I confess to being a laggard. A laggard, for some reason, sounds like an insult. "Hey...you laggard." But I take pride in this. Let all the other suckers try that new car, that latest version of Windows, etc. After all the bugs are out and there's a good word of mouth, maybe I'll try it. That partially explains why I'm "I"-less. "I"e, I don't have an I-phone, I-pad, I-pod, I-mac, I-book, or even my own tropical I-sland.
I say all this to help explain why I'm so out of the loop on TV shows. I don't have TV. I still don't believe this little boxes will be successful. No, actually, I don't have TV because I don't want the temptation of having to watch it. Which I would do constantly. And at the risk of sounding like a snob, I really do believe that most of it is crap. Crap that I'd be paying upwards of 60/month for. Crap that I'd still watch, along with the commercials.
Therefore, I have missed some good shows. I know that. My son is a huge Dexter fan. I saw a couple of episodes online and I must say it's pretty good. The show Breaking Bad sounds fascinating. I miss Stephen Colbert, who I really do believe is a comedic genius. I also miss watching Mets games, especially since the Mets trio of announcers, Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez is the best baseball team I've ever seen. And I don't say that just because I'm a Mets fan. Catch them sometimes and you'll be impressed.
I also miss the Weather Channel. But my weather addiction is for another blog.
No, the main subject, what I originally thought I'd blog about, is the much heralded show Mad Men. I borrowed the 1st season from my local library.
For those who don't know, Mad Men is a drama about a group of "Mad Men", which was the term for advertising executives, referring to the geographic epicenter of the industry, Madison Avenue in NYC. The main character is Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm. He's a fascinating character. Handsome, smart, alternately ruthless and kind, intimidating and always mysterious. Like a poker player who may have an inside straight. Or he may have nothing. Which explains much of his intimidation.
I've never seen a show with so much cigarette smoke. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE smokes. Constantly. Most of the smokers drink. Most of the drinkers are drunk. Most of the drunkards are womanizing. (Or "men"-izing for the female characters). Most of the "izing" ends up in bed. And in this pre-Viagra period, everyone still seems to be a great lover.
I can see why it's racked up as many awards as it has. Interestingly, there's not a single character on the show that is likeable. The men are generally ruthless and crude. The women are generally submissive and powerless. Yet, I must confess, it's fascinating to watch. Completely destroying my rule of drama that in order for me to get into it, there has to be at least one character that I can empathize with. Not here.
Anyway, to get back to my original point. I'm such a laggard that I didn't realize the show has been around for apparently 52 years. No one ever told me about it.
Maybe someday I'll try one of those thingys that heats up food really fast.
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