Mad Men & Existentialism

This video essay explores Mad Men as an existential TV show.

Mad Men & Existentialism with subs: https://youtu.be/hjXoXB8MADI?list=PLr7LIBXwS5nonPblQd9vmjvgSyettHi5A
Spring Breakers & Narcissism: https://youtu.be/zNzZCtDkNDo?list=PLr7LIBXwS5nonPblQd9vmjvgSyettHi5A
Billy Elliot and the American Dream: https://youtu.be/bLrxIr6HZ8U?list=PLr7LIBXwS5nonPblQd9vmjvgSyettHi5A

Description:
Despite earlier affiliation mostly with the French New Wave, art film and intellectual movies, existentialism can also be found in mainstream movies like The Dark Knight, Fight Club, Groundhog Day and Blade Runner. Today it can even be found in TV-series like House, Californication and Matthew Weiner's Mad Men.

The main character Don Draper's struggle with fear and anxiety in Mad Men, and his search for meaning and identity, mirrors the existentialist advancement from uncertainty to self-creation.

The existentialism behind Mad Men is explored, in this video essay, through thinkers important to the history of ideas and especially important to existentialism: Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Sartre and so on. The focus, however, is ultimately ourselves. Don Draper's quest serves as a mirror to explore our own existential quest in 2013.

How are we becoming our own strangers? Why should we "choose despair"? And what is it to live an authentic life? These are some of the questions explored in this video.

Enjoy and suffer, and then suffer some more!

/Odd Man

Видео Mad Men & Existentialism канала Oddnejm