Why have viewers remained so glued to Mad Men as its characters and settings have progressed over several years of TV time?
According to Jennifer Dunn, associate professor of rhetoric and public culture at Domican University, the show's span over the iconic 1960's evokes both a feeling of nostalgia and of prior knowledge.
"Even those of us who didn't live through 60's look at the show with nostalgia because the era has been represented so much in popular culture," Dunn says. "We also see the characters with a knowing eye — we know what changes history has in store for them, and we want to see how they'll react to the changes that lie ahead."
Dunn is the co-editor of the book Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch: Critical Discourses of Television’s Mad Men, published in 2012.
Mad Men's sixth season will premier April 7.
Read more about Dunn at http://www.dom.edu/newsroom/experts/faculty/faculty_d.html#dunn.
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