Go watch this show please

I'm always talking about Mad Men on this blog, and I realize that you guys have no idea what I'm really talking about. In light of that, I decided to do something about it. Perhaps I can "sell" you on the show?

Above is a user made trailer for Mad Men that somebody made.

Hopefully, that will make you want to go watch it, and if so here's the link to the first episode.

If you like it, comment, and let me know what you think.

Ohhhhh Don

Tonight was Mad Men's season finale, and it left me really really troubled.

Not like troubled because of my life, but because I want to know where these characters--especially Don Draper--are going to be, in what will presumably be 1966.

I don't want to spoil anything for those who don't watch, but if you want to chat about this we can do so in the comment section.

So much I want to talk about.

Don Draper

Because I love Mad Men so much, here's a little photo tribute to Don Draper.

Enjoy.

Our 'Mad Men' relationships

Mad Men was excellent tonight. I'm not going to spoil it for anybody, or say anything to ruin the show for people who haven't seen it, but it was an emotionally charged episode.

The show has always been about, and revolved around, great characters. Tonight we got to see two of our central protagonists, connect on a level that they hadn't previously.

Tonight, is why I like TV. Not all shows, will take you all the way into its character's lives, but Mad Men always has. TV, better than movies, is more able to allow a viewer to get to know a story's central characters, and often times I think it makes TV characters more relatable. We see them in their daily routine, we see them try to live with the impact of their daily decisions, and we see the ultimate effect that life's realities have on them. And of course we all experience something along those lines every day.

For those of us who follow Mad Men, I think this episode contained a lot of relatable material. A lot of dark themes ran throughout, but I think what will stay with people was the parting shot, and realizing why we need the people in our lives. Why we cherish the relationships.

Arcade Fire and Mad Men

I promise that I'm going to start keeping this up regularly.

Tonight I watched "Scott Pilgrim Versus the World." I have to admit it was pretty damn funny. Michael Cera played Michael Cera again, and Jason Schwartzman continued his run of slimy despicable characters. Also Aubrey Plaza was fucking hilarious. She's like the hipster update of Janeane Garofalo.

But I also watched the latest Mad Men again...

I'm sure there's a lot of you who don't watch Mad Men--and that's okay--its sort of a geeky English major-type show. Like one of those shows where you can watch an episode two or three times and still catch stuff. I was an English major, so I sort of geek out every episode.

Anyway, shitzzz (so intellectual I know) is getting "heavy," (McFly) and Don Draper (the protagonist) is spiraling into a dark dark place. Here's a man who I really think is a good person--or at least wants to be--but he's too afraid of his own emotions to be that person. He feels, thinks, and knows the right things to do, but he's too trapped being this identity that he's created to become anything different. Lately, he's comforting his pain with everybody's old pal Bourbon, but I wonder how long he can continue with this spiral into addiction and suffering. Somebody, or something, has to bring life back into this guy at some point this season.

This got me thinking though--about a lot of stuff.

Especially about Arcade Fire's new album. The Suburbs, is like a social commentary for our times, but it's also appropriate for the '60s era of Mad Men. The album thumps, wails, hums, beats, and haunts of what a life of conformity can do to our soul. It speaks of connections without touching, of how life takes us away from each other, how our 9-5 internet connected lives can kill our creativity--our passion. Is this 2010 or 1965? I couldn't help but think how resonate this subject matter is with the world of Mad Men. How the album mirrors the life of Don Draper, and the sadness that has enveloped that character. The man is literally a slave to his job, and what's worse is that he's so afraid to let anybody know who he really is that his work is all that he has. Sort of a paradox in a way. He's successful at his job, he's good at it, but the deceitful nature of it (he's in advertising) seems to further the lies of his life; and yet its only at work where he seems truly comfortable.

Maybe this is just my youth thinking, but somewhere along the line--in college or in high school--I think I lost my creative passion. I used to draw and paint every waking hour of my spare time as a kid, but during my adolescence this escaped from me further and further. Somewhere i got this notion that I had to "make something" of my life, and that art wasn't going to make me happy. I can't even put my damn finger on it--where that fucking thought came from (perhaps Leo DiCaprio incepted it in me)--but as I think I'm starting to find myself I realize that art, passion, things that celebrate life and all its complexity, are the things that I've always wanted to do and be apart of.