Hooked!

Alright, I admit it. I'm addicted to the AMC series Mad Men. Set in the 60's, it follows a group of alpha males pushing the latest wares on an unsuspecting public. They're men behaving badly; they're ad men. Always with a ciggy in one hand and a Scotch in the other, they sit back and drop slogans like cookies off a Pillsbury roll, each busting with chocolate chips of bulls**t. Calling these guys fallible is too easy. As Ethan Hawke tells Nicholas Cage in Lord of War, "I'd tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there." Exactly. But somewhere in there is truth too. And likability too. They know they're in hell. They know they leer, swindle, and lie. Telling them that is like showing up at an AA meeting and telling people they're alcoholics. Well, duh.

I imagine I'm sitting at their meetings. The air is thick with cigarette smoke and vaporizing pomade. Outside the room the typewriters clickety-clack away as an army of marms make Xeroxes the old-fashioned way, on Smith-Coronas. And I'm with these guys in their heads as they Jacque Cousteau their way into the American psyche, looking for that one turn of the phrase, that one image, that will convince people they need this to be happy.

The real question is why I find this vision so appealing. I like Entourage too, but that one's a little easier to figure out. Who wouldn't want to be the biggest movie star this side of Brad Pitt for a day? But why do I want to be an ad man in the 60's? The simplest explanation is that the show is really good. They all get more complicated after that.

Can I also mention how much I love this line from the commercials? Main character Don Draper tells a female client (soon-to-be mistress) completely straight-faced: "The reason you haven't felt it is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons." Wow, bring on the apocalypse.

P.S. I also happen to love the theme song by electronic music artist RJD2. Give it a listen: