Talking About Television: Mad Men (contains very minor spoilers)

There's lot of reasons I watch "Mad Men", but I think in the end the most important reason is the world. I am fascinated by the world of 1960s Manhattan. I like to think I am acceptably well versed in history, but nothing else has given me such a window into this world. It became even more fascinating to me when I realized that I'm looking at the world of my grandparents. They all worked in Manhattan. My parents are age contemporaries to Don Draper's children. One of my grandmothers met my grandfather because he was looking for a nice Irish girl from the girls in the building (for they were decidedly considered girls back then). My grandfathers both worked in insurance, and I know the constant heavy drinking was real, and something that had real consequences. I've never really understood what that world was like, and I'm fascinating. I'm planning to send DVDs to my 84 year old grandmother, and see what she thinks. There's so much going on in Mad Men, and so much of it is mostly in the background, but so important. Little things, like the family picnic that ends with just leaving all the trash in the grass, and things that turn my stomach, like the depiction of early 1960s childbirth. There's so much going on with gender and gender roles, the sexual revolution, and the increasing prevalence of divorce.

So far, Mad Men has covered 1960-1964. In my mind, the 60s didn't really begin until Kennedy was shot and the Beatles arrived (and I've long seen the intensity of Beatlemania as partly a reaction to the hole left in the America psyche by JFK's death). All of the major events of the 60s are foregone conclusions in the minds of the audience. I know that Nixon loses the 1960 election, and that JFK, MLK and RFK don't survive the decade. I know we make it to the moon. I know that the little conflict in Vietnam first mentioned in season three is going to change American life. It's weird, I rarely watch TV where I know so much of what will happen.

For all of season three, I felt JFK's death looming. Early on, we see the date on a wedding invitation for Saturday, November 23, 1963, and we know that the wedding is doomed, taking place the day after JFK's death. JFK died long before I was born, but I still found myself crying over his death, not so much because of the loss of his life, but because of the way it affected the people on the show. I am a sucker for strong emotion on screen, sometimes even commercials can make me cry.

I am honestly dreading the escalation of the Vietnam War in the Man Men world. That is a story that I know quite well from school and other media. Perhaps they will surprise me and show me some angle that is new to me, but I'd rather they focus on something I know less well. I am very curious to see how many years Mad Men will cover, and which time periods they will skip over. I am looking for recommendations of other shows that give such a profound send of a real time and place.