Some TV shows make you feel smart. “Everybody Loves Raymond” makes me feel smart because every joke is both telegraphed and juvenile. “Stargate: Atlantis” makes me feel smart because I typically only need to watch the first 5 minutes in order to predict the plot of the remainder of the episode. So, while these shows make me feel smart, it is for the wrong reason, and they are generally unsatisfying (I will admit there are occasional very good episodes of SG: Atlantis).

“Mad Men” makes me feel dumb. There’s not a lot of actual “stuff” going on in the show (take as evidence this tongue-in-cheek fake trailer). There’s a total absence of gunfights, and the tension between characters is frequently hidden under a surface of civility. A result of this is that I often struggle to figure out the significance of what is going on. I can feel that every scene has meaning, but I only occasionally pick up on what is important (the ones I pick up on are often Don Draper monologues). For example, recently I found myself struggling to interpret a scene of Grandpa Gene teaching Sally to drive.

Well, I found a fantastic resource to help those like me who suffer from Mad Men inadequacy syndrome. This blog does an exellent job of analyzing, perhaps even over-analyzing, every detail of every episode. On reading the first entry I felt my eyes opened up to the importance of the show. This is the guide I need in my Mad Men watching. Tangentialy, it reminds me of my favourite class of all time, German Literature 051/052 (in translation) with Prof. William Reeve at Queen’s, where we dissected every detail of some great works (Goethe, Kleist, Mann, Grass). There was just no way I could absorb these works without proper guidance.

So I heartily encourage everybody to watch “Mad Men”, and I also encourage them to find an online guide to help them in their voyage.