Do you really believe this is a fluke and not intentional on Weiner's part, especially with all the other Christian references this season? And with "Where the Truth Lies" in the subtitle?On second thought, no, I don't think it is just a fluke, although that is the word I used.
It can't be a fluke because Mad Men is not actually filmed in the Time-Life Building.The office is a set somewhere and the window in the reception area is a actually a blue or green screen. This creates a blank spot that the requisite backdrops are later dropped into. So Weiner and company chose everything deliberately. I'm sure they studied photographs of the neighbourhood in 1965 to determine what might have been in the background and they picked that perspective with the "666".
I suspect they also know the history of the Time-Life Building in film and knew that a scene from Rosemary's Baby was filmed there. I do not have the patience to sit all the way through Rosemary's Baby to find out but I assume that Polanski has the "666" appear somewhere in the background.
What I am much more hesitant to sign on to is that this "666" is terribly straightforward in its implication. It might be but Weiner likes false clues as much as he likes real ones. He isn't about planting something that looks like a sign or portent only to ignore it later.
I guess the big question is does Weiner intend to attack advertising in this series? Are we to think what some critics clearly do think that Don Draper is the moral equivalent of Tony Soprano and that advertising is the morale equivalent of organized crime?
If he does, then he is a liar hypocrite of the first order given the use the show makes of product placement. More to the point, I think he means to be more ambiguous and even-handed than that. I'll admit I believe that because I want to believe it.
Where the truth lies. Can the truth lie. Where could the truth lie.
Thank you for acknowledging my comments. I agree with you, Weiner does plant false clues as much as real clues, and his attention to detail is well-demonstrated. I didn't know about the Time-Life connection to Rosemary's Baby until you mentioned it, its been so long since I saw it I don't remember any allusions or depictions of "666" either in the movie, but at that point in my life I wouldn't have noticed it if it had been there.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your other comments about Weiner's attitude toward advertising, I think Weiner is both ambiguous--and ambivalent--about it. Your point about product placement is well-taken. However, the subtitle of "Where the Truth Lies" and the opening credits going back to Episode 1 Season 1 of the man (either Don Draper or a metaphor for every Mad Man) falling off the building are both making an intentional point. I think he is attacking advertising in this series, but there is also some degree of affection for the people who worked in it, and trying to show it as it really was. That's why I don't feel its a stretch to think or at least wonder if Weiner had something deeper in mind with the 666 visible from the SCDP office than that it was authentic based on photos he looked at.