Mad Men - Why the New Stuff Isn't Working

The Regular Son had a smart observation a couple of weeks ago about the new season of Mad Men, which has been pretty flat so far.   He noted that the attraction of the early seasons had a lot to do with the look of the early 1960s, which was stylish in a Sinatraesque way.   But the later seasons, as they move into the late 1960s, are much uglier to look at, and thus less entertaining.   He's a painter, so his experience is more visual than mine, but I think he's right here.   The writing of the show hasn't gotten significantly worse... maybe it wasn't that great all along.   But the original look was fantastic, and the new look of the show is not.   Ask yourself the question:

This?

























Or this?