Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a beautiful piece on this theme. That is, exactly which viewers have which nostalgic feelings as fans of Mad Men (http://www.nybooks.co

Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a beautiful piece on this theme. That is, exactly which viewers have which nostalgic feelings as fans of Mad Men (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/). Finale: "As for the appeal: Who, after all, can resist the fantasy of seeing what your parents were like before you were born, or when you were still little — too little to understand what the deal was with them, something we can only do now, in hindsight? And who, after having that privileged view, would want to dismiss the lives they led and world they inhabited as trivial — as passing fads, moments of madness? Who would still want to bash them, instead of telling them that we know they were bad but that now we forgive them?" Note: this is similar to, but critically different than, the comments above. Mendelsohn's assertion is that the nostalgia is for the past lives of one's parents. How did they live? Who were they? Can we forgive them?