Matthew Weiner Gets it Right

Matthew Weiner is the Exec­u­tive Pro­ducer and over­all head hon­cho behind Mad­Men, the series that relays the story of 60s era adver­tis­ing agency, Sterling-Cooper. From real­ism to cus­toms and sets, char­ac­ter devel­op­ment, script and rel­e­vance, Mr. Weiner gets it right from every angle. What strikes me the most as I watch (just fin­ished Sea­son 2) is that a series writ­ten 50 years later seems more real­is­tic than any series of the time (yeah, I grew up in the ‘60s). In many ways, I feel like the show grants me access to a life I never lived though I lived in par­al­lel with the char­ac­ters of the time.

Why Review Madmen

This review comes as part of Mad­Men, An Outer Planet Tour, a series that ana­lyzes  the decades the series cov­ered via outer planet move­ment. It would seem an over­sight to pro­duce so much mate­r­ial with­out speak­ing of the show.

The Strat­egy

The review ded­i­cates a few para­graphs to impres­sions of the show. It will include links to outer planet ref­er­ences when appro­pri­ate. The cat­e­gories reviewed include: Cos­tumes and Sets, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Char­ac­ter Devel­op­ment, Rel­e­vance, Writ­ing and Scripts, Over­all Experience.

Cos­tumes and Sets

The key to the real­ism of the show comes through in the cos­tumes and through the real­ism of the sets. The care the crew devotes to the task comes through in the fact that I can almost smell the room the char­ac­ters pop­u­late. The lit­tle knick-knacks of 50s vin­tage con­stantly remind of being at a grand­par­ents house, mar­veling at old musty things. Even the light­ing seems dif­fer­ent, yet familiar.

Cin­e­matog­ra­phy

Speak­ing of light­ing, the com­bi­na­tion of light­ing and cam­era move­ment takes those who grew up in the ‘60s the feel­ing of being in the cin­ema. Though I watch on my PC, I always feel like I’m seated in an old time movie the­ater, watch­ing some­thing John Ford directed. Know­ing the devo­tion to detail, I am cer­tain this reflects intention.

Char­ac­ter Development

We come to love all the char­ac­ters, despite their many flaws. Don Draper lives a lie and cheats on his wife in a heart­beat, but he’s our hero, the knight in shin­ing armor of Sterling-Cooper’s cre­ative side. Peggy Olsen ignores the baby fathered by Pete Camp­bell, who cheated with Peggy on the office couch. This real­ism likely draws us in, reflect­ing ours and the flaws of friends and fam­i­lies. More amaz­ing to me is pre­sent­ing the char­ac­ters as lik­able, while also pre­sent­ing them as arche­types. Peggy and Joan rep­re­sent two sides of women’s choices in the ‘60s. Don & Betty Draper rep­re­sent the more real­is­tic ver­sion of Rob and Lau­rie Petri. This method lets the show quite clev­erly issues from the time, while let­ting the char­ac­ters have real lives we can believe in.

Rel­e­vance

Another place where Mad­Men excels lies in the abil­ity to place you in the character’s moment, while also encour­ag­ing com­par­i­son to our time. I find most strik­ing how much tech­nol­ogy between then and now has changed. So many times we might expect some­one to pick up a cell phone to order a cab or a pizza. Of course, this never hap­pens but the rel­a­tively crude nature of the tech­nol­ogy of the time really stands out.

Of course, the dif­fer­ence in women’s lives between then and now stands out, beg­ging for com­par­i­son. Yes, women have far greater pro­tec­tion than in Mad­Men days, but the ques­tion of how far women have come will still be a major ques­tion until women feel equally treated. No mat­ter our views, fem­i­nism rep­re­sents a major theme that steers the entire series.

Writ­ing and Scripts

I’ve never writ­ten a script of any type. I can only imag­ine the expe­ri­ence, since Mad­Men is a col­lab­o­ra­tive enter­prise. What stands out, how­ever, espe­cially, after hear­ing the com­men­tary, is the lee­way Mr. Weiner gives to the writ­ers and actors. In some cases he demands cer­tain plot points remain as writ­ten. In oth­ers, we gives writ­ers, actors and direc­tors to inter­pret cer­tain actions or emo­tions. Addi­tion­ally, he leaves enough out for us to make up our assumptions.

Over­all Experience

Besides offer­ing intel­li­gent, under­stated writ­ing, backed by fas­tid­i­ous set and cos­tume design I look for­ward to com­plete nature of every Mad­Men DVD. Each episode fea­tures two com­men­tary by cast and crew, with the cer­tainty of a Matthew Weiner adding his insight. As a writer, the cre­ative process helps shape my craft. As a futur­ist, his­to­rian, I con­stantly seek clues and addi­tional per­spec­tive. If you read this Matthew, your ded­i­ca­tion to com­men­tary really puts Mad­Men over the top!