Mad Men

We've been watching the television series Mad Men on Netflix DVDs. I have really mixed feelings about it. It is extremely well done--good story lines and the acting is just the best. I remember the fashions, the hairstyles, the furniture, even the avocado telephones. I remember the prevalent haze of cigarette smoke and I remember the way women were treated. But I don't remember it as unremittingly unhappy as it is portrayed and I don't remember the alcohol everywhere, all the time. I wouldn't want to go back to the limitations on women that was the norm in the early 1960s; I have certainly benifitted from educational and employment opportunities and most of all from the ability to control my own fertility. The availability and acceptability of birth control has made all the rest of the improvements in women's lives possible. But there is something about the show that I just don't like--not everyone drank, smoked, and was unfaithful to their spouse--and Mad Men makes it appear that they did.