Mod, Man

At this time of summer, and blogging from the couch, a young (ha!) girl's thoughts turn to the wonders of television. With Lost over forever, and our "Must See" shows on hiatus until Fall (which, by the way, why are some channels still adhering to the old "season" lineup, while others have year-round new programming?), Jake and I have been working our way through TV shows on DVD. We don't get HBO, and so to date, we've gone all the way through Curb Your Enthusiasm, and we're moving at a rapid pace through The Sopranos. We've also just started with season 1 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.


While I've been really enjoying all of the above, what really gets me is the '60s. It took us a while to get through the 17 episodes of The Prisoner, but wow, what a ride! The series--and yes, I'm talking about the original 1967 Partick McGoohan series, not last year's Jim Caviezel retread--is about a secret agent who resigns from his job and wakes up on a mysterious island, stripped of his identity, and called only "Number 6." His adversary is an ever-rotating line of "Number 2"s, who try to find out why he resigned from his government job. And all Number 6 wants to do is escape.

A lot of shows owe something to The Prisoner; it goes without saying that Lost took quite a few idea and motifs from the show set on a mysterious island with far-out sci-fi mythology. My personal favorite is the Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes," where Homer is taken to a mysterious island after he makes up a rumor that turns out to be true. The episode was funny the first 20 times I saw it, but now it makes so much more sense. Right down to the Patrick McGoohan cameo! (The Simpsons also used The Orb to do in Hans Moleman in another episode, when Marge was trying to escape from the Movementarians.) And the storytelling structure reminds me a lot of the structure in Neon Genesis Evangelion: the reluctant hero tries with all his might to escape his "destiny," through test after test from unlikely science and technology, until finally the narrative becomes bizarre and existential, leading the audience to question every theory they might have had.

It's one of the most mod things I've ever seen, from the costumes to the set and dialogue to the lava lamp-like projections defaulted in front of Number 2 when he's not watching Number 6.

Of course, for the early 1960s, you can't beat my real Obsession of the Moment, Mad Men. Yes, it's everyone's obsession right now, but we finally made our way through seasons 1-3, and I'm so excited for season 4 to start on Sunday, and see what's going on at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

I won't recap for you; if you're going to watch it, you probably already know what's going on. My favorite place for analysis is Tom and Lorenzo (formerly Project RunGay). They recap every episode with great humor and insight, but my favorite feature on the site is their Mad Style analysis. They take a character and break down the choices made by the costume designer. It's unquestionable that the costumes on the show are spectacular, and I've never been happier to have the kind of figure in vogue during the late'50s/early '60s, and my grandmothers' hats and gloves. Joan Holloway is my idol.

I told a friend of mine the other day that I've loved watching the series on DVD, and I don't know what I'll do when I have to wait a whole week in between episodes. He answered, "You do exactly what you did for Lost: go on the internet, read what people have to say, and have half-hour discussions at work."

Done.