This is the first television series I've seen that feels like a theatrical movie rather than another jittery, overly busy, manipulative made-for-TV video series, with frequently good acting wasted on formulaic, or non-existent, plots (the "criminal minds" of the series by that title are the writers) relying upon sensation, violence, and cheap digital effects to hook and maintain the viewer's interest. Moreover, the characters in "Mad Men" are not cardboard stereotypes but multidimensional and complex. But perhaps not as much as they would like to think. Women viewers need not feel guilty about watching "Mad Men" on the basis of the following features designed to attract a large female audience: the compelling if not magnetic quality of the flawed but strong and reassuringly handsome lead, John Hamm, who plays ultra-cool ad man Don Draper (he's got the right charisma to anchor an entire James Bond movie series); the representation of women in the 1960's, a period that requires a woman to be at once a "toy doll," a "perfect housewife," and of course, an unquestionably competent secretary, who has nothing but time on her hands to perform her duties with unfailing mechanical precision, always ready with the proper smile or facial expression at the proper time (or risk being fired, and without the ceremony offered incompetent male employees).

Needless to say, the women who "succeed" are those who are, by the unspoken requirements of their subordinate position, academy-award winning actresses, capable of either a. landing a man who is a paid ticket to a suburban castle with charming children (and servants to smooth out life's ruffles) or b. miraculously carving out a place where they are recognized for their actual abilities, talents and individual potential. The slights inflicted upon women on a continual basis are subtle and cumulative. Like the series itself, the duplicity required of women to succeed, or simply to survive, in the work place becomes manifest gradually, requiring the viewer to pay close attention to the smallest details of dialogue and "mis en scene" (by contrast, most television series make NO demands of their viewers because there's "nothing to look at": in the overwhelming majority of television dramas the moving camera and shock editing is relentless, continually loud and intrusive of the home spectator's viewing space: in television, it seems, "overstatement" rules, giving the viewer no room for choice let alone interpretation. The medium behaves as though its only mission is, as quickly and as surely as possible, to "captivate" a witless audience that will think and feel as the camera and sound-track dictate. "Mad Man" is, by contrast, an imitation of a far more recognizable life, one offering inscrutable, even dangerous "games" to every individual who's in the job market, desperate for a good job with benefits and opportunities for advancement but damned if he allows the urgency to show. Moreover, the series is undeniably, from its first smoke-filled shots, a "period piece" that represents the '60s as some of us will certainly (if reluctantly) remember those years. But it's more than a disturbing view of the past: it's a critique of the unexamined life and, necessarily, of the life of commercial television in the present age of "late"-capitalism, when even the most under-educated viewers are becoming increasingly aware of the unbreachable divide between the haves and the have-nots, between those who exploit and profit from the desires of the American consumer and those suddenly made aware of the high cost of the American Dream and its increasing distance from the vast majority.

You may need to pick up the series for rescreening if, to select a chapter at random, you missed the following in Episode 7, "Red in the Face": The subtle collusion between Don and the elevator operator to assure the unforgettable climax of Roger's humiliation. Notice Don's brief business with him both before and after the oysterfest, and notice the expressions on Roger's and Don's faces at the end of the episode. Besides such details, consider the overaching design of the episode. The theme is male predators, survival of the fittest, and misplaced hubris. Roger will hit on Betty Draper, and the pathetic Pete will do the same with the store clerk who refuses to refund in cash his returned chip and dip. Both come up empty-handed, though both try to sustain their moment of heroism. Pete's sitting Peggy down on a couch to hear his story of gutting a rabbit and eating it in view of the fair damsel is parallell with Roger's stories to the overly appreciative (in Don's double-standard view) Betty. Then we have the chivalric subtheme of Betsy playing the fair princess to the unlikely 8-year-old knight whose mother's negligence leads to his coveting a lock of Betty's golden hair. It's a rare moment when Betty is both the object of adoration and an empathetic mother who reaches out (which she can't do with her own family). But just as Don blames her for Roger's bad behavior, the suddenly possessive mother of the wandering knight takes offense at Betty's gift. As usual, she's sent back to the psychiatrist, though the planting of the rifle as Pete's new toy will take its rightful place in the story when Betsy takes a gun to the neighbor's pidgeons. It's a moment of rage that is long overdue.

