TV is sometimes better then my life

Mad men is a phenomenal show. It is emotionally gripping and covers really intense and important subject matter in a manner so true, that it is difficult sometimes to realize that the show is not based on events that really happened. People tend to be obsessive about it, I certainly am.

People who don't watch it often wonder what it is about, and the answer usually given is "advertising". Which is kind of like saying Moby Dick is about whaling.

I have spent a few years wondering why I care *so* much about this work of fiction, that takes place during a decade I never experienced, dealing with a field that I haven't got very much respect for.

I finally figured it out. Mad Men is not about advertising, it is about failure.

It's late so I won't say much.

But I want to mention that one thing I love about Big Love is how close to the perfect the scripting is around issues of family dysfunction and healing.

In the latest episode, Nicki says point blank to her husband. "I get so angry about how we were raised sometimes. I wish I could be more like you." He says, "Well you can't hang on to the past, you just have to move on." To which she replies. " I don't think I can, there's something in me that's damaged."

Not to riddle this post with spoilers or anything, but the latest installment of Big Love is a doozy.

Bill Hendrickson, hot on the trail of a senate seat manages to completely screw his best friend Don Embry: Asking his staunchest ally to admit to polygamy, then health insurance fraud, and if that weren't enough, to then resign from the company he helped found. All to support Bill's bid for senate.

If that weren't enough, 5 seconds later Bill is giving his eldest son Ben the heave-ho and away you go. Why? For that ancient, extended family faux-pas' - making eyes at Marjean, the youngest of Bill's three wives, and it ought to be mentioned, Ben's erstwhile babysitter.

My head's just reeling at all the back-stabbing and treachery, reeling so much that I got to thinking about a similar alpha male TV bad-ass - the stylish but no less leonine or gynastically prolific, Don Draper.

What is it about capital M Men on TV these days. They are completely fucked up. Their self-awareness, emotional intelligence, respect for others, personal ethics. All seem prey to a boundless need to conquer.

I think we all know that sometimes I like to dream that I *am* Liz Lemon, and that I live in New York and am really funny and cute and have an awesome job writing funny stuff for a living and hanging out with Jack Donaghy etc..

What is less obvious, mostly because I haven't blogged/talked about it at length, is that I also secretly dream that I am the Jewish girl on Mad Men, Rachel Menken and instead of seeing through to Don Draper's sad little core and then dumping his ass, we run away and have exceptionally strong/smart little half Jew babies.

So, what I don't understand is how the people in charge of casting 30 Rock saw through to my 'sad little core' and cast Jonn Hamm as Liz Lemon's new love interest.