August 4, 2010 - Breakfast

I found myself sitting up in bed doing the math on Mad Men characters and how old they would be now. The show is set 46 years ago. Who would be alive? Roger Sterling no, Don Draper only possibly. Most of the men would be dead. Most of the women could be alive. When the Times interviews old advertising men to talk about the era they sound utterly normal. After all our parents lived through it as well. Matthew Weiner was born in in 1965, though. Now that we've quit smoking as a culture will we all live to 100? Although we've turned the world into one big cigarette. Being as I love history, and in particular the history of advertising, I've watched this show from the first episode, mostly for the office bits. I like that it's shiny but find the drama unconvincing. I want more advertising, more work. Work is hardly ever boring to see on TV, even when it is. Whereas each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but all of that unhappiness sort of boils down to its own thing. In the show everyone gets to smoke and drink and lie and rape. Monkey stuff. You could do just as good--just as subtle a set of anxieties--with a show set in the present; even better, maybe, in the future. Or just put fedoras and pretty dresses on chimps to get the same drama.

Weight: 308.25 lbs