These TV as Art Highlights will present the most awesome pieces of TV content. These are the ones that go beyond being just mere television and instead are full works of art.
I’m starting with what I think is the best TV show of all time, Mad Men.
When people ask me why I think it’s the greatest show of all time, I’m tempted to say, just experience it. But man, that’s a tough ride too. I didn’t start watching the show until it was almost over, and then it took me a long time to get into it — like, well into the second season.
It doesn’t have those large, life-or-death stakes like Breaking Bad, a central mystery that gets wrapped up pretty quickly, and while the characters are great, they’re almost all pretty grounded.
So quickly, if you don’t know anything about the show, it takes place in the Madison Avenue advertising world of the 1960s, inside of a major firm, Sterling Cooper, and focuses mainly on Don Draper, a creative director, while also focusing, in varying degrees, on other members of Sterling Cooper and on Don’s family.
In an attempt to answer the “greatest show of all time” question, aside from the great characters, storylines, acting, sets, and tone, it really comes down to how perfectly its themes are woven and ingrained. I’ve seen many people try to pin down what the overall theme of Mad Men is: fulfillment, finding happiness, etc. But perhaps the way that best ties it together is that it attempts to answer the question: what is the meaning of life?
These are people who have everything, yet are deeply unsatisfied. They work in a business that tries to market products to consumers by framing them as the cure to a lack of fulfillment, whether it be makeup, flights, raincoats, chocolate, or cigarettes. And throughout the series, as the 60s roll in along with their dose of reality, the characters realize these “perfect lives” they’ve been sold are a product as well.
As the characters get caught in repeated patterns, the show often asks whether we can truly change, or if we just replace the product that wasn’t working for us with an identical product that has better marketing.
Creators and Artists
As the series moves more and more from a more shallow (albeit gorgeous) ’50s to a more authentic ’60s, the characters at least seem to make some kind of progress, developing from more shallow to more authentic people. The themes of each season also progress from simpler ideas, like waking up and vulnerability, to more complex ones, like the idea of hitting rock bottom.
One of the coolest things about this show is that every episode could stand as its own mini-movie. Most follow Don Draper along with a few other characters, and are tied together by a theme that bleeds through the episode. Each episode contributes to the overall narrative, but each could also stand completely on its own. This care and thoughtfulness put into every episode is why there are no bad ones.
So each episode carries its own theme, and those themes fit into the larger theme of the season, and also fit into the larger theme of the whole show. For instance, a major theme of Episode 4 is new beginnings (and whether we can avoid falling back into old patterns). Episode one, Public Relations, has the big theme of controlling our images, with Peggy and Pete setting up a PR stunt where they have two sex workers fight over a ham, and Don having to set up a bathing suit ad for a prudish company, resulting in him pulling off a PR stunt of his own. This is in the midst of the firm itself controlling its new image (and trying to fool people into thinking there’s a second floor). This theme also fits neatly into the season’s theme of new beginnings, which of course fits into the series’ overall theme as well.
Community
And this is just one reason the show is so impressive — although maybe the best reason. At the very least, if you haven’t seen it, watching it with this in mind, that each episode is its own little work of art within a bigger piece, might help you fall in love with the show sooner. And if you have seen it, it might make a rewatch a little more awesome.
I do talk about this show in other articles, and also in an upcoming one, so this feels like a good place to call it quits. But how about we all raise an Old Fashioned and do a toast to this piece of TV that we’re lucky to have.
What TV shows would you consider to be works of art? What should we highlight?