The thing to remember about the Mad Dog is it is the culmination of the fine art of the "trailing edge of technology." It traces its ancestry back to the DC-9. The DC-9 shares its technological lineage to the wheel, the inclined plane and the screw.
DC stands for Direct Cable. When you grab a hold of something there is a cable and pulley thing a ma jig on the other end of it and that does something.
It works good and lasts a long time. It is quiet, it is very straight forward in its design and it is a great airplane. It is not a friendly airplane to land well land it takes some technique. As an old PSA (the original PSA smiley bird West coast America Airline) pilot instructor said during our ground-school " If you guys figure out how to get consistently good landings" call us and let us know.
You can use lots of up trim like the autopilot, you can fly it on sort of nose lower, there are many ways. It takes work and you will have your share of aircraft carrier style "three wire" arrivals.
For a sophisticated airplane the wing and tail anti-ice plumbing system is a bit much... You have to mess with cross feed valves and stuff like that but it works fine.
You will enjoy this airplane. It is a good honest airplane and it hand flies well once you get the hang of it.
Look up "bitchin betty" on youtube. There actually is a person doing the talking and recorded on the audio for the MD-80 warnings.
good luck.... I just finished 4 days in a brand new A321... I still miss the 80.