Why Mad Men is Better than Most Movies (Hint: It’s the Characters)
I have begun watching Mad Men recently. It is the new AMC answer to HBO’s very successful line of high-end dramatic television series. It is now in its second season and bringing in barrels of Golden Globes and Emmys. The show swirls around Don Drapper, creative director for a top add agency on Madison Avenue in the year 1960. Just seeing this era recreated is a thrill. Every character smokes in every scene, every character drinks in every other scene, everyone wears a suit all the time, and nobody’s wife knows what goes on at the office. The set design, costumes, lighting, ambiance, and overall tone are killer. And obviously this environment is rich with themes that are still touchy and provocative now – even when we think we are on the other side of them – things like, the Nixon/Kennedy presidential race, the role of women in the workplace, the role of women in the home, all the sexual tensions that come with both of those situations, technological advances, new scientific discoveries, corporate hierarchies, consumer psychology, racism, and drinking. It was a time of great and profound change in the American mind, where one era and way of life caved in under its own pressures.
In the first episode Reader’s Digest has just published an article on the dangers of smoking and the government has passed a law that no longer allows cigarette manufacturers to say the dangers are a myth. This creates an advertising crisis. But here is the interesting thing: In the very first scene of the very first episode the camera pans a jazzy, smoke-filled restaurant, zooming in slowly on Don Drapper sitting at a table, having a drink, and working on this advertising problem. The problem is presented through the eyes of the character wrestling with it. Something about this coolheaded opening brought home to me what a great TV series has over film. It can take its time, in fact it has to take its time, developing characters. While the show has style and wrestles with issues, this opening scene tells us that it is about this man – sitting in a booth with a puzzled expression, drinking rye, and trying to come up with an add slogan. Where did he come from? What is he here for? Where is he going?
You see, if you are going to do 13, 1-hour episodes for even just one season of a show, let alone 4 or 5, you realize how much time you have to spend with your main characters. It forces you to think through them as real people not simply as mouth pieces for your agenda or agents to drive the action. Too often in films the ridiculous premise, thematic agenda, comedy device, or twisty plot is the driving force and you just happen to have to have people in there. For example, it would be really cool to witness a political assassination from a bunch of different angles – it could be really confusing and there could be a ton of action and stuff…
So when I say Mad Men is better than most movies because of the characters I do not mean that the creators simply thought of more compelling characters than most films, although I think they have, rather I am referring to the importance placed on characters in the show. Plot serves character development and not the other way around. Each episode seems to begin wherever we happen to find the characters and end some time latter after a few things have happened. There is no pressure to cut the whole thing down to a 90 or 100 minute run time that will keep the audience from getting bored, no pressure to wrap up all the loose ends and dispense of those scenes that do not directly contribute to the plot development. We see so many little nothings that simply let us get to know the characters. We live their lives with them. We get to see Don Drapper, angry and confused, bail on his daughter’s birthday party to spite his wife – taking the cake with him. Then we get a shot of him sitting in an empty parking lot, the cake riding shotgun, as he tries to understand why he is doing what he is doing - no words, no action, we just sit there with Don.
Roger Ebert has repeatedly said in many different ways, “Movies help us to empathize with other people so that we can see things from more than just our own point of view. I think that’s the most valuable thing a movie can do.” Empathy is a carefully chosen word in a statement like this. In order for us to empathize with people we have to feel their struggles, maybe even bear a little of their burden ourselves. This is what separates it from basic sympathy, a more detached emotion we can casually feel for any stranger’s misfortune. For empathy to develop the characters cannot serve the plot, it has to be the other way around.
A good TV show or mini-series has that beautiful ability to stroll. Mad Men is so good because it takes us deep into so many characters lives. If you have ever finished an 800-page book and been sorry it was over so soon, you know what I mean. Good characters become like friends you enjoy spending time with – old friends you will remember all your life.
