Mad Men – Dark Shadows

Not to be confused with the other post of the same name from this week, through given what happens in the episode I can see why it would be. People have been contributing the namecheck to coincidence, that the writers lucked out by having this episode air the same week as the film but that is nothing more than naiveté; when has anything in Mad Men ever come as a coincidence? No, the exactness of the timing is just bother example of the shows incredible intricacy; like the awards show episode last season that aired on the eve of the Emmys, Don and Jon accepting awards almost simultaneously. When watching Mad Men one should never ask “if” a connection was intended, but “why”, and this week that is a much harder question to answer.

Dark Shadows

Forget American Dream this is the sixties/seventies flashback that the US has been thinking about late at night; Johnny Depp as a dapper vamp, vampire that is. But is it really? The film plays fast and loose with it’s mythology, Depp’s Barnabus being transformed by the fall off a cliff, or an ancient curse or…something. Screw the specifics seems to be the films battle call as to be honest it plays fast and loose with basically every element of its story. History, plot, tone and focus flicker to and fro like waves breaking in Colinstown’s bay, each scene rewriting or retconning the one that came before, anything to allow Burton his radical style. Shallow, inconsistent, inconceivable and impossibly proud of it, Dark Shadows evokes impeccably the soap operas of old, only why would you want to?