Mad Men Archives - Medialoper

There was an interesting article in the AP yesterday about Battlestar Galactica, and post-finale projects that the producers are planning that will be set in the Galaticaverse.

The point of the article was this: BSG has never had huge numbers, and they are continuing to shrink, so why bother with spinoffs?

Most of the answers in the article had to do with the inadequacy of measuring numbers in this day and age, and how the numbers initially reported by Nielsen don’t reflect the true popularity of the show.

Which may be true, but if show, it’s true for every TV show, not just Battlestar. So what makes Battlestar different from, say, Eureka, which has much higher ratings, but no movies or spinoffs planned?

I’ve got a theory: in a Long Tail universe, it isn’t about the fan quantity as much as it is about the Fan Quality.

This morning, the first episode of the second season of Mad Men showed up in my TiVo’s To Do list. Finally!

With all of the great HBO series long gone, and Sci-Fi shows — even Lost and Battlestar Galactica — eternally (and wrongly!!) consigned to the weirdos ghetto, and/or losing audience as their plots get ever more complex, Mad Men stands as Quality Television’s Great White Hope.

And why not? As the first scripted series for the AMC channel, which had previously made its bones with movies movies movies, the story of the Don Draper and the rest of the crew at the Sterling Cooper Ad Agency was also an unflinching look back at the mores and lifestyles of the mid-20th century.

At its best, it straddled the line between deadly serious and darkly funny, and was easily the most fully-realized first season of any TV series since Deadwood.

It’s the type of show that TV critics are usually shouting from the rooftops about, trying to get the entire world to watch. Except in the case of Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe who now wants you to stay away.

Ladies and gentlemen, Indie Rock Snobbery has come to Cable Television.

Mad Men

The High Fan Quality of Battlestar Galactica

Hey Masses! Don’t You Dare Watch “Mad Men”