NIGHT IN WITH NETFLIX: MAD MEN

Name: Hana Waldenberg Year: Senior Major: English Literature Q: What have you been watching on Netflix? A: I have been watching “Mad Men” forever. Q: When do you watch Netflix? A: I tend to watch Netflix between classes on my phone if I have a long amount of time where I have nothing going on. Q: Who introduced you to the show? A: It was my sister. She said I would really like the feminist stuff that [happens] throughout and how it emerges. She also told me I would like the costumes, makeup and all that. She was right. Q: What do you like about the show? A: I like that “Mad Men” has a protagonist who isn’t necessarily a decent human being, but that the writers of the show still manage to make you interested in what will happen to that character. I like that there’s really no one in the whole show who is always a great person, yet there’s still a lot of favorites that I have. Q: Who is your favorite character? A: I would say that Don Draper is one of my favorite characters, even though he’s always a terrible person. And Joan because she does whatever she wants and she doesn’t really adhere to gender roles that society tries to put on her.

Storyline from IMDB: The professional and personal lives of those who work in advertising on Madison Avenue - self-coined "mad men" - in the 1960s are presented. The stories focus on those at one of the avenue's smaller firms, Sterling Cooper, and its various incarnations over the decade. At the heart of these stories is Donald Draper, the creative genius of the company. That professional creative brilliance belies the fact of a troubled childhood, one that he would rather forget and not let anyone know about except for a select few, but one that shaped who he is as an adult and as an ad man in the need not only to sell products but sell himself to the outside world. His outward confidence also masks many insecurities as evidenced through his many vices, such as excessive smoking, drinking and womanizing - the latter despite being a family man - and how he deals with the aftermath of some of the negative aspects of his life. My Review: Watching women be treated the way they were in the 1940s is quite infuriating but it is interesting to see this played out to the extreme of how men were controlling women. I find myself rooting for a character to go against the grain and stand up for a woman or for a woman to stand up for herself, but they usually just deal with everything as though nothing is wrong. This may be a drama, but there isn’t enough drama to keep me interested. I do see the appeal in the mystery behind Don Draper and getting fired up about feminism. My Rating: 2.75 out of 5 Seasons Available: 7 Number of Episodes: 92 Average length per episode: 47 minutes Genre: Drama

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