It's Madness

I caught the first season of AMC’s buzz-worthy drama Mad Men on demand this summer. (On demand … what a concept. But that’s a different diatribe for another time.) Set in the early 1960s (one of the subplots is the Kennedy-Nixon presidential race), it supposedly captures a time when men were men, women knew their place, and smoking wasn’t really that bad for you. One of the things that makes the series stand out is its presentation of the time period – from the clothes*, to the hairstyles, to the language, to the treatment of race, gender, and sexuality. Since it is a “period piece” it captures a moment in time and seems to preserve it. But it also does something else. It makes this snapshot the reality for the whole.

I wasn’t around in the early 60s, so I don’t know how it was … but now I do because of this show. And that’s the danger. I’m sure the creators of Mad Men were meticulous in their research and strive to remain true to the time, but it is a copy of time … now the reality of it.

I had the same feeling with the movie JFK. Most of what people know about the assassination of President Kennedy comes from that movie – regardless of the relative truth of it. Regardless that many of the characters are composites of multiple “real” people, or are altogether fictitious. That movie is the truth to many people.

I kind of felt the same way with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Sure it remained true to scripture, but now this one man’s vision is THE vision of the cross.

That is the power of the media. Does it scare anyone else? Well, I’d better stop now. I’m sure something good is on TV …

* To see part of television’s power, check out this article from CNN, which notes that Mad Men may be partly responsible for a rise in men’s clothing sales. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/homestyle/08/12/fashion.gender.gap.ap/index.html)