Mad Men - Season One (2007)

Mad Men S1

I Love it. Started watching Season 2 by accident then I realized had to watch 1 first. Amazing show. October 6, 2008

A bit overpraised, but a great show nonetheless

Standing out against a backdrop containing a depressing number of boring sitcoms, brain-dead reality shows, and interchangeable law-enforcment procedurals, Mad Men is the kind of show that's been hastening my abandonment of network TV over the past several years. Chronicling a year (roughly) in the life of Madison Avenue ad agency Sterling Cooper, Mad Men enfolds an unapologetic look at early-1960's American society into an intelligent and occasionally comedic drama series. While the massive buzz might suggest otherwise, Mad Men is not in fact the best thing to happen to TV since color--the pacing could use some work, and the dialogue isn't always as clever or profound as it's obviously meant to be--but it's still nice to see a show this unabashedly cool and thoroughly absorbing. Largely forgoing contrived plot twists and tiresome histrionics, the show instead breezes by on its unforced charm and subtle character dynamics. Much has been made of the Mad Men's exacting recreation of a bygone era, and that attention to detail spills into every aspect of the show, giving it a colorful, vivid look and feel unlike anything else on TV. Even when the characters aren't doing anything consequential, as in a late-season episode showing the staff killing time during the presidential election with the bosses gone, it's a blast just to watch them hang out.

Like many of the best shows of the past decade or so (think The Shield, The Wire, The Sopranos, etc.), Mad Men manages to juggle multiple plot and character arcs, generally bringing things along slowly until the pace accelerates in the wrenching final few episodes. At the same time, its novel setting in the early 1960's and its high levels of personal, professional ,and sexual intrigue ensure that it manages to stand on its own as a compelling watch. Especially fascinating is seeing the freewheeling portrayal of behaviors now considered archaic if not outright evil: rampant adultery and sexist objectification, smoking (even during pregnancy!), drunk driving, and, in one strangely alluring scene, the main character's mega-babe wife shooting the neighbor's birds in her backyard while puffing away on a cigarette. Even though the show depicts a great deal of what would now be considered misbehavior, it never passes judgment on its characters or their era, nor does it engage in pointless nostalgia. It just presents likeably flawed characters living by the conventions of a different time and leaves viewers to judge for themselves.

While Mad Men does an admirable job of developing a sizeable ensemble cast(which has continued in its even better second season), there's no question that the central character in the drama is Don Draper, Sterling Cooper's vaguely mysterious creative director. Played in career-making fashion by the suitably stoic and square-jawed Jon Hamm, Don is easily one of the most unpredictable and inscrutable leading men on TV, not quite a hero and not quite an anti-hero, but a compelling figure nonetheless. My wife succintly described him as a "jerk," and while that label isn't entirely inaccurate, the writers gradually fill in the details of Don's past and reveal what's going on beneath his seemingly soulless exterior. Even as he drinks heavily, cheats on his wife, and belittles subordinates, it's somehow easy to forgive Don his flaws, especially as the season wears on and the writers take us further into his head. Similarly, a collection of (somewhat) ancillary characters who may intially seem one-note--reserved secretary Peggy Olsen, hard-living boss Roger Sterling, Machiavellian striver Pete Campbell, seductive office manager Joan Holloway--have their own aspirations and internal conflicts come out over time.

Mixing single-episode plots with longer storylines, along with the running thread of the Nixon-Kennedy presidential race (with Sterling Cooper working for Nixon), Mad Men has a lot going on from the very first episode. For a show as busy and ambitious as it is, though, Mad Men remains extremely restrained and consistent, with few deviations from its focus on character and setting. I for one found the plots focusing on Don's home life and his romantic entanglements less interesting than the show's examination of the workings of a business circa 1960 and the psychological underpinnings of advertising, but pretty much everyone should be able to find something here to enjoy. Throughout its first season Mad Men keeps the complexity level high and rarely panders to its audience, which are qualities that just about everyone should be able to get behind. October 4, 2008

Packaging is a LIE!

First of all best show...clothing, sets, vehicles etc. straight up 60's. Gorgeous show! Story lines interesting as well... Big zippo lighter, sounds cool, huh? Only amazon is misrepresenting this product with the pictures...I ordered it because of the zippo but got plain packaging instead...called amazon they apologized and assured me that they would send the special edition...anddd they sent out the same one the following week...GREAT return policy however it is too bad that they are not able to communicate with the folks that are in charge of inventory. So buy it you won't be sorry...but zippo lighter it is NOT! October 3, 2008

One of the finest series on television

MAD MEN is one of those series that is almost impossible to praise too highly. It is also one of those series that puts on display the inherent superiority of television to the movies. That is a sentiment that I find offends many, but one that more and more thinking men and women are coming to embrace as television gradually turns out one amazingly intelligent series after another. Cinema is inherently limited on how much an individual movie can achieve in developing a complex narrative just as it is limited in how deeply it can explore character. The reason is obvious: a lack of time. Delving deeply into the lives of a group of characters is a luxury movies simply can't afford. The clock is ticking.

MAD MEN will, when it is finished, be a narrative of the sixties. Season One begins in 1960k, shortly before the Kennedy-Nixon election. Season Two moves almost two years ahead of that. Subsequent seasons will move the story ahead by a couple of years each time, before coming to an end at the end of the decade. The sixties was clearly the most remarkable decade of the twentieth century. The world of 1970 has more in common with today in many ways than it did to 1960. The changes in our attitudes can scarcely be assessed. At the beginning of the series women all have their place in the office as servants to the men, accept passively their roles as eye candy and objects of sexual innuendo, and aspire to no more than moving up the secretarial rank. A gay man in the office is so completely in the office that he seems oblivious to his homosexuality. But by the end of decade would come the Stonewall riots and the Second Wave of the women's movement would be in full bloom.

