It's A Mad Mad Mad Men World

I've been in a Mad Men haze. I remember all the hype when it first came out, but somehow it fell off my radar and until my Netflix suggested it to me (you know me so well, computer) I had completely forgotten about it. So I thought why not get this male-dominated, pro-establishment long winded commercial for Johnson & Johnson products started?

Holy production value, Batman.

I thought people were watching this for the costume design! I had no idea, NO IDEA, how good this show is. I had all but written this thing off, shoving show fans into two categories: Joan boob enthusiasts and Draper face/body obsessives (I'm both, for the record). But as predominant as those two things are, the writing overshadows them. My god this show is well written. So much so, that I'm going to make a pretty polarizing statement:

This is the best show ever. And I've seen Breaking Bad.

"Let me help you sell your, what did you call it, Meth?"

No show has done more with less. This is essentially a story about men who help sell products through clever advertising who also, in their spare time, cheat on there wives with anything that moves. Do you see how impossible that sounds? The crux of the whole thing lies in us caring about these characters, because otherwise who gives two shits about how many pantyhose Turquoise sells? At the same time, the people we're supposed to care about are the worst! Just terrible, selfish, depressed, sorry sad people. This can't possibly work.

And then it does! It's crazy! Think of how hard that must be. With Breaking Bad you've got a cancer scare, followed by drugs, followed by guns and bad guys and then the good guy is turning into the bad guy - just real life and death stuff. Mad Men has this dude who's pretty good looking but essentially a deserter who cheats on his wife a ton and is good at tricking people into thinking they want to buy cigarettes and eat baked beans.

There are a lot of reasons Mad Men is a great show, and probably a million different people who could (and likely already have) analyze it far more accurately than me. So, I can only give my perspective on why I think this show is my favorite. I'm capping it at three:

1. Subtlety
2. Design
3. Endings

It's so subtle that, at first, you don't realize how profoundly sad it is. It's so sad that you go past feeling sad for these people, beyond sympathizing, and actually develop a deep sadness within yourself for absolutely no reason other than you're watching this show. It's a terrible thing to do to somebody! Who thought to do this with a television show, because they're absolute sadist weirdos.

The clothes are tremendous. The sets are tremendous. I want to BE Joan.

How is that body even possible!?

The endings; so tightly written. Beginnings are easy, Draper begins things with women so effortlessly and there's punchy dialogue and sex and that feeling that maybe now he's found happiness. But endings are so tedious because they're inevitable and without any of the excitement of the beginnings. Except when this show does it; you still know it's coming but it's presented in such a way that instead of it feeling like a door closing or a flame going out on a certain storyline it's like five new bay windows flying open and an entire forest is burning to the ground behind them (that metaphor is exactly why I'll never write for this show).  

Mad Men! Watch it!

Spotify Exists

I'm going to do you the favor that the world so cruelly neglected to do me and let you know that Spotify is a thing. I don't know how, or why-god-why, but this fact was somehow kept from me until about a month ago. But no longer! It's mine now.

This is a thing

Let me tell you how great this is: you're sitting at your desk/on your couch/in bed and you think "gosh, I could really go for some Norah Jones right now," but shoot because you don't own any Norah Jones. No sweat; Spotify it! Got a hankerin' for the entire Les Miserables collection? Spotify. You wanna kick it old school with some Springsteen? Spotify. Relive your high school days with NSYNC?

No!

There's no NSYNC on Spotify. I don't know why and I don't agree with it, but there it is.

Regardless, there's something so great about having all this music right at your command all while knowing you're not obligated to listen to all of it because there's no buyer's guilt (having to listen to an entire record even if you don't like it simply because you bought it is a thing, right)? The best thing, for me, is the endless supply of mood music for whatever I'm writing. Every scene has a soundtrack now; it's amazing!

You're welcome.

An Open Letter to Hulu

Dear Hulu,

Get your shit together!

It just took me five minutes shy of an hour to watch a twenty-three minute episode of the Mindy Project because 1. the video keeps buffering (and don't let's act like my internet connection is to blame; 2. there's five billion commercials every five minutes and 3. stop it!

I realize you're pushing this whole Hulu Plus thing right now, but honestly all I want to do is watch television programs that span across varying degrees of quality for free. Without delay! If I were interested in paying for television I'd have cable, duh!

While you're fixing things, could you please figure out some kind of deal with HBO so that I can watch Game of Thrones for free as well (without the aforementioned issues, obviously)?

Thank you and god! Ugh!

-Yeah

In case you don't know anything at all, this is the show I'm talking about, Hulu!