Bad Men: Why I Gave up on Mad Men Half-Way Through Season One

I should preface this piece by stating that I have not watched all of this show, nor am I up to date on the current season. I watched most of the first season, but gave up around the 13th episode. If things change drastically after this point -- in other words, if there is some sort of "payoff," then I will gladly eat crow.

While I came to the party late (I just watched most of the first season on itunes), I also came with high expectations. I'd heard really good things about this show from friends who normally share my taste. I really enjoyed the first four or five episodes. I'm a sucker for vintage 60's style, and though the sexism that the male characters displayed was irritating, it was also so over-the-top that it was comical...at first. After a while, though, it just started getting old. If I were to use this show as a gauge for all humankind, I would have to conclude that there are no men in the world who view women as equal -- or at the very least anything other than something for them to project their own insecurities/desires onto -- whether its the constant humiliation of Don Draper's meek secretary, Peggy, or the more blatant objectification of sexpot Joan Holloway (who is, admittedly, quite fabulous...I'll get back to her in a bit).

The first episode gave me hope that the show would explore sexism in a thoughtful way. When we are introduced to Don Draper's wife, Betty, we can see that on the surface she is the quintessential "angel in the house" figure. There is an underlying sadness to her, however, and a propensity to literally "freeze up" -- that is, she experiences a kind of paralysis in her hands, brought on presumably by the spectre of a divorced woman who has moved to her neighborhood -- a grim reminder of a fate she may one day share if she fails to be the perfect wife to Don -- who is already showing signs of straying. We can see that this is a woman that has absolutely no power over her own destiny. This subplot intrigued me. It's saddening, and depressing, but I think that they started to go somewhere with it. Possibly they went further with it, but I just couldn't stick it out. I felt more and more as the show went on that there could not be any kind of resolution to this character. Maybe it was just too bleak for me. I can't know, since I haven't continued watching.

Let me say something positive about the show. I love Joan Holloway. I think Christina Hendricks is amazingly hot, and I love seeing a curvy woman on tv -- who isn't ashamed to be that way, who celebrates it, and is admired for it by the people around her (both men and women in her case, seeing as how her roomate has a tragic crush on her). I seem to remember early on that there was some criticism of her for being so curvy. I think that's absolutely ridiculous. I hope that she hasn't lost her curves in the later seasons. She's gorgeous.

The funny thing about this show is that it's not so much its depiction of women that puts me off-- it's the depiction of men. Call me a crazy optimist, but I just have a hard time believing that every single professional man in sixties acted like that. All it would take would be one positive male character in the show. Just one. But there are none -- at least in the majority of the first season. Every guy on this show is either is cheating on his wife, cheating on his mistress or making it a point to belittle women in the workplace.

I mean come on! Weren't there any nice guys in the sixties?