揭秘美剧独特魅力的背后（上）
Fans of US television dramas watch their favorite series for different reasons: some want to improve their English skills, others just want to kill time.
美剧迷们追美剧的理由五花八门：有人为了提高英语水平，也有人只是为了打发时间。
No matter what type of series you prefer or why you watch them, some TV series are more than pure entertainment ― they have a certain depth. Mad Men, which returned with a sixth season recently; Monday Mornings, which just finished its first season; and Modern Family, which sweeps the awards every year, are just a few examples.
不管你喜欢哪类美剧，也不管你出于什么目的来追剧，总有些剧集不仅仅只是娱乐那么简单——自有深意在其中。比如近日携第六季回归的《广告狂人》、第一季刚刚落下帷幕的《周一清晨》、还有每年都会横扫各大颁奖礼的《摩登家庭》，这样的例子还有很多。
Why do these shows stand out among so many similar ones? 是什么使得这些剧集能够从众多的同类中脱颖而出?
Period drama
历史剧
More than time travel
不仅只是穿越
Period dramas are intended to capture the *ambience of a particular era. Directors must therefore attract audiences as much by their recreation of a historical setting as by an *engrossing storyline.
历史剧旨在捕捉一个特定时代的历史环境。因此，为吸引观众，导演必须再现历史情境，并打造出引人入胜的故事情节。
Mad Men is an excellent example of this balance being struck. Set in New York during the 1960s, it accurately depicts US *ideology and attitudes in the workplace through the alcoholism, sexism, and chain-smoking common of the time, and places an absorbing plot right in its center.
在这两个方面，《广告狂人》都可称得上是个中翘楚。该剧的故事背景设定在上世纪六十年代的纽约，剧中通过再现那个时代常见的酗酒、性别歧视以及烟不离手的场景，准确地刻画了当时美国人的思想意识以及工作态度，而引人入胜的剧情也是恰到好处。
But rather than merely portraying a past decade with an *exquisite set and *props, Mad Men’s subtle depiction of the internal struggles of white-collar workers at the time, both male and female, makes it stand out.
但该剧并不仅仅只是动用精美布景与道具来再现那样一个逝去的十年，《广告狂人》对当时白领男女内心挣扎的细微刻画，也使得该剧脱颖而出。
“The series’ attention to detail is legendary,” Raymond Zhou said. “For example, creator Matthew Weiner makes Don Draper ― the *protagonist of the series ― drive a Buick instead of a Cadillac, because Weiner thinks the ad man lacks the self-esteem to buy a luxury car. It’s this kind of attentiveness that raises the show’s *connotation and artistic value.”
“该剧以专注细节而著称。”周黎明说：“举例来说，编剧马修•维纳让主角唐•德雷柏驾驶一辆别克而非凯迪拉克，因为维纳认为，身为广告策划人的这位主角，并没有自负到要购买豪华轿车的程度。正是这种专注提升了整部剧的内涵与艺术价值。”
What may appear on the surface as a carefree era of adultery and drug abuse, is, deep down, an unsettling environment in which individuals are *alienated from each other and themselves. The market forces they seek to control are, in fact, controlling them.
表面上看起来那是一个毒品泛滥的滥情年代，而究其根本，则是在一个动荡不安的环境中，人们相互疏离，甚至对自己也是如此。人们一心想掌控市场力量，而实际上却被它玩弄于股掌之间。
Whether we are conscious of these issues while watching the series is a different matter, but subconsciously we can relate to the characters, their struggles and their loss of identity, because we know it’s the same today.
我们在追剧时是否意识到这些问题尚且别论，但在潜意识里，剧中人物的挣扎与自我迷失都令我们感同身受，因为我们知道，今时今日，并无不同。
Critics also recommend
同类剧推荐
Another period drama that works on a similarly subconscious level is Broadwalk Empire, set during the prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
与之异曲同工的历史剧集还有《大西洋帝国》，故事发生在上世纪二三十年代刚刚颁布禁酒令的新泽西州大西洋城。
Heather Havrilesky at Salon magazine, noted how the show “revels in the oddities of its time, peeling back the layers of polite society to reveal a *giddy shadow world of criminals and politicians collaborating to keep the liquor flowing.”
来自美国《沙龙》杂志的希瑟•赫里雷斯基指出该剧是如何“着迷于当时的一片光怪陆离，又是如何通过对上流社会抽丝剥茧，展现出一个罪犯与政客相互勾结来维持酒水交易的，令人眼花缭乱的阴暗世界。”
Why does it appeal to viewers? Because they know that the “liquor” is a metaphor for today’s political scandals.
它为何如此吸引观众?因为观众知道剧中的“酒”是对当下政治丑闻的一种隐喻。
