Mad Men fans?

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Sorry Harmonica.......I got to stay here.
Mad Men--the awesome A&E series featuring shenanigans within a successful ad agency in the early 60's. Great references to events, lifestyle, and norms of that era. Juicy dapper and decadent characters, high drama, and smart writing. Love it, love it, love it!


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I love Mad Men. I think it's the best programme on TV. Excellent writing, beautifully shot, with amazing attention to detail in every area of its making. I've been with it since episode one and I can't understand why everyone doesn't watch it. In fact, it's so good that it tempted me into downloading something for the first time!

I didn't know that BBC 4 were showing the new season, as we've always had to wait for 6-9 months for the new season, so when I saw that Mad Men was on I just assumed that they were repeats of season 3. It wasn't until a week later, when I had a spare half hour and decided to reminisce that I saw it was an episode I didn't recognise. Went online and, sure enough, it was episode 2 of season 4. Did anyone over here see BBC 4 advertising the new series of Mad Men? Because I didn't. So, having missed the first and not knowing what'd gone on, I actually went and downloaded something.

Do I download Drew movies? No. Do I download any other show from America that I have to wait for? No. Do I watch Neighbours at Oz speed? No. Did I go and download episode one of Mad Men because I missed it? Yes. That's how good Mad Men is.



Love me some Mad Men.

It seems silly of me to use sub-headings in this post, but I kind of have to, because it's rambling...


Mad Men Comes Out
Heard about this show when it first came on, sounded promising, but didn't make room for it. By the end of season 1, people were raving. Ditto throughout season 2. At a certain point it'd been recommended by enough people with enough urgency that it was obvious I had to give it a shot at some point, though I was a couple of years behind, so I was kind of invested in waiting and catching up later. And that's precisely what happened.


Someone Gives Me Mad Men
My grandmother asks me what I want for Christmas every year. I'm 26, and I just got married, so I'm hoping she'll stop getting me things now. I've told her every year for quite awhile now that I don't want anything, and she never takes no for an answer, so I invariably ask for some TV season on DVD; usually the next-highest season of The Simpsons that I don't already own. Well, for Christmas, I asked for Mad Men, and lo and behold, they were having a special where she could get season 2 FREE while buying season 1. So she did. Score.


Watching Mad Men

They sat around for months until the then-girlfriend, now-wife and I decided to give them a go and...I didn't love them. I wasn't used to a show where so many things were unspoken, or completely unanswered, or unresolved. Plotlines came and went. We often knew as much about a person's motivation as whatever character they were talking to, and not much more. As often as not, we didn't even know what time it was all taking place in. Things routinely came half-circle.

It stunned me how little was made explicit. I've seen smart shows that don't force-feed all their messages to you, and I've liked many of them, but compared to Mad Men even the subtlest of them seems hamfisted. This show gives you dots, and doesn't do any of the connecting for you. I never realized how much guidance even great, nuanced shows usually give you before I watched Mad Men.

I'm not sure I always like this, but it does make watching it a good deal more challenging, in good ways as well as bad.

There were a few episodes in the first couple of seasons that I really enjoyed, bu the end of the third season is when it all came together for me. I felt as if the first 2.9 seasons had all been building up to those last couple of episodes.


Season 4
Been watching this from the start, having finished the first 3 seasons on DVD shortly beforehand (and watching all of season 3 in about 24 hours). I like it quite a bit; a little uneven at first, but I think the last 4 or so episodes have been top-notch, and I can really feel things building towards the last few episodes of the year.

I'll post more specifics later, probably after each episode. Glad you started this thread, earl.



So, I'll try to make a point to post my thoughts on the finale (and the season/series as a whole) soon -- anyone else have any thoughts about it? It's generating quite a response.



Sorry Harmonica.......I got to stay here.
Warning--Spoilers Below!

The finale was awesome. I'm sure this has happened countless thousands of times, that a guy marries his secretary because she's young and pretty, and gushingly caters to him. I love how it puts Don's character off balance, as he was first set up as a rock, with a supposedly stable family and character. And now, he's doing desperate things, like you see happen all the time. And I enjoyed how Peggy was disturbed by it, but Joan naturally accepted the fact that it "happens every day". Most excellent plot direction.

I also love how each season is set in the following year. I hope this show lasts long enough to see the whole office watching Laugh-In, smoking pot, Pete Campbell turning into a long-haired hippy, and I would especially like to see Don tripping in his office.



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I saw the first episode 4 years ago and I hated it. The guys were so horribly sexist it made me want to puke. This year Comcast offered the third season On Demand aand I caught the first episode of that season and I was hooked. I think it was the flashbacks of Don's life that did it for me. Watching this show is more akin to reading a novel than like watching TV. It is unlike any show I have ever seen except maybe the first couple of seasons of The Sopranos.

Here's an article on the allure of Don Draper.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-a...al-in-mad-men/
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I saw the first episode 4 years ago and I hated it. The guys were so horribly sexist it made me want to puke.
It is! But it's satirizing a different time, obviously. At first it looks like it's kind of overly nostalgic for the way things were, but over time it becomes obvious it's more along the lines of "hey, don't forget how it used to be."

Interesting note: most of the writers, I've heard, are women. Makes the sexist stuff all the more fascinating.

This year Comcast offered the third season On Demand aand I caught the first episode of that season and I was hooked. I think it was the flashbacks of Don's life that did it for me. Watching this show is more akin to reading a novel than like watching TV. It is unlike any show I have ever seen except maybe the first couple of seasons of The Sopranos.
I like the analogy of a novel, and I agree with your comparison to The Sopranos. Both shows just show you things that a) may never come up again and b) aren't spelled out for you. Maddening at times, but kind of addictive once you get used to it. I almost had to "learn" how to watch Mad Men, because it takes the "no hand holding" thing that The Sopranos did to the extreme.



Still hoping to pop in here with thoughts on the finale and the season as a whole soon, but in the mean time, get a load of this: you know Roger Sterling's autiobiography in the show? They're really publishing it:

Grove Atlantic has announced it will release Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man — the book Mad Men‘s Roger Sterling published during “Gold Mettle,” last season’s episode 11. (The finished copies arrived, poignantly, just as a defeated, washed-up Roger stared at Lucky Strike’s defection.) The real book — as opposed to the pretend one — reportedly came about when Grove Atlantic publisher Morgan Entrekin, a fan of the show, struck a deal directly with creator Matt Weiner.
That's kinda awesome.

Another TV show, Castle, did something similar; the author character the show is named for wrote two books within the show's world since the premiere, and both have been released in real life. I bought a copy of the first one mostly out of curiosity, and it was (unsurprisingly) mediocre; it pretty much reads like one of the show's scripts, albeit a bit longer. That said, being able to read it knowing how all the characters normally look, talk, and act, made for an interesting experience, and the idea itself is kind of fun. Fun enough that I bought a Kindle version of the follow-up, at least, though if it's not any better than the first I doubt I'd buy any others that might come out.

As a promotional idea it's pretty interesting. Truth be told, I'll probably buy Sterling's Gold, too.



Sorry Harmonica.......I got to stay here.
Hey why not? I think it's a great idea. It doesn't limit the writer to just a 50-minute script! He gets to dive further into the character!



I know this'll be of interest to those people in this thread.

"Mad Men" air date pushed back to early 2012

The ad agency drama "Mad Men," which was due to begin its fifth season in the summer, will not return until early 2012 because of stalled contract talks with its creator, cable channel AMC said on Tuesday. Skip related content

The network is reportedly close to signing a deal worth $30 million (18 million pounds) with Matt Weiner, but he is fighting demands involving product placement, cast changes and a reduced running time, according to news Web site Deadline Hollywood.

A spokeswoman for AMC, a unit of Cablevision Systems Corp, declined to comment beyond the company's statement.

"While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, 'Mad Men' will be back for a fifth season in early 2012," AMC said in the statement.

AMC said it triggered an option with the show's producer, the television arm of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, to begin work on a fifth season, despite the impasse.

The contract talks are expected to be resolved before production resumes for next season, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Weiner, a former writer for "The Sopranos," is intricately involved with every detail of every episode.

"Mad Men," revolving around the martini-swilling staff at a Madison Avenue agency in the turbulent 1960s, draws tiny ratings for AMC. But it is one of the most acclaimed shows on television, winning the best drama Emmy for three consecutive years. Its fourth season, which ended in October, will be eligible for the Emmy Awards in September.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110329...n-90f61ed.html



love...love...LOVE...mad men, i think at first i only watched it for, the secetary...miss joan. i loved her size, and her im in charge and control, even though its the 50s/60's.

i hope they hurry up with the new season...
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A system of cells interlinked
I'll give it a shot, since you folks speak of it so highly. I've heard it's the most anti-family show on right now, so I will probably hate that aspect of it. I can probably overlook that facet of the show if the rest is really well done.
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April 7 I will reunite again with my favorite TV show of all time! I'm really excited!

Here are some promotional pictures:

http://tvline.com/2013/03/13/mad-men...gal_mms6_0018/


I personally think season 4 was the best season yet, but I still really liked the other seasons very much. I hope season 6 will keep up. I'm very curious what the main plot of this season will be.

That's one thing I like about this show. You can not foresee what's coming next.



Did anyone see last night's episode?

I just watched it and I thought it was brilliantly dark. This is going to be an interesting season.



Might as well resurrect this, as the final season's about to start.

General long-shot prediction I want to make just in case it ends up being right: Don's life falls apart, he does something illegal/murderous/awful/whatever, and ends up abandoning his identity yet again.

Early on it was really tempting to assume that Don is the man in the opening credits, and his fall would end the series. But that seems obvious enough that even if it was ever the plan, I can't imagine it is now. Sort of a Lost/Purgatory kind of deal, where it would've been used if the show hadn't gone on to be renewed so many times.



I am giddy. Mad Men and GOT for the next couple months. If Fargo is any good you guys might have to come pry me from my recliner. I never make predictions for these kind of shows. I just want it to be great and I want to let it wash over me.
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