Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch

Book excerpt: This second edition of Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch: Thinking About Television’s Mad Men explores the attributes of the AMC series that allow it to be such a popular and vital contribution to contemporary cultural discourse. Set in the 1960s in New York, the Emmy and Peabody-winning series follows the competitive, seductive, and oftentimes ruthless lives of the men and women of Madison Avenue’s advertising agencies. Many alluring and captivating qualities constitute the Mad Men experience: the way it evokes nostalgia, even from those who did not live in the era being portrayed; its interrogations of identities, and how these explorations of the past illuminate viewers’ concepts of the present; the compelling (and often heartbreaking) relationships between characters trying to make their way in an ever-changing and increasingly complex world; and the titillation of the characters’ discovery of the power of mass-mediated communication and its abilities to allow learning, information sharing, manipulation, and connection, not to mention how their journeys reflect our own in contemporary society. The essays collected in this volume speak to both fans of the show who may not typically embrace theory and criticism, as well as those who do. Additionally, this version was designed with educators in mind. It still includes engaging essays that critically analyze the show from a multitude of perspectives, but now they are organized in way to facilitate easy use in the classroom. This structure allows educators to simply construct and conduct a course using this book as a primary textbook and organize the course according to the way it is laid out. Each chapter provides any type of reader with the opportunity to think about and enjoy the show even after it is no longer on the air.