Pop Culture and Politics

By Meredith O'Brien/Mommy Track'd

It's hard not to notice that Mad Men madness seems to be everywhere. In a big spread in Vanity Fair Magazine. In New York Magazine. As early 1960s-styled Mad Men avatars pop up on Twitter and Facebook. With the Aug. 16 season three premiere of the Emmy-winning drama quickly approaching, what was once a show followed by a cultish, ferociously dedicated couple million people, has become such a staple of American pop culture that Banana Republic is using the show to launch a clothing line, both Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons have satirized it and Sesame Street is planning a Mad Men-ish parody for its new season.

I've adored this little AMC-show-that-could -- which follows the lives of Manhattan ad men and their families -- from the very first episode, which I caught while vacationing two years ago after seeing ads for it during the 470th showing of The Godfather on the cable station. Its no-holes-barred portrayal of hard drinking and hard smoking white collar New York City professionals, as well as their naked racism, anti-Semitism and sexism is brutally honest, its characters multi-dimentional. No series regular is a flat cardboard cut-out. And while its most notable feature is the deliciously handsome main character -- Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who is so ashamed of his background that he stole a dead man's identity and continues to lie and cheat as if his life depended on it -- it's the female Mad Men characters who make this show whole. Read More »