Friday, November 13, 2009

The Curious Question of Don Draper and Mad Men

I'm into the second season now and puzzled by the show. I certainly like that it exists - a show about adults for adults. A nice antidote to comic books and cartoons and politically correct nonsense masquerading as movies today.

But in contrast to Deadwood, the Sopranos, or the Wire, Mad Men is a bit...I don't know...boring.

I suppose one might say I need death and murder and other acts of violence to stay engaged in a show. Perhaps. Perhaps. But in watching Mad Men I don't find myself compelled to watch another episode in the same way I've stayed up until 4am on a weeknight to keep watching the Wire or the Sopranos. And certainly, it is no insult to be put in such company and no expectation by me that all shows - all dramas - need to reach those lofty standards.

It occurred to me watching last night an episode when Don Draper grabs a woman by the neck and reaches to her crotch and says, "Believe me, I will ruin him," this is a show for women. It felt like the type of steamy moment straight out of a ridiculous romance novel - the hunky hero - leering and lustfully taking the woman like a modern day tarzan. Hot, you say? I'm reminded of the Saturday Night Live skit when acne faced frat boys find a genie bottle and rub it asking for a lesbian make out session in front of them in their room. And sure enough they get it: two horrific butch lesbians sloppily making out.

In real life, I imagine a guy - any guy - hot or not - grabbing a woman by her neck and crotch in a restaurant and a real reaction by real people - I doubt - under any circumstance would find this hot. It's be freaking weird, people. And a tad creepy. Borderline sexual violence. Prude, you call me?

Gimme a break. It's about as ridiculous as Vince flopping into threesomes with chicks he meets at coffee shops in Entourage and a few steps away from a porno scene in which a hot nurse examines a patients penis and finds out is enormous and must fellate him right away.

Man Men skims the border or being romance novel porn. For women. Playgirl, not Playboy.

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