Madness

Harkening back to the 1980's, this title is one of those Rock 'N' Roll songs that can be used in the trivia question: What bands also have songs that are the same as their names? During the "new wave" blitz of the early '80's a band called Madness, had a song called Madness. It was more of a Ska tune than a real rocker, but I'll stretch things when they're convenient to my goals.

Being that I'm destitute, I started watching the cable channel AMC once I had to ditch the premium channels due to lack of income. I kept seeing promos for the original series, "Mad Men" not about lunatics, but the advertising forces on Madison Avenue, ( Greg Kihn's "Madison Avenue Man", is probably a better title for this one, but then I'd have to lose the trivia question connection, this will pop up later!) during the heyday of television. It starts in the 1950s and works it's way up to the Psychedellic '60s. This fits my interest in pop culture, since I was born in '55 and lived through much of what I was viewing. I kept intending to watch, but never did. The first season passed me by. I began reading all kinds of rave reviews of it, and seeing letters from fans asking when the new season would start, so I began watching the new season of "Mad Men" in September of '08.

On the 'plus' side, the acting is very good, and they've got the look down pat. I think of all the shows I watched as a kid and how the commercials still stick out in my mind. They were vivid, they had orignal jingles, animation and humor, television advertising was a new frontier and it was being conquered like Hannibal crossing the Alps. So why am I writing this?? because I have watched the entire second season and I'm still waiting for something to happen. The show is bo-ring, there's no suspense, it's too much like real life! I've never seen an episode where I am left on the edge of my seat thinking, " I can't wait until next week!" If I miss an episode, I don't feel compelled to watch the repeat to get 'up to date'. The entire first season was rerun during one of the holiday weekends and I couldn't force myself to sit and watch what I'd missed for openers. Why are people so in love with this show? It got several Emmy nominations.

I understand that everybody has different tastes, but maybe I'm emotionally deprived or something, because I just watch each week and end up thinking, "eh, so what?" when it's over. I'd much prefer to see the inside deals and creative wrangling of the team creating the advertising campaigns, than their dirty laundry and the lives they live as an aside to their job. I certainly don't see the comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock movies. Maybe I need some mental conditioning to make me see it their way. People's lives have a dark side no matter what their occupation is, so any job could be made into a television show, just look at " The Office". I find the humor in that sit-com disturbing, despite being mildly amusing.

The bands who's names are also song titles are: Madness-Madness, Talk Talk-Talk Talk, Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath, Bad Company-Bad Company, and...damn there's one other that I cannot think of at the moment and it'll drive me nuts from now until the next time I can get to a computer to update this column. It sucks getting old!