Tag Archives: AMC

January 5, 2008 · 8:57 pm

CTV Picks up ‘Mad Men’ for Canadian Broadcast

I’ve been loathe to post news notes over the last six months or so because, ultimately, I just don’t have the time – stopping mid-day to post the latest television updates is satisfying but also time consuming. However, as a rather busy schedule has the final two portions of the 10 Shows to (Hopefully) Watch in 2008 being pushed into Sunday/Monday, I figure I should share some news for my Canadian brethren about one of the shows that already made the cut.

CTV announced on Thursday that they have acquired the broadcast rights to Mad Men’s first season as well as its unaired sophomore session. This is a great boon for the series North of the Border, as it is sure to be a strong performer should the strike continue. CTV is in a far superior position to Global post-strike, as the loss of 24 will severely damage the latter while the former has Lost and American Idol returning. This is just one more drop in their bucket, especially in terms of quality.

My only concern is that they’ll treat the series as they treated Veronica Mars – after airing part of the show’s second season (Or was it the first?), they basically gave up on the show even as it continued on the CW. CTV’s schedule is usually so full that there isn’t room for smaller series, but Mad Men’s strike timing and its potential summer return could spell success.

If you’ve yet to see the series, and want to learn more, you can check our Cultural Learnings’ coverage of the series. It’s really not as definitive as that statement made it sound, but there is a lengthy essay on its portrayal of women there that could provide some incentive for academics amongst us.

The Women of ‘Mad Men’: An Essay

[So, admittedly, I had wanted to write about Dexter today, but I am simply not going to have time. In short, finale is good, but I have some serious issues with the season as a whole that keep my from joining the hype train. However, I can offer you the following: it’s my Lit. Theory essay about ‘Mad Men’, one of my favourite series of the year, and recently nominated for two Golden Globes. I wanted to throw in a couple of YouTube videos here and there to spice it up but there’s no time; so, it’s just 2800 words of me intellectually rambling! Enjoy!]

From a twenty-first century perspective, the 1960s present a strange and foreign environment in which social interaction was defined by an entirely different set of rules. Man Men, a television drama from Matthew Weiner, takes place in the world of advertising during an era where smoking is natural and where segregation defines African-Americans as ‘the help’. While these social issues are used to locate the show within this specific time, largely remaining unchallenged within the show’s narrative, the presentation of women within Mad Men is a more deconstructive element. The series presents two women, in particular, who find themselves intertwined with this fast-moving world dominated by male figures: Peggy, a young secretary turned copy writer who struggles with her weight, and Betty, the wife of the Head of Creative who is defined by her domestic role. The series may be focused on an industry and a time period where the role of women was marginalized, but it represents an opportunity for the show’s writers to emphasize how this marginalization impacts these two women in particular.

Specifically, the daily activities of the Sterling Cooper agency are particularly worrisome: the discourse of advertising speaks to all audiences but is written and created almost exclusively by male writers. This environment provides a fertile ground for an investigation of the role language plays in reaffirming or challenging the patriarchal order. Peggy’s attempts to break into this industry may provide the most extensive representation of feminist literary theory within the series, but Mad Men also emphasizes the level to which phallocentric discourses bleed into the life of a young wife struggling to come to terms with her own identity. Mad Men is not a feminist television series, as its dedication to realism keeps either of these characters from emerging in defiance of all their unfair treatment. However, that attention to realism allows the series to demonstrate the level to which patriarchal discourse was dominant in life and language during this period, historicizing this period of feminine experience.

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Tagged as AMC, Essay, Feminism, Matthew Weiner

August 16, 2007 · 9:00 am

Summer TV Wrapup: Most Intriguing New Show – “Mad Men”

AMC’s drama series Mad Men is something that I, as the title of this post suggest, find intriguing. I don’t know if I necessarily like it, but I certainly admire its qualities and feel that I am learning something by watching it.

The 1960s are an era I have no connection to, and can’t say I ever thought before watching it that it would be compelling. I don’t know anything about advertising in the decade, and I have only a slight knowledge of the political and social framework of the time. The people of Sterling Cooper might as well be living in a different world.

And yet, here I am enjoying it in spite of my apparent disconnect from its thematic values. The show’s sharp writing and slow but steady character development has been the proper introduction to its subject matter, and the result has been a show that, even if I’m not entertained by conventional means, certainly remains intriguing.

And, as a result, Mad Men is the Most Intriguing New Show of the Summer season.

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