enjoyable. Save yourself the pain.
With stunning regularity, major characters are suddenly written off of the show. Paul Kinsey, Sal Romano, Max Ginsberg, Bob Benson, Jim Cutler, the list goes on and on. Of course, it's sometimes okay if characters in a show leave, die, or otherwise get written away. But in Mad Men it always feels like it's for no reason. The character hasn't finished their story line or developed in some way, they are just suddenly gone, often without a good bye, and often in the middle of a plot line. Jim Cutler literally just disappears and is never mentioned again. It seems like sometimes the writers didn't know what to do with a character and just decided to bag it.
And, sadly, it isn't limited to characters - the same thing happens with entire plot lines. A large quantity of story lines go absolutely nowhere, reach unsatisfying conclusions, or are completely forgotten about. Betty's hands, Peggy's child, Glenn joining the army, the random waitress that Don spends half a season looking for, the list goes on and on. It happens so often that you start to distrust the show. On the rare occasion that a plot line is interesting, you spend most of your time worrying that it will be forgotten about. Perhaps the largest culprit in this regard is the supremely uninteresting story of Don's past. The show wastes HUGE amounts of time on this, and it is just bizarre to me. It has nothing to do with anything, doesn't fit the premise of the show, and doesn't seem to inform Don's actions or personality, except in the handful of episodes where they suddenly decide that it's super important. Need Don to do something out of character or that no normal person would do? Easy, just show a three minute flashback to his past. This would be lazy writing even if they did it correctly, but half of the time even after the flashback you still don't understand Don's motivation or reasoning.
Speaking of character development, or lack thereof, after SEVEN seasons most of the characters that have been there from the beginning are still barely developed, and the relationships between many of them are nonexistent. How does Don feel about, say, Ken Cosgrove? I don't know. How do Pete Campbell and Harry Crane get along? I don't know. Near the end of the show, Peggy shares a sentimental moment with Roger Sterling like they've been friends for years, and I caught myself trying to remember if they had ever even had a scene together before. I couldn't think of one. Maybe they did, but it speaks volumes that I can't remember. Part of the problem here is that instead of expanding on the existing characters we know and care about, there is just a constant influx of new ones. Even in the last two episodes we were still introducing new characters and spending more time on them than some of the main ones. It's hard to care about any of these characters because a) they're new, b) there are so many, and c) you know they'll either be forgotten about or remain just as undeveloped as the rest of the existing characters. There are so many characters that in any given episode about half of them don't appear because there wouldn't be enough time to show them all. Even Peggy, who is probably the second most important character, is only in about half of the episodes. It's ridiculous.
Another obstacle to any kind of character or story line development is Don's insistence on constantly leaving Manhattan, where the show is set. About once a season, Don packs up and heads off on some completely pointless sojourn, typically to California. We abandon everything else going on and get to be bored to tears by his aimless wandering and endless encounters with random characters we don't know or care about. This might be the most exhausting part of the show. Just why? The whole second half of the last season is comprised of this nonsense, which makes for a very disappointing ending to a very disappointing show.
On the topic of setting, the show is set in the 1960's. But the setting is entirely irrelevant other than constantly beating us over the head with hamfisted "remember this product/invention we don't use anymore?" and "check out this retro outfit" and "wasn't it racist/sexist back then?" moments. The latter is particularly annoying because they exaggerate it so much. At times, it seems like every male character is a chain-smoking alcoholic that can't say anything asexual or non-condescending to their female coworkers, all so that the audience can smugly sit back and say, "I sure am glad that we advanced beings of the future don't behave like THAT anymore." Please. The show doesn't tackle the subjects of technological or social advancement in any kind of meaningful or thoughtful way.
Finally, there are a number of characters that are annoying and difficult to watch. The primary offender here is Sally, Don's daughter. She is just insufferable. I'm sick of movies and TV shows always writing in the precocious, strong child that is smarter than all of the adults. Kids are stupid and don't know anything. I don't want to watch a 12 year old girl parade around with an attitude while her parents refuse to discipline her. Betty, Don's wife, is almost as infuriating.
In the end, I have no idea how or why I slogged through seven seasons of this garbage. The destination was nowhere and the ride wasn't enjoyable. Save yourself the pain.
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