Along with the examination of the pressure-cooker capitalism, the series is especially concerned with the roles demanded of (and therefore "played by") women. The seeds are being planted throughout the entire first season, but the fully realized force of the objectification and belittlement of women (nothing so obvious as "harassment") will culminate in a chilling, unforgettable and appropriately titled episode, "A Night to Remember," in the 2nd season (episode 8 from the 2008 season). The episode is a cinematic tour deforce, thus far the most ambitious chapter in a series that seems to be reinventing itself as it goes along, always improving. This particular segment is like vintage Robert Altman in its cross-cutting among the three women who have received the most attention. The time, historically, is the days immediately following news of Marilyn Monroe's suicide, and each of the three women--Joan, the queen-secretary who is herself a combination of keen intelligence in an hour-glass figure; Betty, the manipulated, blonde showgirl/perfect housewife/showcase trophy of Don Draper; Peggy, the innocent "country girl" who has wised-up sufficiently to the ways of men to play their game, attaining power to make decisions that will influence consumers throughout the nation--each of the three will receive potentially shattering epiphanies, showing them the emptiness of their programmed existences in a male-run world that expects of them only compliance along with adoration beyond any they themselves might receive for their physical attributes. The realizations of all three occur in a breath-taking "tour de force" of characterization. The potent mix of minimalist but thoughtful script-writing, artful directing, and "parallel" editing allows the viewer to receive the full force of three separate "actions" (actually, internal "epiphanies") occurring simultaneously.

The series is uncomfortably faithful to the period, not only in its portrayal of male-female relationships in and outside the workplace but in the continuous gauzy veil of smoke thrown off by chain-smoking characters along with the ubiquitous portable bars in the offices of hard-drinking executives (just a few examples of the irony of the ad squad coming under the influence of its own subliminal messages). Most of the action is internal yet highly appealing to the eye, taking place in an office space that seems both capacious and capable of showing the viewer surprises and new discoveries with each episode. The colors are richly saturated--crisp and vibrant technicolor (not the faded, irridescent reds, blues, and greens that would replace them beginning in the late '60s and continuing throughout the 1970s), with a brightly lit, crystal clear, sharp resolution and a camera lens with revealing "depth of field" that takes full advantage of the big flat, high definition screens that have begun to dominate domestic space in just the past 5-6 years of the new millennium; the camera work--with striking angles but steady shots of sufficient duration to allow the spectator to see each crucial detail--has the professional sheen of a bonafide "auteur" such as the admired 1950s "Hollywood" director, Douglas Sirk.

Frankly, I had all but "given up" on television--except for the talking heads on MSNBC and the mindless reality shows like "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers." Most of what passes for television drama is manipulative and "busy" to a degree that the viewer is placed in the paradoxical position of having nothing to look at. Viewers are denied the "freedom to see" on their ever larger, higher definition screens. Everything of importance to the sponsors and filmmakers is magnified or grossly overstated, then thrown in the spectator's face by the hyperactive videocam and "shock" editing. But this series, sponsored appropriately enough by American Movie Classics, is the most refreshing, ground-breaking television drama since "All in the Family." We should all hope that it represents a new beginning rather than an anomaly, unique and distinguished as it is.

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.

Kevin McDonald's 'The Culture of Critique: an Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements' (1998, 2002) describes how "Jewish intellectuals initiated and advanced a number of important intellectual movements during the 20th century." McDonald argues that "these movements are an attempt to alter Western societies in a manner that would neutralize or end anti-Semitism and enhance the prospects for Jewish group continuity either in overt or in a semi-cryptic manner. Several of these Jewish movements (e.g., the shift in immigration policy favoring non-European peoples) have attempted to weaken the power of their perceived competitors--the European peoples who early in the 20 century had assumed a dominant position not only in their traditional homelands in Europe, but also in the United States, Canada, and Australia...Ultimately, the movements are viewed as an expression of a group evolutionary strategy by Jews in their competition for social, political, and cultural dominance with non-Jews."

AMC's 'Mad Men' Season One (2007) and its subsequent seasons are of such exceptional quality that the program practically sets a new standard for television excellence--a very surprising thing to find on American television, whether network or cable, in 2010.

Creator, writer, and director Matthew Weiner's 'Mad Men' is about many things, but it is primarily about the end of an era in American history, an era seen by many as one of America's 'Golden Ages,' and one which was culturally, socially, and financially dominated by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants--WASPs.

WASPs dominate 'Mad Men,' and while the program is superficially sympathetic to its WASP characters some of the time, the viewer can't help notice how married advertising executive Don Draper's Jewish mistress, department store owner Rachel Menken, eventually makes the 'right' choice of rejecting Draper and wedding a respectable Jewish man. Elsewhere in the show, the Jewish men and women that infrequently flit across the screen (potential clients representing the State of Israel's tourism bureau, etc.) are depicted in largely agreeable, if stoic, terms.

