Mad Men - Season 1 Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Period Drama - American-style!

(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!

[Highly rated reviewer]

totally unforgiving

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!

HBO does it again. Superb.

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.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Smoking!

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.

Super stuff

A great show to watch

Mad Men

Set in the early nineteen sixties, this series looks at life in the advertsing industry on New York's Madison Avenue. Period is perfectly reflected in the dress, attitudes and social behaviour of the time. However did everyone smoke, were there no non-smokers? Everyone seemed to chain smoke, in the office, in the kitchen, in the toilet, even in hospital.

Unfortunately there isn't one pleasant character in the whole piece - they are all horrible, and because of this I was totally indifferent to what happened. I won't be rushing to rent series 2, that's of course if it is made.

Mad Men Series 1

This was very disappointing given all the hype on TV. Apart from the fact everyone smokes constantly I can't see the apeal of watching admen pitch. Characters are a little 'cardboardy'. It feels more like a parody of the 1960s than anything else.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Just a really great show

No cliff hangers, no nudity, no swearing, no filth, no fast talking wise cracking gangsters, no maverick cops, no White House, no uninhabited island, no jailbreak : just fantastic television.

This show sucks you in to the 1960s New York world and spits you out wanting to either be (the main protagonist) Don Draper, or be with Don Draper. This show shouldn't work; chauvinistic advertising industry in 1960 with a bunch of sleazy add men that prey on appeasing secretaries that know their place; sounds a little different to the other big US serial dramas. This show is a welcome release that allows you to escape into the shows world, but doesn’t require you to have the nurofen on standby because you need to focus on every scene being crucial to the plot. It's a leisurely indulgent which is so incredibly illustrated by the convincing set design, costume and script.

Jon Hamm has de Niro in Godfather Part II quality which is spellbinding to watch in which his mystique, personal demons and digressions are supremely portrayed in an understated manner which is mesmerising. His working world is surrounded by chauvinistic subsidiaries and superiors that he gains inspiration from, but never lets them get close enough to understand the ticking’s of his soul. The insecurities of his colleagues are identified by their macho posturing that is both their expression of power, and their greatest weakness.

Give the other big name US 'season' Dramas a miss, and slide into a smoke filled, drink loving, wife cheating world when the world was a whole lot easier to understand, and where the show is a relaxed as Stanley Coopers on a Friday afternoon.

Is it a bit dull?

I've been told that this is a slow-burner. I've watched disc one and I'm certainly not gripped. There's no spoilers here as nothing really seems to have happened. The first four episodes do portray a wonderfully well drawn picture of 1960s executive America. It might or might not be true; I don't know, I wasn't there. I do know that I'm not particularly interested in the revelation that the 1960s had more indoor smoking, worktime drinking and casual racism and sexism.

So far it's not enough to hold my interest, but people I trust say that it's worth sticking with. I will; against my better judgement.

Style and Content

Madmen displays an incredible attention to detail in the set and costume providing a highly polished window into 1960s America. The plot is very much more focused on character study so develops more slowly than some American dramas but I find it provides engrossing social observations and insight into the issues and events of the time.