Mad Men

The countdown has begun. Pulses are quickening and anticipation is rising as the week marches on toward Sunday evening, when Mad Men returns. What will happen with Don and Betty Draper? How will Betty deal with her pregnancy? Will Duck take over Sterling Cooper and what will that mean for Don and the crew? Will Peggy Olson's son with Peter Campbell affect Peter's marriage and will their be an inheritance issue? I want to know more about Don's shadowy past. An image that lurks in my mind is where Don is shown visiting Peggy in the ward of a mental hospital.
This show beguiles me. It is full of that which I abhor, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, and adultery. It is packed with smoking, and yes, I do want to have a cigarette when I watch. The excessive drinking is reminiscent of the 60's. The sound of holiday cocktail parties was the tinkling of ice cubes in highball glasses, rather than jingle bells, and the smell of the season was Canadian Club, rather than balsam. There is a sexual current that drives the show and that was probably very real in the 60's also, but I was too young to know about it. It is a more powerful lure that has me addicted and that is the feeling of a time that will never be again. The writers of this show have nailed it:
Nostalgia. It’s delicate, but potent…Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device… isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the Wheel. It’s called the Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved. "Mad Men" Season 1, Episode 13, "The Wheel"