Mad about Mad Men

The ONLY reason I started watching Mad Men was because of my undying devotion to Kevin and Bean on KROQs morning program. They speak so highly of it, I just had to see what the fuss was about.

I finished seasons 1 & 2 in a jiffy on Netflix and although season 1 took a while for me to warm up to, but it really grew on me and I LOVE MAD MEN! It's quite possibly the BEST show EVER. That's right, I said it.

I've never watched a TV series where I couldn't predict what would happen eventually. I had many ideas on what would become of Peggy, Betty, and Joan for example in season 1, but realized I was completely wrong. I stopped trying to figure out what each character represented and what would become of them in the storyline and just watched it. Each person has their own story, but are not entirely evil, good, or in between. Is Pete Campbell a bad person or isn't he? Does he truly love Peggy? Will Betty continue drowning her sorrows as a housewife at the stables? Does Don Draper actually have a conscience? Speaking of our main man, at first I thought they made him a little too slick, with his dashing good looks and pretentious attitude, but then I realized that he is a selfish cheating bastard who happened to have an unfortunate childhood. (What? Not in love with the main character? That's a first for me!)

The show constantly has me changing my judgments on the characters because the level of writing and story plots are so deep and so beyond any other show I've seen! The writing is impeccable, dramatic, and very era appropriate. I also didn't think that I would be interested to see what life was like in the late 50's and early 60's, but now that I have seen it, I am very intrigued and surprised at how society functioned back then. Sexual harassment at the work place? Alcoholism? Depression? Lung cancer awareness? Child abuse? All considered nonsense in the world of Mad Men!

You simply MUST watch this show!

What's with the British Accent?

I recently watched "Valkyrie" and realized Tom Cruise did not even attempt to do a German accent, but the audience assumed that he was in fact German. The rest of the German soldiers had the all-too-familiar British accent, which lead me to ask, "why Hollywood, why?" Cut to any kind of ancient Rome movies/shows, "Rome," "Sparta," and "Troy" - ALL British accents.

Over the years I have realized how much it gets on my nerves. Why can't you do an entire movie in Latin? What's wrong with keeping it historical and more realistic? I had to applaud "Passion of Christ" because the actors actually spoke in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew. In "Braveheart" everyone had Scottish accents so therefore the movie was much more believable. I think Hollywood makes movies and thinks, "ok, this doesn't take place in America, British accents, everyone!"