Episode One

Season One, Episode One of Mad Men dives into the world of the a cigarette company in 1960. The company, ‘Lucky Strike’ is moving into a new ear in the tobacco industry and for the first time they are introduced to the idea that smoking may actually have health risks. This episode introduces the key roles of the show, starting with Don Draper, a seemingly respectful busy man working for ‘Lucky Strike.’ Next we are introduced to Peggy Olsen, a young women fresh out of secretary training, newly hired as Mr. Draper’s secretary. I anticipate we will see a downward spiral of Peggy Olsen as she tries to find her way in this mans world, while giving into how she believes she is supposed to act. We meet a man in his mid-twenties named Peter who is about to marry a women whose father is very wealthy. This character portrays perfectly how men of the time view women. Towards his fiance he acts as though she is his whole world but in reality he is using her to get ahead. These are just a couple of the main characters we meet in episode one. This episode give the viewer a glimpse into what it is really like to be a woman in this time and more importantly, the freedoms of being a man in this time. Men are power and women are objects.

A couple clear themes of this show are the underlying tones of the tobacco company and their struggle to essentially sell death to people while still being able to sleep at night, and the role men and women play in this society. It is clear that women are treated as less than and are really only useful for serving men. It is a very stereotypical world of business man and secretary. The women are their to please in absolutely whatever way they can while the men take advantage the this fact. Even the women play their part in supporting this type of behavior. This issue of women in this show is a clear contrast to scripture. As we know from reading scripture, Jesus valued women and did not see them as objects. This is something that Jesus had to combat in his time though. He was constantly advocating for women and for their voice to be heard. In this show it is much like biblical times in which women were not meant to be heard and they were not a strong voice in society. Jesus came to preach a radically different paradigm than what the people where used to. In this show of course we do not have a Jesus, or at least there isn’t one yet. Perhaps their will be but I think not. I believe that this show will reveal some redemptive qualities about human kind but as of right now the plot is being set up and characters are being revealed.