People who know me, know I harbour a love for all things cheesy and/or tacky. I recently bought two mugs (a total of 50 cents) from the thrift shop that can only be described as hideous. They are brown and feature a man’s face complete with a moustache, which, if it belonged to an actual man, could be referred to as having a life of its own. Why do I like these things? I don’t know. But it brings me to my love for bad, b-list television. On more than one occasion my family and friends have heard me utter “wow, this looks like THE WORST show ever. I have to watch it” Perhaps it is because, being Canadian, I know that Canada is, more or less, incapable of making a decent quality show, or film and my national pride is taking over. Of course, I know there are good ones, DaVinci’s Inquest, or Corner Gas but most often when you sit down to watch something produced by CBC or “Funded in part by the Government of Canada” you will end up in the position of open-mouthed horror and the flood of questions that invariably come with it. Who produced this? Who wrote this? The Government paid for this? WHY? And also WHY? Who can forget that CBC hit “The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives”, that aired some years ago. This show was actually too bad, even for me. I attempted to watch it but in the end my sister and I put it on mute and made our own script, complete with a French accent for true Canadian authenticity. Where am I going with this? Well, I do love shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but it always takes me some time to muster up the courage to watch them. It’s always worth it though. Mad Men, is incredibly well written, nuanced, and beautiful to watch. But why do I have such a hard time? I think it’s because, basically I wish to leap in to the television and tell them to start being nicer to each other. I don’t like seeing people get hurt in real life so I feel even more uncomfortable watching it and knowing that I’ve done it to myself. I think it’s a great testament to Mad Men that they have created a show so painful to watch. Almost every television show attempts to create “compromised characters” but come on. Nobody actually thought that Kate should go to jail on LOST. Whereas on Mad Men, I quite frequently feel like bursting in to tears because of a poignant or sad moment. However, although I love Mad Men, I still also love a good cheesy TV show. Why? Because everyone has their place and we all know who’s bad and who’s good. If a good character does a bad thing we know that it’s for the GREATER GOOD, whatever that may be. Also, there’s always the bad acting and/or special affects to laugh at.
I think that the greatest thing about MAD MEN in contrast with other shows is their approach to their characters with the very modern idea of fakeness and performance.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Lost is that more often than not, personal stories would create characters who had their fall in the past: very clear stories of thwarted characters who are trying to redeem themselves in the island. But to keep an interest, they often told these over the top stories: a polls winner who has a jinx on him, a man whose absent father wins him over to steal his kidney, a fugitive who blewn up her own house, the painfully boring fight of a man to forgive his father. But it was too obvious to be real.
In Mad Men, besides the incredible display of political issues, the personal lives of the characters secrets remain thinly veiled, everything is and isn't at the same time. They just have to get along with it. The factors that cause strain are very real social issues which, in spite of the fifty years' distance, still resonate with the viewer. You know that these characters have gone through a lot of pain, but they still have to fight for their survival in the jungle of high-end furniture and good art, wrapped in elegant and expensive clothes.
I think that the problem with LOST was that even though the characters had done 'bad'things they weren't REALLY bad. I mean, Kate blows up her dad because he's abusive, Jack's 'flaw is that he wants to help people to much. Sawyer wants vengeance for his parents. Their so called bad qualities are actually good qualities. Like when you go for a job interview and they ask what a flaw of yours is and you say "I'm a perfectionist". However, for example in the last Episode of Mad Men in Season 4 when Don Draper suddenly breaks up with his blond girlfriend for the French secretary there's no way out of it. What he did was mean and you have to feel for the blond woman who's name I can't remember. There's no GOOD reason for him to do it. Mad Men is more realistic because people do unkind things or good things for that matter, all the time but with no real reason.
ReplyDeleteBRAVO! We get our mouths full with Mad Men. I just need a fifth season like water, me in the desert with my tongue in the sand and all.
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