Most all of the Mad Men characters have their sympathetic moments. It's just that a few weeks later (or sometimes in the same episode) you may be broadsided by the flipside of their nature. You appreciate the fact that the guy looks disgusted when his boss sings a song in black face (black face!!), and sympathize when he gets dressed down for having suggested their client buy advertising in Ebony magazine, but he's also the guy who may or may not have raped the nanny (it was a bit subjective). You sympathize with the bored housewife with the endlessly philandering husband who feels stifled by her gilded suburban cage, but you're also apalled by the passive/aggressive way that she treats her daughter... to the point that when the ten year old has a screaming fit at her, your heart goes out to the ten year old and you kind of hate the mother on the child's behalf.
I think that it usually works because we're supposed to be horrified by the characters behaviors. We're supposed to be flabbergasted by the casual racism and rampant sexism (the show takes place in the early 1960s). The sword of Damocles hangs over these characters heads. The modern viewer knows that changes are coming. It's easy to imagine that by 1967, little Sally Draper will be one pissed off flower child denouncing every code her parents live by.
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Date: 2009-10-16 04:03 pm (UTC)I think that it usually works because we're supposed to be horrified by the characters behaviors. We're supposed to be flabbergasted by the casual racism and rampant sexism (the show takes place in the early 1960s). The sword of Damocles hangs over these characters heads. The modern viewer knows that changes are coming. It's easy to imagine that by 1967, little Sally Draper will be one pissed off flower child denouncing every code her parents live by.