Korean Job Discussion Forums

pokesplort · Joined: 05 May 2008

i've been watching alot of mad men recently, and its great. you should watch it, your friends should, your parents etc. also, i'm sure since i've only been here for a little over a month this is all off base. but every time i watch it and then leave the pc room i feel like korea is just another version of that time period. totally off base i know. but hey, everyone smokes, sometimes the men treat ladies like they are nothing more than pretty pieces of jewelry, and thats how the ladies dress anyways. all the guys need to look the part are those hats, fedoras maybe. ah but anyways. watch mad men its great! oh and 30 rock, thats a great show too.

Rusty Shackleford · Joined: 08 May 2008

Agreed. I'm onto "The Wire", at the moment also. A little old but a goody.

crescent · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: yes.

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

yep Mad men rocks! best show on tv these days..

blurgalurgalurga · Joined: 18 Oct 2007

No doubt in my mind...best show since 'the wire.' The dialogue is so packed, so terse; there's not a wasted word. But it's all totally believable, too, and never falls into that trap of some overly clever dialogue, where you kind of go 'yeah, but people don't really ever actually talk like that.' Great stuff.
Totally right, too, OP, it is a lot like Korea--especially the upper class bored housewife bit. Don't think it's really got much in common with the working class here though...well, the secretaries do, maybe...

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

My wife tried to get me to watch the show, but I didn't really get it. I appreciate the way they represent that era, but I just didn't see what dramatic purpose I had for watching the show. Does the plot ever go any deeper, or does everyone just keep having affairs and stabbing each other in the back?

blurgalurgalurga · Joined: 18 Oct 2007

No, that's pretty much it, I think.
My only complaint about the realism of the show is how it makes everybody out to be either a complete bastard, a dupe, really, really unhappy, or a mix of all three. I dunno, I figure there was probably at least a couple of people back in those days who actually were as happy as they claimed to be. They've taken what I figure was a prevalence of falseness, and made it ubiquitous. It's ever so slightly over the top, in that sense.
So--dramatic purpose? Big pay-out at the end? Nah, probably not, as such. For me though, just checking out the character's reactions to the stuff that goes on around them--the Nixon/ Kennedy campaign, the civil rights movement, dead Monroe, and no doubt soon the headshot Kennedy--is reward enough for me.
I don't really like any of the characters that much anyway, don't identify with them at all, and don't care much how things wind up with their own individual stories. Pretty much all of the little side-stories will end realistically--that is, badly--I'm quite sure, but without any extreme violence or ridiculousness. Maybe one or two people will top themselves, there will be some divorces no doubt, but otherwise it'll play out like white america itself did, in the '60's...drunk, self-obsessed, miserable, and self-righteously self-loathing.

VanIslander · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:32 am Post subject:

good television is like bad sex: rare as hell and over quickly

pokesplort · Joined: 05 May 2008

i especially like the episodes where they are like "smoking is bad for you? gimme a break!" stuff like that gets me. i think the plot is deep you just have to read between the lines. because, no one ever says what they think or how they really feel. its all avoidance, so part of the fun for me is trying to figure out how they must really feel or really be thinking. and is that just the time they are in? or do we still do that today, just using different words etc. i used to hate betty as well, but she's starting to really become her own person i think. may have something to do with the 60's really taking hold. you can tell cuz she wears pants alot more, i dunno i feel they're trying to use her to show a shift in culture more than some of the other characters. and i think that what blurgalurgalurga said about america in the 60's you could say the same about us now. self-obsessed? always. miserable? well i certainly am but that could just have to do with the economy. i dunno i suppose you could make those parallels to alot of time periods if you tried. and i'm so glad someone agreed with me on the similarities to parts of korean culture! i thought people would be like, ugh you're so dumb how could you say that and here's my 10 point essay on why you're wrong AND stupid. yay i love discussing good tv!

crescent · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: yes.

Manner of Speaking · Joined: 09 Jan 2003

It reminds me a lot of Pleasantville, if any of you have ever seen the movie.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

runlikegump · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: Seoul

While Mad Men is certainly better than most of what's on these days, it suffers from a decided lack of nuance. We get it - times were different back then, it was a male-dominated and misogynistic time, there's a schism between cultural mores and newly-evolving notions of individualism. This show, with some deft dialogue to be sure, still ends up bludgeoning the audience to make its point - no subtlety, no artifice. The West Wing and Six Feet Under it ain't.