Last week’s television line-up triggered a couple déjà vu moments—particularly when both Mad Men (on Sunday) and House M.D. (on Monday) put King Midas in the spotlight.
In Greek mythology, Midas, the king of Phrygia, was granted a wish that everything he touched would turn to gold. But that really did mean everything he touched—food, drink, and (in a version told by Nathaniel Hawthorne) his beloved daughter. The so-called “Midas Touch” took away the one thing he truly loved, and which money couldn’t buy. (For everything else, there’s MasterCard).
In Mad Men 3.09, hotel magnate Conrad Hilton calls Don up in the titular “Wee Small Hours,” insisting that they meet for drinks—however late, or early, it might be.
“I’m in a bit of a crisis tonight,” he tells the still-tired and probably more-than-a-little-confused ad man, going on to comment that he obsesses over his business yet isn’t working enough, feels lonely yet can’t take time away from what he considers his mission, his “purpose in life”—something that, however successful he becomes, doesn’t seem to make him happy.
“You know sometimes I look around here, and I think—by golly, I’m King Midas,” he says, to which Don Draper replies with a wrinkled forehead, slightly disturbed expression, and calm admonishment:
“You need to stop it, you’re not.”
The next night, an almost identical exchange occurs between another wealthy (and distraught) businessman and a similarly skeptical voice of reason: Dr. Gregory House.
“Instant Karma,” episode 6.04, follows a successful businessman and his young son to Princeton Plainsboro, where the boy’s mysterious stomach pains are diagnosed by the Team as symptoms of a rare, incurable disease which gives the kid only a day or two to live. Convinced that his son’s sickness is payback for his ample paycheck, titan of industry Roy decides to balance his karmic checkbook by intentionally bankrupting himself and his business.
“Everything I do, everything I touch, turns to gold… this is my fault,” he explains (if that line of thought can really be called an explanation). “There’s got to be some kind of balance—you can’t have all the good fortune in just one area of your life.”
In Mad Men, Hilton’s single-minded pursuit of his “purpose in life” to put Hilton hotels on every corner of the globe (and the moon, as it turns out) has left him so lonely that his preferred company is the creative director of his ad company. Roy thinks his business success is literally killing his son; Hilton’s work is so all-consuming that the man he calls his “son” is Don Draper.
And just like Don, House recognizes that the man isn’t thinking straight. Of course, he’s not nearly so politic about it: “He’s irrational,” he says. “So are most people. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make them insane.”
What’s interesting is that while both Connie and Roy are obscenely wealthy, neither fit the greedy capitalist pig stereotype that dominates the media today. Neither are unethical in their business practices—just driven. And irrationally tormented by their adherence to mystical beliefs (a sacred mission, a karmic imbalance).
Don Draper and House are just as driven, just as single-minded about their work (maybe more so), and just as lacking in their family lives (House has one friend—count, one—and his work is the only thing Draper’s faithful to). But these two are our protagonists, and pretty popular one. They value success; they love their work; and they’re rational.
I’m reminded of Atlas Shrugged, and a banker so proud of his money that he took the name “Midas” Mulligan as a badge of honor. Looks like there might be some Ayn Rand in AMC and FOX these days.
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Isabela Morales is a History and American Studies student and rabid science fiction fan who blogs at thescattering.wordpress.com 