One of the dominant themes of the show is the contrast between the world of today and the world of "then." One of the most striking moments in Season One comes when Betty Draper's daughter runs into the living room wearing a body length plastic launderer's bag. Betty sharply upbraids her, hoping that this doesn't mean that her laundry is laying on the floor. To modern sensibility a child wearing a deadly plastic bad is shocking. Or in a late season episode Don Draper allows his completely drunk boss to leave his house with a drink "for the road." He merely smiles when he shouts, "That's my car!" as Roger drunkenly tries to find his own. A pregnant woman at a party can be seen smoking while holding a martini glass. One of my favorite MAD MEN scenes comes in Season Two, when after a picnic with his wife and kids, Don shakes the blanket they have all been sitting on, leaving the paper and trash on the ground. It all highlights some of the progress we have made in disciplining some of our more indefensible behavior.

As others have noted, the show centers on several ad executives at the Sterling-Cooper advertising firm. In particular, the film focuses on Don Draper, a brilliantly creative ad exec who has been just as inventive in recreating himself as he has been in promoting the products of the firm's clients. A serial adulterer, the child of a prostitute who died giving birth to him, and the son of an abusive father, he has had to pull himself from his humble origins to the top of his profession. All this while protecting his own dark secrets. Don Draper is a great character, perhaps the most archetypal character to have arisen since Tony Soprano. And it provided the opportunity for overnight stardom for Jon Hamm, a previously only marginally successful actor who had mainly been distinguished by a string of very small parts on various TV series and small budget movies. But it is impossible to imagine anyone more perfect for this role than Hamm and series creator Matthew Weiner agreed after seeing his audition tapes. When the network insisted that Hamm be passed over for a more established actor, Weiner declared that without Hamm he was not willing to move forward with the series. Weiner won and Hamm went on to win a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination (which he should have won). As portrayed by Hamm, Don Draper is the complete embodiment of Thoreau's individual who lives a life of quiet desperation. Draper is a world of contradictions. At times unscrupulous, he is also capable of great magnanimity and moral rectitude. A womanizer, he yearns for the ideal home.

The cast is stuffed with great characters and wonderful performances. I absolutely detested Vincent Kartheiser as Connor on the series ANGEL, though even then I suspected it was more the way he was written than his performance. Though he isn't asked to perform acts of daring do on MAD MEN, he is exceptional as Peter Campbell. Like Don Draper he alternates from petty, self-serving moments to acts of kindness and loyalty. He is capable of being wonderfully protective of Peggy Olson, a woman with whom he has had a couple of moments of physical intimacy, though he can also behave viciously towards her. John Slattery is outstanding as Roger Sterling, the number two man in the firm and the son of the Sterling-Cooper cofounder. Robert Morse, the great Broadway musical star of the sixties (including HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING), plays Bertram Cooper, the head of the firm. The almost unbearably beautiful January Jones (at one point in the season much is made of her resemblance to Grace Kelly, and she is gorgeous enough to make it not a silly compliment). Not to jump ahead to Season Two, Jones performance over the two seasons as Don Draper's trophy wife Betty is noting short of brilliant. Betty is someone who detests her life as a beautiful manikin, but isn't able to achieve happiness because she doesn't know who she wants to become. She also provides many of Season One's great moments, none better than when she starts killing the carrier pigeons of her next door neighbor with an air rifle (with cigarette dangling from her mouth) after he tells her children that he will kill their dog if they don't keep him out of his yard. The gorgeous Christina Hendricks (who wears some padding to make her figure more Rubenesque and who was wonderful in the recurring role of Saffron on the Sci-fi series FIREFLY) plays Joan Holloway, the office manager.

After Don Draper, however, my favorite character on the show is Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss). The series actually begins with Peggy's first day as a Sterling-Cooper employee. Starting off as Don Draper's secretary, she soon shows that she has skills as a writer, and soon becomes valued as a copy writer with a sensitivity for products that appeal to women. I've told friends that I believe that by the end of the series Peggy will actually be the head of Sterling-Cooper. I think the centrality of Peggy to the show was shown partly by the show commencing with her first day there and with her unprecedented penetration of the all male hierarchy of the corporation. Viewers may notice that she gains weight over the course of the year, especially during the last half. In fact Elizabeth Moss gained no weight. All changes were the result of very sophisticated make up art and padded clothing.

MAD MEN is one of the most beautifully designed shows you'll ever hope to see. It may be surpassed by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and PUSHING DAISIES in art design, but no show on television rivals it in clothing. The look of the show is impeccable. If you don't remember the sixties, you can relive them by watching this show.

This is a show that anyone serious about quality TV has to know well. I've watched Season One twice and plan on rewatching Season One and Two as soon as the latter has finished. MAD MEN is also an example of a new trend in television, a series that tells more or less a unified story over the course of its life. LOST and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA both are doing this as well. All are must-see shows. October 2, 2008

An Amazing Recreation of an Era and the Start of an Industry

As a person in branding, marketing and advertising I love watching this show as much for its perfect representation of my (almost) growing up years (but I can relate) and the early days of an industry. It's great to hear men talk about and wonder what women want. The simplicity of advertising in those days and the way it doubled for branding. Great acting, compelling characters, a real glimpse of history, fabulous sets. I couldn't ask for more in story. October 2, 2008

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