I'm the opposite of an early adopter. When I jump on a bandwagon, it's already nearly empty, its former occupants having long since moved onto more current things. I sent my first text message in 2009, which was also when I joined Facebook. My sister gave me an infinity scarf for my birthday. I'd ridiculed the silly things for three or four years, and then I tried one on and what do you know? I liked it. I'd be right on trend now, if this was 2011. Open-front cardigans are another current favorite; I bought my first one a few months ago, just in time for them to be over.
So that's why I'm now watching the first season of "Mad Men" (I am current, though, on "Portlandia".) I'm all agog. The period details are fun to look at, and I'm also interested in the social history aspect of the show, although I don't really know how accurate it is. The sexism is so exaggerated that it's almost hard to take seriously. Not having been there, of course, I have to take pop-culture interpretations of everyday life in past eras on faith. Maybe the sexism was just as bad as the show depicts. On the other hand, most of the women at Sterling Cooper, if they had any interest in watching football with their husbands on Sundays, wouldn't have had to watch semi-nude dancing girls on the sidelines. And can you imagine Joan Holloway or Betty Draper participating in "The Bachelor"? The Sexual Revolution: AWESOME for Women.
I digress.
I think that what interests me the most is the character of Don Draper as sort of a human wrecking ball and lightning rod in one. Most of the characters are believable and complex on their own, but almost everything that happens to them is a result of their collision with Don; some of them pursue him and some of them are thrown up against him, but I can't think of a single character who isn't defined to some extent in relationship to Don Draper.
I'm not watching now; I gave up Netflix for Lent (I gave up crunchy snacks, sweets,and buttered bread, too; Netflix was to make sure that my sacrifice is about more than losing a few excess pounds; never mind the fact that I've given up sweets, crunchy snacks, and buttered bread for six weeks every year for the past four years, and I haven't lost an ounce as a result--damn middle age) so I need to catch up from about the mid-point of season 4. My prediction is that Don's past will catch up with him and that he'll be tried as a deserter, but that he'll be saved by post-Vietnam popular disillusionment with American foreign policy--no jury will convict him. Whatever happens, it will be nice to be current on pop culture, just for a change.