Beneath its always intelligent, amber-hued surface, 'Man Men' is certainly a hard, even an ugly, critique of High WASP culture: though the Drapers and most of the other characters are educated, socially prominent, poised, witty, attractive, and talented, they are also routinely adulterous, alcoholic, and believe women are capable of being little more than sex objects, housewives, or over-the-hill matrons worth deceiving until divorcing.

The show's subtitle, in fact, could accurately be "Oh, Those AWFUL White People."

One account executive is so drunk in the midday office that when he urinates in his trousers, the accident has to be pointed out to him by coworkers. Another character allows his eight year-old granddaughter to drive an automobile through the Hudson River Valley's suburban streets. Ad agency partner Roger Sterling enthusiastically performs Stephen Foster songs in blackface at his palatial Long Island estate, sexually propositions Don's wife the moment Don steps out of the room, and unquestioningly assumes that the models used in agency campaigns will have sexual intercourse with him.

A handsome young doctor rapes his newlywed wife on the floor of her office; one presumably loopy secretary runs over and amputates her boss's foot with a riding mower at an office party.

The ad executives smoke marijuana and consort with drug dealers, have their secretaries sit on their laps while doing their typing, and steal mail not addressed to them. Account Executive Peter Campbell attempts to blackmail Draper to force a promotion. A comedian, who has everything to lose and nothing to gain in his action, insults the overweight wife of his sponsor. The Sterling Cooper staff believe Nixon is a natural to win the presidency over Kennedy.

During a casual business meeting, two of the male staff mock the 'awful aprons' worn by the WASP star of 'The Loretta Young Show Show,' and even the fabric pattern on the same program's sofa, but Jewish Bob Dylan is praised during the same discussion.

When Don's beautiful wife, Betty, pushes her adulterous spouse in an explosion of frustration, Don shoves her back with at least equal force. When the Draper family enjoys a picnic on a pristine Hudson River Valley hillside, they blithely leave a small mountain of garbage behind them; Don casually throws his beer bottles in the bushes.

Don fires his male art director for refusing the sexual advances of an important client, also male. When Don discovers one of his mistresses has been discussing him with her friends, he forces her arms behind her, ties her to the bed--and leaves her there. Don rejects his younger sibling, Adam, so completely that Adam hangs himself in despair.

And most tellingly, handsome, dapper, capable Don Draper is not the educated gentleman of the upper class he pretends to be; he's the illegitimate son of a prostitute who died in childbirth, and who was then abusively raised by 'backward' Pennsylvania farmers.

Don is an unconscious misogynist, a compulsive liar, a philanderer, a drunken driver, a sociopath, and a complete fake in almost every sense. His true background is in used cars and furs. Don is false. Though typically presented in the show's deceptively glamorous light, Don is one of Elliot's 'Hollow Men,' empty and stuffed with figurative, existential straw.

All of these incidents and characterizations might be expected and wholly acceptable if 'Mad Men' was a typical American soap opera, whether a tradtional daytime melodrama like 'As the World Turns' or a slice of 1980s primetime kitsch like 'Dynasty.'

But 'Mad Men' is not a soap opera; 'Mad Men' is a 'serious' drama aspiring to be 'serious' 'art' of a kind (though 'The Jet Set' episode in Season Two, in which Don is taken up by an international set of wealthy vagabonds in California, probably the worst-written of any episode in the first four seasons, veers hilariously towards outright soap opera camp).

Much of program is rooted in 'hard' fact (Don Draper is based around legendary ad man Draper Daniels, for example), and appears to accurately reflect history; however, it is WASPs, and by extension, all Europeans of Anglo-Saxon descent who come in for Weiner's and his fellow writers' continuous spleen (copy writer Peggy Olson, for instance, is Catholic and from a lower middle class Brooklyn background). Black and Hispanic characters are few and relegated far to the sidelines.

Though the show is thought-provoking, entertaining, and often brilliantly written and produced, the excessive critique of Western European-American culture is unfair to its subject, insofar as Jews, Blacks, and Hispanics are almost completely exempted from the same criticism. When Jewish, Black or Hispanic characters do appear, they are presented as either victims of WASP culture or shrewd individuals who use their intelligence to avoid both victimization and personal moral and ethical failing.

Viewers will be hard-pressed to imagine a program with a similar show of teeth being made by Protestants about Jews; the outcry against it would be tremendous, and cries of anti-Semitism would flood the media landscape.

