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max_well commented on The very white poetry of 'Mad Men'

I found this incredibly interesting. But the question you start the article with (questioning Mad Men being called Roots for White people) is one that goes unanswered. You delve into the technical aspects of the show and how you personally perceive it as a black man. Which is all well and good but Roots isn't a show exclusively for black people. In fact I am willing to put money down that Roots was just as eye opening, shocking and ponderous (as in it made poor ol' whitey reassess his values) from one person to the next no matter their color. And I think of Mad Men really is Roots for White People but not because of it's audience but because of it's mirroring themes. Roots is the tale of The Black man's struggle against the white devil (Yakub oh what were you thinking). Through several episodes we bare witness to the suffering, hard labor and sacrifice had by slaves and through these episodes we as viewers are practically forced into sympathizing for the black characters and despising most every white man. Through means of subtraction we are left with more and more of the individual and less with the labels that surround them. Mad Men is the exact opposite. Almost like a post-modern reaction to Roots, Mad Men focuses on the lives of supremely wealthy and well off White Men, great, valiant, handsome womanizers who are not only obsessed with image but make a living getting you hooked on their image. As the series progresses the characters fall deeper and deeper into their tightly knit, pressed, neat and crisp life style and they become less and less human. Almost becoming devils in and of themselves tearing their fellow man and their equally important images to cinder. The fact that Mad Men takes place in the 60's and is now rolling into the 70's is far from a coincidence. Mad Men is more like Breaking Bad than I think AMC would care to admit. They are both experiments in isolating the audience. But all the fancy camera work, expensive clothes and sex blinds you're average viewer just like it blinds your average shopper at the neighborhood Target...

Posted on June 9th, 2012 4:38pm