For many of us, Sunday nights without Mad Men will be difficult. (And what about Monday mornings without Nelle’s analysis and commenting with other "madmenmaniacs"?) We'll have to wait many months to see if Megan really becomes Mrs. Draper, if the ad agency will prosper or fail, if Sally and Glen will runaway and join a cult.
I offer five suggestions to ease our pain and keep MM in our lives. Please, use your clever brains and contribute others. We can use all the ideas we can get.
Throw a Mad Men Halloween party
For starters there’s still time to create a festive party with a Mad Men theme to keep the buzz going until the end of October. Some ideas: Bobbing for apples in a punchbowl of Seagram’s 7. Creating scary masks of Glen and Lane and a jilted Faye. Wearing a sheet with sunglasses and a wig as the ghost of Mrs. Blankenship. Another easy costume idea for women or men: Joan, with red wig, and red dress, over three well-placed balloons, emphasizing her pregnancy.
Substitute another TV show to analyze
Boardwalk Empire is perhaps the best possibility. True, Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson is no Jon Hamm as Don/Dick, but the HBO series set in the 1920s in Atlantic City during prohibition offers the same details of real time and place. The irony may be missing and the subtle symbolism, and the violence will remind you of The Sopranos, but maybe you could discuss the evolution of Al Capone and the pitfalls of abstinence, an inversion of Mad Men.
Other possible series to analyze: Breaking Bad? The Real Housewives Series? Dora the Explorer?
OK, I give up. Nothing compares to MM.
Read. You remember? b...o...o...k
You now have an hour or two every Sunday to read. If you are too far-gone, try titles that may remind you of the series, including Little Women, Far from the Madding Crowd, and the Mad Woman of Chaillot. Seriously, Rona Jaffe’s book The Best of Everything is a great read from that era about office romance, where secretaries longed to marry their bosses.
Go back to the beginning
Remember during the first Mad Men seasons when every conversation wasn’t analyzed the next day and every look wasn’t interpreted? You could now return to the beginning of the series and after each show, analyze it with friends, aware of course of what will be coming in the future. Could be surreal fun. Also, note the progression of hairstyles, clothing, attitudes.
Create the Mad Men game
Think up questions, and challenge other "madmenmaniacs" in a trivia game. Sample questions, both easy and difficult:
How many brunettes, how many blondes and how many redheads has Don schtupped since the series began? (Also, any four-legged creatures? Inanimate objects?)
She may look 27, but how old is Sally supposed to be in 1965?
What is Sally's friend Glen's last name?
A hard one: The Sound and The Fury and Ship of Fools are books mentioned in the series. What are two others?
An easy one: What is the name of Don’s youngest child?
You get the idea. All of these kinds of facts can be googled. Play along, fill your Sundays with fun, and next year it will be 1966 in Mad Men time!
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Comments
Hawley, I go for the "reality" soaps, except for MM. Interesting how we differ there.
Bishop
love the disguise/costume idea. i call dibs on suave roger 'cuz my hair's the right color. ;;
I'm also a "Boardwalker"; already deeply engaged with Bushemi's Nucky Thompson. The violence can get a little rough at times, but just as with the Sopranos you tolerate the ugly in exchange for great storytelling. I usually close my eyes on the brutal stuff anyway .
Madmenmaniacs unite!
p.s. I did spend part of today reading a book!
Brian, I think it's Glen Bishop.
I envy you, trilogy. You have lots of fun ahead.
Candace, you can have Roger. I'll take... good grief, I have no idea.
Libmomr, I hear you. But I still dig it.
BB, I think Boardwalk is great. It just doesn't engender the symbols and discussion of MM. And yes, the violence is off-putting. But I think it's about the best of the rest.
If you can spare some time for a book, I've got some recommendations!
D
Denese, actually just finished a book called Room. Very interesting and short-listed for the Booker. See, I don't always watch reality shows and MM!
Fred, more likely for the scary theme!
Darn fun to read....great stuff!!
R for imagination
Why am I not surprised at your cleverness, Nikki?
Zanelle, I have no idea right now what Don is thinking. And we shall have to wait till next year to find out.
Jonathan, be extra kind to Tamar. It will be hard for awhile.
And I agree about not over-analyzing every last detail in the show. Who the hell would want to do that vs just enjoying watching it? Oh, wait....
But the best way to deal with the hiatus is obvious: Drink! To me, the funniest thing about the show was always those AMC plugs for their Mad Men cocktail features that would come on right after you saw a scene of someone ruining their life due to drinking.
I read this because you wrote it; can't offer a thing beyond that. My Sunday nights belong to the NFL (for now) and HBO the rest of the time; it's their best program night. Besides, obviously I am a sucker for initials. {{R}}
Hells Bells, the actress may very well be Ronnie something (can't remember her name). She is in her 60s now and very attactive when not in costume.
CD, me too!
I loved it when it was placed in a Maryland suburb and even more now, in Brooklyn. A month or two ago, a scene was shot around the corner from where I live. The main character, an Irish shrink, looked as dour between takes as he does during takes. And why not? The shrink's heavily invested in his patients' troubles. And Ireland's current economic strangulation is enough to drive anyone to drink--or to emigrate to Brooklyn.
And Leon, I will try the Irish shrink. I could use him!