The Original Desperate Housewife
I recently finished all three seasons of "Mad Men," cramming 2-3 episodes a night alone in the bedroom while Tim and the kids were asleep. Well, to be truly accurate, I watched them with Rosie and Cheep Cheep. Jon Hamm gets all the chicks, I swear.
I actually watched the first season last year. After I finished it, all I felt was this deep anger. Watching Betty Draper's suffocating life as a 60's housewife made me feel suffocated in empathy. Every time I was left alone with the children, I felt her resentment and loneliness too. When I interacted with Tim, I felt this compelling need to be ultra-charming and proper, setting my face into a tight smile the way the wives did in the show. I wanted to tear my hair out when I didn't have dinner on the table right when Tim got home, or if I forgot to pack something in Isaac's backpack. I wondered to myself how I would be able to tell whether Tim had affairs at work or not. It affected me so deeply, I had to take a break from the show for several months.
However, people whom I respect still kept talking about "Mad Men," and with the fourth season starting up this summer, I decided to give season 2 a chance. I finally was able to get to know the characters and how they carved out these lives during such a difficult era. I was even able to imagine my own self fitting into that society. Granted, there wasn't a single Asian person besides that hot waitress at the Chinese restaurant, but before, I just couldn't believe my spirit could survive in that climate at all. But now I can see glimpses of today's "modern woman" in the female characters: Joan's unflappable competence and titanium spine, Peggy's desires to please and to disentangle herself from her family, Mona's privileged bemusement and wit, and yes, even Betty's ice-cold, doe-eyed martyrdom.
There are a few downsides to this show, in my opinion. First and foremost, I can't stop thinking about smoking. I quit shortly after I graduated from college (to all you coders out there, isn't the 2 a.m. cigarette break after finally fixing a nagging bug a true religious experience?), but I am extremely tempted to start up again. Also, since I work from home, I keep passing by our booze stash and wondering if whiskey truly helps bring out creativity and focus as it is portrayed in the show. Honestly, that ad agency should be called Cigarettes and Alcohol instead of Sterling and Cooper. Maybe the show is even funded by tobacco and booze corporations, who knows? The third thing is that I want to wear those clothes. But in order to really wear the kind of garments those women wore, you'd have to have a brick house body or some really strong foundational garments. I actually found out what company the actresses use, and am tempted to buy this monstrosity:
Where does the pee go?
My only complaint is that the bra part isn't bullet-y enough to make me a Joan. But then again, no one on earth looks like Joan except for Christina Hendricks. Rowr!
Danger: Curves Ahead
Sigh. I would have loved to try to make my way through the 60's. I would have made a hell of a secretary.