‘ Fargo,’ ‘ Mad Men,’ ‘ Americans’ turn to self- help transformations
Self- actualization of the 1970s and ’ 80s is now a plot point
Fargo’s Peggy Blumquist looks to transform her life in a very 1979 kind of way: a self- improvement program.
Peggy “wants to get out of Minnesota but doesn’t have the tools to do that, so she puts all her energy into trying to get to this seminar, Lifespring, because she thinks it’s going to fix everything for her,” says Kirsten Dunst, who plays the married salon worker in the second- season FX drama ( Monday, 10 p. m. ET/ PT).
Peggy is just one character from a period drama seeking transformation or personal insight through the self- actualization programs of that era. AMC’s Mad Men, whose finale is set in 1970, and FX’s The Americans, set during the Cold War in the early ’ 80s, both have woven that culture into their stories.
“The human- potential movement was big at that time, the ’ 60s, ’ 70s and ’ 80s, says Temple University professor Frank Farley, a former president of the American Psychological Association. It “focused on selfgrowth, realizing your potential. We’re still doing that” today.
The movement, influenced by psychologist Abraham Maslow’s work, may have developed partly in reaction to 1950s conformity and fears of Cold War nuclear attacks, “Self- help for some people could be seen as a kind of liberating process,” Farley says.
In May’s finale of Mad Men, ad man Don Draper ( Jon Hamm) is doing yoga at a coastal California retreat that looks suspiciously like the Esalen Institute, which is devoted to developing human potential, when he has the inspiration for a famous, real- life Coca- Cola commercial.
In the recent season of FX’s 1980s Cold War spy drama, The Americans, Soviet spy Philip Jennings ( Matthew Rhys) attends Erhard Seminars Training ( EST) to get closer to suburban D. C. neighbor and FBI Agent Stan Beeman ( Noah Emmerich), starting a journey of self- discovery.
“Here ( Philip) is, being challenged with the very emotional questions that he would normally run from,” Americans executive producer Joel Fields says. “Because of where he happened to be after years of ( spy) incidents, this started to stick to him.”
Americans producers initially saw the self- actualization movement as an ’ 80s- appropriate way to increase the involvement of Stan’s estranged wife, Sandra ( Susan Misner), before it evolved into an avenue of selfexamination for conflicted Philip and a way for him to bond with Sandra.
Self- actualization “was such an important thing going on in the culture,” Americans executive producer Joe Weisberg says. “When we were researching this, we found out how many movements there were.”
Esalen is a place, not a movement, that hovers above the Pacific in California’s Big Sur. Mad Men’s disillusioned Don went to a similar- looking location in the finale, broke down when considering his life and began taking part in its programs. He may or may not have changed his life, but he certainly resurrected his career.
Fargo’s Peggy sees Lifespring, a human- potential training program, as a path toward a more fulfilling life than what awaits her in small- town Minnesota, series creator Noah Hawley says.
“She wants more, but she doesn’t know what that means. She doesn’t really have those role models or that frame of reference to be able to say, ‘ Well, I want to grow up to be this,’ ” Hawley says. “But she now feels like she’s getting some momentum, like, ‘ I’m going to take this course. This is going to tell me what I need to know.’ And then she makes a mistake and feels like, ‘ If I accept the consequences for what I’ve done, I’ll never see where that path leads.’ That leads her to cover up what she’s done and then that desire to actualize becomes increasingly desperate.”
Self- help programs have faced criticism, but producers have focused on the movement’s positive side in The Americans, which returns for Season 4 in 2016.
“The idea that there was a group of people committed to self- examination seems like a ... positive thing,” Fields says.
He and Weisberg are used to trying to find a positive side to something seen as controversial or negative. “We love to do that,” Weisberg says. “We’re doing that with the KGB.”