So is anyone else watching this on American Movie Classics?
It's 1960. Cool means sharp suits, cone bras, Brylcreemed hair, Sinatra, and JFK. Counterculture means beatniks performing at a smoky coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. And our protagonists work at a second-tier ad agency in Manhattan, or go quietly mad in the Connecticut suburbs.
Don is an ad exec with a perfect blond wife in the suburbs, a beatnik mistress in the Village, a crush on a wealthy Jewish department store heiress, and a mysterious past. Betty is his Seven Sisters-educated wife, rotting in the suburbs and curious about the local divorcee -- the Feminine Mystique embodied in a person. Pete is a young man from old money, trying to prove himself and failing at every turn. And Peggy is a secretary because no other options are available to her.
Cigarette smoke is everywhere. Executives have bars in their offices. Pregnant women drink and smoke. Racism, sexism, and antisemitism are so thick you could choke. No one looks twice when a neighbor smacks your kid. And homosexuality is so far off the radar that no one even suspects the one closeted character.
It's brilliant beyond words. |
