Tag Archive for: mad men

Mad Men season 6 premiere captures moral dichotomy


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It is the winter of 1967, just months before the My Lai massacre and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the characters of AMC’s Mad Men are haunted by death. Sunday’s two hour season six premiere sent audiences right back into the height of the Vietnam War. Don Draper, who during Korea […]

’60s style takes over runway


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Everyone was waiting for it, counting down the days until April 7 arrived. Holding their breaths, biting their nails, hearts pounding in anticipation. The Mad Men season six premiere. It seemed like you couldn’t sign on to a news feed or walk into a coffee shop without hearing someone moaning and crying over how badly […]

Film and TV should be treated separately


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With the 64th annual primetime Emmys hitting the small screen this Sunday, it seems as though all anyone can talk about these days is television: Will three-time winner Bryan Cranston claim a fourth Emmy for his flawless performance as Walter White in Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad? Will freshman series Homeland take down the reigning champion, […]

Popular TV shows rely on moral ambiguity


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If there’s an unspoken rule in this golden age of television, it’s that the truly great shows embrace moral ambiguity. The Sopranos kicked things off with a sympathetic portrayal of mafia life and paved the way for mature, serialized storytelling like nothing the small screen had ever witnessed. From the cops and dealers of The […]

TV becomes a celebrated medium


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Three and a half months ago, my first tack in trying to come up with a name for this column involved attempting to riff off some of television’s more colorful nicknames. Dispiriting as it was to discard a slew of admittedly horrible ideas, it wasn’t nearly as disheartening as the realization of what some of […]

TV campaigns find signature promotions


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If a show airs in its time slot and no one is tuned in to watch it, does it make a sound? It’s an “if a tree falls in a forest” question that most network executives would be perfectly happy going their whole careers without ever discovering the answer to. Countless dollars are spent every […]

Mad Men demonstrates television’s nostalgia for the past


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It was the first cable show to take home the Emmy for outstanding drama series three years in a row and last September, Mad Men did it again. It sired a wave of nostalgia that one backward-facing period drama after another hoped to ride into the ratings’ promised land. The show’s ratings are by no […]

Modern TV lacks stability, certainty


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Television has had many ups and downs in recent weeks with returns, delays and cancellations, giving way to the widespread instability in modern television programming. This holds particularly true as Tuesday falls squarely between the long-delayed midseason return of NBC’s gleefully eccentric gang comedy Community and the even longer delayed season five premiere of AMC’s […]

With Emmys fast approaching, it’s time to place your bets


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The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards are less than two weeks away, and it’s time for predictions on all of the major races. Winners will be announced during the telecast September 18 at 8:00 pm on FOX. Best Drama Series Mad Men is the hands-down frontrunner right now, having won the award the last three years […]