Now that we know Mad Men is coming back for at least two more seasons- albeit with slightly shorter episodes-it’s time to consider whether we’re going to be sick of the early ‘60s by the time they return in early 2012. After all, we have seen two seasons of Mad Men-inspired Banana Republic fashions, not to mention Mad Men -style fashions for QVC . (It’s not QVC’s fault, but when trends show up on shopping networks, you tend to figure they’ve jumped the shark .)
Now we have the miniseries The Kennedys (poor Katie Holmes, forced to slum it on the ReelzChannel). And we have the upcoming NBC drama The Playboy Club , about an early ‘60s Playboy Club in Chicago. The latest news on that show is the show’s star, Amber Heard, posting a Facebook picture of herself in costume, looking rather like a saucy Betty Draper , and the fact that DVD and cable versions of the show may include nudity. (Or, as the New York Post put it, “These Playboy Bunnies could be showing off more than their cottontails.”)
Only we’ve already seen the inside of a period the Playboy Club-on that one episode of Mad Men - and we’ve seen so many iterations of that flipped hair, and that particular orange-red poppy shade of lipstick, and those nipped waists and the charmingly retrograde dialogue. Mad Men is compelling drama, but when the ‘60s start to feel as familiar to us as the 2010’s, the premise may just start to seem stale.