Mad Men

The American Man

I've come late to this series but in a way I like that. It means that I am never left wanting. There is no end-of-episode tension or end-of-season bereft feeling when I am waiting for the next installment. There are a whole six seasons just sitting there waiting for me to enjoy as and when it suits me. The whole series is at my beck and call. I can view them at any time or any place. Mad Men is a whore for me.

Over the past few weeks I have become intensely interested in those New York accents. I just love those dastardly characters with their side partened brylcreamed hair and suits. I am strangely attracted to the smoking and drinking funk that must emanate through their clothes, their breath and every piece of paper they handle.

The Playtex Pitch

The silhouettes of the secretaries are so carefully and skillfully shot so as to frame the outline of each playtex clad breast and most likely 24 hour pantie girdle Playtext 60's ad keeping everything just so pert and firm. Christina Hendricks is a siren in red and I think I want to be her.

Joan on the sofa

Joan at her best. She is a present. You Tube clip - Christmas Party

I am fascinated by the sets. The attention to detail is tremendous. Every item is so well placed from the desks in the office to the fridge in the Draper's home to the art on the walls and the style of glass used to neck back yet another whiskey before lunch.

Drinking at lunch time, drinking at any time you care to mention, followed by a fag (a cigarette for our American friends) and then the whole routine repeats. It's an unsustainable work ethic that I crave to be part of if only for the dresses. I would be a secretary as I'm a girl and that's what girls do - happy, actually grateful, just to sit outside Don Draper's (who is unfeasibly handsome) office waiting for a task "Yes Mr Draper" I'd say- whereupon I would spring into action ordering flowers for his latest woman, lying over the phone to his latest woman or actually lying on the sofa in his office being his latest woman. Oh yes I would! And then I'd be promoted to be Roger Stirling's secretary

Yes Mr Stirling?

Its the Americaness of the whole concept that really appeals to me. More specifically the New Yorkness of it. Its a place I've never been but its calling me. In the last year I have read the poetry and discovered Langston Hughes, I've experienced Jack Kerouac's journey into New York, I've researched the documentation of graffiti art on New York subway trains by New York photographers and I've even watched Metropolis which is based on a futuristic New York.