Cassandra writes: Question for a bright feminist - why do so many women get upset that I find mad men depressing? If I say it looks like patriarchy porn men say fair enough but lots of women get upset and say it’s a metastory of womens liberation. no doubt you get many random pop culture…

Well, here’s the thing - I have tried to get my Mother into Mad Men. She’s seen a couple of episodes, but has said, “I really don’t want to relive that, honey.” In some ways, as a ginned-up soap opera that’s a record of a time where ideas were backward, it’s completely depressing, depending on your context. It feels like a lot of the Mad Men audience is at the age where it just seems exotic.

*Whether it ends up as a metastory about women’s liberation probably depends on how the show ends, is my guess. Is it Don Draper’s story, or is it Peggy Olsen’s?