'Mad Men' is simply another in a series of 'blows against the empire' WASP America has suffered since the 1960s. It succeeds in its own way because, thanks to the forces aggressively united against WASP America for four decades, many of which are now a dominant presence the media, today almost everyone is quite familiar with the narrative 'Mad Men' is selling: "We all know that that is how White people are, and certainly were then."

Watch and enjoy 'Mad Men'; but by all means watch it critically, as it deserves to be watched, and do not overlook what the show fairly celebrates: the Fall of the American Anglo, which the opening credits dramatize quite literally.

I love ❤️ Mad Men! What’s not to like 👍

Couldn’t stop watching. Show is different and doesn’t cut corners. Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss were incredible. They both are top notch.

Pretty good. With all the hype I had to give it a go.
Little slow but fantastic for a period piece.
Kept my attention for most of the season.
I’d say give it a chance and it might be just what your looking for.

[[ASIN:B000YABIQ6 Mad Men - Season One]] has completely changed the way I view TV. I generally watch things at random and don't watch a lot of shows consistently. This is a show worth changing that for. It's hard to describe what makes this show such a rare event in TV. Somebody had the vision to put a show on TV that has something to say and is as raw, honest and true to the period it is based on. I, for one, am grateful for that.

The show centers on the NY advertising world of the 1960s. Why "Mad Men?" The old row of famous agencies on Madison Avenue, of course. The men are sexist, rude, slicked up, and well dressed. The women are submissive yet cunning, half accepting sexism and half ignoring it.

There's not a lot of political correctness here. That is bound to offend some. While my first reaction was to wonder as to the motives behind that, the truth is that after watching the show for a few episodes it becomes clear that the bigotry of the period is key to understanding the characters. Plenty that the characters say would get them fired today. For their era, sexist banter in the office was considered par for the course.

There's also plenty of smoking, drinking and sexual situations. If you are very conservative this might not be for you. Yet even conservative people would have to warm up somewhat to the effectiveness of the portrayal. This show makes you believe you are witnessing things as they were. Not having been there, we can't know for sure. Regardless, this sure is convincing.

There are some nice special features and extras sprinkled sparingly throughout the disks. Of course you have your usual commentary tracks on the episodes, which are actually worth listing to in my opinion. Not every show can say that.

The behind-the-scenes documentary section is also standard fare, but well done. It covers the basic elements of how the show is put together, from characters, sets, makeup, wardrobes, and art design. You also get some small extras that are nice like a segment on scoring the music for the show, which is great, and audio clips of some of the period songs that are used.

Because of the way the disks are set up, many of these specific extras are on the individual disks. So you have to search for them. Also, there are only a few episodes per disk (about 3). I guess those extras and commentary tracks took up a lot of disk space. Still, these are minor details.

Conclusion

This is a great show and well worth watching again and again. I hope you will check this out if you haven't already.

Enjoy!

How can I hope to say anything which has not already been said about this AMC series in over 450 reviews. I can only add my personal reactions. I have been avoiding it for several seasons, since I found the relation between men and women quite disturbing, in spite of the fact that I lived through that early '60s era, but in a somewhat lower class family, where my mother worked in a factory and my father in the steel mills. I was also a bit turned off by the time spend in the bedroom rather than the board room. I loved "The West Wing" because, among other things, it demonstrated how power was far more exciting than sex, and I thought that the new series "Suits" did the same thing. But, after seeing none of my USA, TNT, and TBS series win any awards, and the AMC series raking them in like Hershey Kisses, I thought it was time to give this a try. A nudge from my Facebook friend Esther Schindler didn't hurt.

So, I have discovered that the pace, the dialoge, the characters, and the situations, all framed with superior writing and good acting, really draws me into this world, in spite of its air of testosterone out of control, where the only thing the men want to do with all the women they meet is to get them into the sack. That's an exaggeration, of course, but it happens far more than most other series this side of Californication.

If I had any complaints, it would be that there are very few really satisfying conclusions to the story arcs. One gets the feeling that the big climax will come with the series finale, similar to Josh Lyman and Donna Moss finally hooking up in the next to last episode of "The West Wing." Closing deals with clients just doesn't give me a great deal of satisfaction. There are personal crises, but everything is so low key, one is reminded of how empty people's lives seemed to be before the great cultural revolution of 1964. On the bright side, I am positively looking forward to watching the next season to see how things work out.

It's interesting to compare John Hamm with Gabriel Macht of "Suits". Both characters are eminantly skilled at their jobs, and comfortable in their own skins. But "Mad Men's" Don Draper is understated while "Suits" Harvey Specter is arrogant and just a bit blind to his weaknesses.