Chapter 76: "I Feel Bad For You." "I Don't Think About You At All."

Hello readersJ,

So last week I told you all how I haven't really had much to report due to the fact I have been ill with glandular fever - which might I add... was gross. I went from being normal, to looking like Jackie Stallone. In case you don't know who that is or what she looks like, she is Sly Stallone's Mama and this is the beaut right here:

Yeah, it wasn't pleasant.  Although I wish it looked like I had botox in my lips cause that's where I could have done with looking swollen! I am much better now although I get tired very easily... That is the after affects of glandular fever! This can last for weeks on end and so I didn't really have anything else to do with my time but watch Netflix. Now for those of you that have this, you can convert it to American Netflix by downloading the following plug-in to your laptop (http://hola.org/). It's free and you can get more movies and programmes on there that have just been released to the cinema or are pretty good classics like Ally McBeal (1997-2002) or My Father The Hero (1994) (if you haven't seen that last one, you're missing a treat). 

My Aunt told me about this programme called, Mad Men ages ago and reckoned I would really like it. I couldn't find it on tele or English Netflix, but when I converted to American I noticed it on there and thought I would give it a bash - I was hooked from the word go. The opening credits is awesome in itself and pretty indicative of the style and context of the show. Take a look for yourself:

Mad Men is by the same television company as Breaking Bad (AMC)... so that’s already a good start! Starring Jon Hamm & Elisabeth Moss, this programme is about a group of men and women who work for an advertising agency, Stanley Cooper, on Madison Avenue in New York, hence the name, Mad Men. Of course this is also a play on words as most of the characters in this are pretty mad coming to work, drinking whiskey, gin and smoking weed all day for "creative purposes". Jon Hamm & Elisabeth Moss make the perfect on screen duo, I would even say on par or even better than Mr. White and Jessie.

It begins as an awkward relationship whereby Peggy Olsen (Moss) is portrayed as a shy and timid character, but at the same time a well guarded character. Whereas Don Draper (Hamm) comes across as a stern, strong character and again well guarded, but for all of the right reasons. As the series progresses you see Peggy growing stronger professionally and personally as it is evident she is one of Don's favourite people in the company (and probably in his life), a position that everyone else is dying to be in, even the likes of his wife Betty Draper played by January Jones. 

Before I watched this I had seen Jones in a couple of movies and didn't really think she was much to write home about in terms of her acting ability... but as I got deeper into the series, she started to become one of my favourite character's. This show contains a lot of different character's that you can relate to on many levels. There's the character of Peter Campbell played by Vincent Kartheiser:

He is the definition of someone who you just LOVE to hate. His facial expressions, his temper tantrums, his outbursts, I just can't help but laugh at him! Then you have Joan Holloway played by Christina Hendricks who pulls off the powerful, busty, independent woman who can get any guy she wants, VERY well:

It's very much a man's world in this programme, but when a good looking woman is in the way, it seems they are all rendered incapable of keeping to themselves and the women are VERY much aware of this, as back then this seemed to be the only way of shifting the power so to speak. However as the years (series) progresses we get to see the emergence of women taking on male dominating roles  such as copy writing  and printing and veering away from typical roles associated with women like being a secretary -  Peggy Olsen was the first to do this.

As you're probably fully aware, I am going off on a tangent. But I have to say this is the BEST television series I have watched in a while and after watching Breaking Bad in 2012, I didn't think anything else would top it... Until this. I think because so much research has gone into the making of this, it is pretty accurate of how men and women were portrayed back in the early 1960's and the shift that gradually takes affect is so interesting to watch, but what's the most interesting part for me is how men AND women are shown to be powerful in their own rights both in the workforce and in their personal lives.

If you're wondering what the title of my blog is about, it is one of my favourite quotes from the series:

Don is THE man. If the above wasn't enough, here are some other quotes from the programme that are pretty great:

http://madmen.wikia.com/wiki/Top_10_list:The_Best_Mad_Men_Quotes

It has a pretty awesome soundtrack as well. Here's just one of the songs - The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night.

Hope you have all enjoyed this week and if you have been looking for a series to watch for a while and thought the same as me (nothing can beat Breaking Bad), this will definitely surprise you.

'Til next week.

T.x