Comments on: Out of Time http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/24/out-of-time/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Derek Kompare http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/24/out-of-time/comment-page-1/#comment-124974 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:45:35 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11134#comment-124974 While I have to confess I haven’t seen either Pan Am or The Playboy Club, the reaction to them (and their imminent and swift, respectively, demise) hasn’t been surprising. Their creation points to the prominence of Mad Men among the people who make and financially support TV (i.e., TV’s “1%ers”), rather than a realistic assessment of the larger audience. To answer your questions, I do think the primary motivation is cosmetic, even decorative: what did the 1960s (or at least Don Draper’s) look and “feel” like? Start with the right costumes, hairstyles, set decoration and music, and THEN figure out the characters and plot.

I’m fascinated as well with these period shows (and I’d lump in the likes of Boardwalk Empire and AMC’s upcoming Hell On Wheels). At their most transparent, they’re HD eye candy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s the potential to connect to history in a meaningful way (i.e., by raising the precariousness of our own positions in time, from the “comfort” of the present) that’s more elusive. So far, only Mad Men‘s really succeeded on this count.

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