59 out of 60 people found the following review helpful:

Period Drama - American-style!

JoelC from , 9th October, 2008

(N.B. I am still waiting for the site to send out disc three i.e. the final four episodes. Thus, I am writing this review on the assumption that the quality doesn’t significantly change towards the end)

I’m not hugely fond of giving five star reviews – reviewers on user-content-driven sites like this site tend to over-apply it for (frankly) mediocre content, thus diluting its meaning: if the majority of items reviewed are five star-rated, what about the really good stuff, 6 stars perhaps? Top ratings should only be applied to outstanding work; conversely, only the utterly abominable should receive the very lowest scores. With all that in mind, I believe the AMC series “Mad Men” to be one of the truly exceptional - a textbook example of how to achieve excellence through quality writing, without recourse to overly-spectacular special effects, excessive violence or gimmicky high-concepts (take note, “Heroes”).

Mad Men is a period series set in 1960, in the bustling office of fictional New York advertising firm Sterling-Cooper (the “Mad” in the title stemming from Madison Avenue, the hub of the US Advertising Industry) in an America on the verge of massive social and political change. It follows a group of characters through their daily lives as they deal with backstabbing colleagues, overbearing bosses, stagnating marriages, illicit affairs, midlife crises and philosophical ennui. Unlike a lot of the current crop of American drama series,“Mad Men” is all about people and their relationships – there aren’t any moments of ludicrous action, no car crashes or explosions, no needless recourse to supernatural deus ex machina, no yawnsome “ (gulp) put – the – gun… down!” scenes – just pure, unadulterated, grown-up personal drama. Each character, from the shadowy, charismatic Don Draper (a nuanced performance from John Hamm) to the naïve, idealistic Peggy Olson, is finely drawn with subtle aspects of light and shade – you won’t find two-dimensional “goodies” and “baddies” here, just believable, falliable people. Equally of note is the superbly authentic production design (which surely takes its cues from the cinema) - modernist sets, mostly static camerawork (how refreshing that the shaky-shaky CSI-style camerawork is conspicuously absent) and the evocative use of period music provides an environment to get lost in.

The period setting allows a certain degree of guilty nostalgia. To a modern audience used to a contemporary culture tempered by bland political correctness, the unabashed retrograde attitudes typical of the time (casual sexism and racism, macho posturing, copious amounts of on-screen smoking and drinking) are deplorable and yet, shamefully alluring, particularly for male viewers. It’s hard to imagine such dinosaur attitudes existing today so openly. Indeed, part of the appeal of “Mad Men” is the prospect of future seasons exploring how the gathering political whirlwind of the 60s blows through Sterling Cooper’s offices. The subtle hints peppered throughout Season One (references to VW’s seminal “Think Small” campaign, the proto-hippie beatniks Draper encounters, the scandalising divorcee Helen Bishop from down the street) suggest a world teetering on the edge of revolution, where the certainties of Eisenhower devolve into the self-doubt and instability of the Kennedy and post-Kennedy eras. It will be fascinating to see which characters thrive and which will fall by the wayside. How will they deal with challenges like the conflict in Vietnam, the Pill, civil rights or the counter-culture movement?

Who will this series appeal to? Well, viewers fed on a diet of sappy whimsy like “Ally McBeal” or “Ugly Betty” will despair of the dark tones and the lack of immediately likeable characters. “24” action junkies will have difficulty paying attention to its slow tempo (although, the series has nothing on the glacial pacing of “Lost”) and will be confused at the lack of obvious antagonists. At the same time, “Mad Men” thankfully avoids the corny moralising and overly-smart dialogue of the likes of “The West Wing” or the short-lived “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”: in short this could be the best series in recent memory to appear on the small screen. As such, I have no hesitation is awarding this the maximum five star rating. Roll on Season Two!

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21 out of 29 people found the following review helpful:

totally unforgiving

NCC1701 from , 13th August, 2008

Somewhere this series was advertised as razor sharp black comedy. And for this I give it 2 stars. Bleak relentless deptiction of '60's madison avenue advertising 'highflyers'. If you want coloured film noir try this. If you want black comedy try anything else!

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14 out of 16 people found the following review helpful:

HBO does it again. Superb.

A Customer from Richmond, 3rd July, 2008

Compelling, atmospheric, and completely absorbing even as your jaw drops at the attitudes portrayed. Superb writing and acting, and stunningly sophisticated assemblage of story. The characters are wonderfully complicated, flawed, memorable. This takes TV production to a new level. Very much looking forward to Season 2.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Smoking!

Applie from from Edinburgh, 22nd September, 2008

I saw this show a few times on BBC4 but never got into it. Then it started winning awards and accolades so I thought I'd give it a chance. This, quite simply is the most intelligent, well-drawn drama since The West Wing. All the characters are well thought out, not fitting easily into 'good' or 'bad' people: simply people. At the centre of the drama is Don(ald) Draper: head of accounts and the creative genius at the company. He has to balance, his marriage, his affairs and his past. He does so with some questionable actions and motives, and the great thing about watching the character is that you never know quite how he'll react to something, or quite what he's thinking at any one time. All the characters are drawn in the same way (some more sympathetic than others). But it makes for a very enjoyable and intriguing show, the like of which you don't often see on TV.

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Great for fashionistas

A Customer from London, 14th December, 2009

Amazing clothes of the day! Sexist...and everyone smokes and drinks like crazy, plots a bit thin but its enjoyable.

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cool

Davies591 from , 22nd September, 2009

This series can be summed up in 1 word, cool. The 50's seem like a lot more fun than today. If you wonder what it was like when smoking was still considered good for you and the government didn't try to control eating and drinking etc, then give this a watch.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Top Stuff!!

Gary321UK from , 16th September, 2009

Didn't know an awful lot about the series until I started watching it, and I'm so glad I did! It's entertaining throughout, the characters are beautifully created, the acting is top-notch and the storylines are superbly written. Would recommend this unreservedly.

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Mad Men Series 1 Disc 3

A Customer from London, 26th July, 2009

Does anyone know how I can get hold of Series 1 episodes 11 to 13?

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