Last night was the season finale of "Mad Men". I don't know if many here watch it and I know particularly some of our TV fans don't. That doesn't surprise me because I'm sure more than a few grew up with parents who were executives and might have been like Don Draper or his peers. My late brother was of that generation and though not in the advertising industry ran businesses so I found the show amusing. The award winning show has one more season to go and because they are winding through the years (this season took place in 1968) are about to enter into the time when ad agencies went Public and thus more responsible to the stockholders and started hiring CEOs who could talk to bankers. In fact a public offering was even in the episodes this season. But that would not make for good television. Also should mention that the show featured corporations that were still family run which was another thing that changed in the 1970s.
Also debuting last night was a new NBC series "Crossing Lines" which was another pleasant surprise. "Another" because when I watched the pilot episode of "Hannibal" I didn't have much faith in a broadcast network delivering anything other than watered down schlock. But "Hannibal" played like a foreign TV series and the same was true of "Crossing Lines" which stars William Fitchner and Donald Sutherland (in a limited role). This show so much reminded me of UK or even Danish TV series which can be viewed on Netflix. Both "Hannibal" and "Crossing Lines" seem to be a departure from "dumbed down television." As much as I don't care for Comcast's carnival like business model I'm beginning to wonder if their takeover on NBC has resulted in these changes. A few months back they announced there would be changes. And changes need to be done to keep people from tuning out broadcast in favor of cable and premium network offerings like "Mad Men" and "Dexter" (whose final season begins Sunday).
