Introducing... The Carousel: A Mad Men Rewatch Project

Starting a fairly massive undertaking in the form of a rewatch of my favorite television show of all-time.

Something I’ve been thinking about doing for… well, for a long time (I really thought about it during the peak COVID/staying at home stretch) is to do a recap/rewatch series of my favorite television show (and pick for the greatest TV show of all time)—Mad Men.

Why Mad Men? Well, it’s a synthesis of so many things that I love and enjoy. I wrote my dissertation on mid-twentieth century American literature and Mad Men is steeped obviously in that time period but also that very literature (there are a myriad of name checks and allusions, in addition to ways in which the show reflects the influence of that literature).

The final seasons of the show, which some people didn’t enjoy it as much as the earlier series, feel to me like a great novel or a short story collection from the midcentury steeped in existential philosophy. While the show focuses on a specific world (advertising in the mid-twentieth century in America), it engages and thinks about so much more. It not only references and alludes to literature, it also begins to formally appear like it.

There’s also the music and popular culture of that time too, which I very much enjoy, but it’s hard for me to not start with the literature. It’s also clear that Matthew Weiner and co. were influenced by the New Hollywood cinema, which is (as a Scorsese devotee) my favorite era of film (I mean, Robert Towne worked on the final season). Mad Men really does bring together so much of the culture and history that I enjoy the most all while telling an engaging story.

I also love the fashion of the show—the suits, the hats, the style. Also, as one who enjoys brown liquor from time to time, I appreciate that aspect of the show.

Mad Men also does not have the built-in drama and stakes of shows that deal with the worlds of crime and law enforcement (The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad), which makes its ability to be so engrossing even more impressive.

I initially toyed with the idea of doing this as a podcast, but I’ve come around to the idea of doing this as an ongoing series (yet another one) as part of my newsletter. But I think I’m going to take some of the elements I would have used in a podcast and translate them to the written form.

There will be a few “segments” in my discussion of each episode of the show. The main portion will be “The Pitch” and will look at the main threads of the episode and what’s going on with our main characters.

There will be other sections that will pop up depending on the episode. Those will include:

• “New Business”: if there’s a new client we need to consider.

• “Traffic Meeting”: if there are plot/story/character things that don’t quite fit into “The Pitch” segment.

• “The Grey Flannel Suit”: any special notes and thoughts on fashion.

• “The Jukebox”: uses of music and needle drops in the episode (and their meaning).

• “The 548,” named after the John Cheever short story that references a train going from New York City back to the suburbs, will be a quick rundown of notes and points of interest I wasn’t able to cover elsewhere.

If I come up with other segments/sections/ways of breaking the recap down, I’ll add them in. But this is what I’m starting with. If there are categories I’m overlooking and should include, let me know in the comments! I’m also open to/considering a podcast at the end of each season as a way of wrapping things up. Maybe I could include a guest on each end-of-season episode. Just throwing some things out there.

I’ve modeled this structure of this on the Binge Mode podcast with Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion. I’m thinking of this series as a kind of synthesis of that podcast, Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald’s The Watch (and to some degree The Rewatchables), and Ben Crew’s Mad World newsletter:

The Mad World newsletter probably gave me the kick/push/desire to start this whole endeavor!

I’ll be launching this series with the show’s pilot, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” in the next few days (I probably should have had that ready to go, but I wanted to let everyone know what was coming first). Feel free to join me in this watch-along! You can stream Mad Men on AMC+, you can also buy it through the Apple TV store or get the physical media if that’s your sort of thing. And let me know any comments/suggestions/things on your mind as it pertains to this whole endeavor!