Mad Men is perhaps one of the coolest television dramas of the last five years and year-on-year has continued to raise its own standards in television writing and acting. Superlative storytelling, performances and production have garnered the series a bevvy of much deserved awards and much critical praise. Season Four, about to be released in the UK by Lions Gate, is interesting in that its arrival was highly anticipated following creator Matthew Weiner's, at the time, shocking shake-up of the series at the end of the third year.

Continuing to map the inter-personal relationships of New York ad-men and their families in the 1960s, Season Three climaxed with most of the characters finding that the advertising company they were working for, Sterling Cooper, was being bought out by a British agency. At the same time, the enigmatic central character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) came under pressure from his wife Betty, who had finally discovered that she really didn't know the man she married, with Draper having taken on a dead man's identity during the Korean War.

As ever Mad Men continues to reflect the present day even though it is a period piece and as Matthew Weiner recently explained in the New York Times: "My job as an artist is to channel the feelings I have about society right now, these are the things I’m feeling about our isolation, about our ambiguous relationship with materialism, about failure, about our declining self-esteem. About our attitude towards change and technology. These are things I’m feeling every day, that I put into the show." 

Shut The Door. Take A Seat - AMC - 8th November 2009 - 10.00pm

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The Season 3 finale is a curious beast. It's a mixture of tragedy, as the marriage of Don and Betty disintegrates, and optimistic 'let's put on a show' camaraderie as the survivors of Sterling Cooper's sale to McCann Erickson get together to rescue their careers. So, shut the door. Take a seat.

Don ends up being shot from all sides during the last episode and for the most part, especially in the way he's cheated on Betty, he pretty much deserves it. But his status at Sterling Cooper took a huge knock when Hilton forced him to sign a contract. Now, as Sterling Cooper implodes, in one way he's a free man because Betty demands a divorce whether he likes it or not and in another he's still chained, along with Roger and Bert, to McCann Erickson. Two marriages he'd rather not be a part of.

The Gypsy And The Hobo - AMC - 25th October 2009 - 10.00pm

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Flippin' heck. This is a stunning episode. All the strands that the staff writers have been gathering are pulled together here for a massive showdown between Betty and Don. The final half of this episode is dominated by an extraordinary and brilliantly compelling two hander between Jon Hamm and January Jones. I predict a couple of awards flying their way! More of that later.

Wee Small Hours - AMC - 11th October 2009 - 10.00pm

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They're really putting us through the mill on this series of Mad Men. First of all, the Brits arrive and stamp their authority all over the shop, then Joan leaves and now it's poor old Sal's turn. I did wonder what the outcome of Out Of Town would be. Once Don knew about Sal's homosexuality it was only a matter of time before he'd get found out.

Seven Twenty Three - AMC - 27th September 2009 - 10.00pm

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'It's the soul of your home' remarks the interior decorator about the hearth in Betty's front room. But Betty really doesn't understand this concept because she's never really at home in her own home, is she?

The Fog - AMC - 13th September 2009 - 10.00pm

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An extremely impressive piece of television, The Fog completely inhabits the haiku tone poem structure and style that Mad Men has successfully created for itself. Here it shifts rather surrealistically into a dream-like territory that only the likes of Twin Peaks has previously mapped out on television. The Fog is primarily focused on the birth of Betty and Don's baby. For Don, this pregnancy began at the end of his mid-life crisis fling in Los Angeles and it's clearly both a nightmare he desperately wishes he could escape and a painful duty he must endure to maintain the primary coloured but hollow American Dream.

My Old Kentucky Home - AMC - 30th August 2009 - 10.00pm

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A slightly uneven episode but one that picks up a number of story threads and develops them. One of those focuses on Peggy's attempts to transform herself, emerging from her stultifying chrysalis, to finally seize her independence as a woman and as a creative force within the agency. Here, the need for the creative team to work over the weekend on a Bacardi campaign gives Peggy the opportunity to once again let her hair down. She's at first excluded from the boy's own club of Paul and Smitty but when the boys buy some pot from an old college friend of Paul's (the rather vacuous Jeffrey played by the lovely Miles Fisher) she determines to join in.

In the series Peggy is either advised to use her femininity to get what she wants or is frowned upon by an older woman for her social improprieties, often her mother. Here, she's advised not to get involved in the drug taking by her new, and for the agency, more mature secretary Olive. Olive genuinely worries what will happen to Peggy if she takes the boys on at their own game but Peggy triumphantly challenges them and to a certain extent, even though she gets high as a kite, does the very thing the boys so completely fail to do - develop the campaign. Whilst they are reduced to a giddy bunch of children she gets inspired and attacks the campaign with gusto. Her departing words to Olive are, "I am going to get to do everything you want from me." Elisabeth Moss is just superb in this series and clearly has a handle on Peggy and uncannily inhabits this nervous, shy woman.



Elsewhere, we have three subplots running about male/female relationships. Joan Holloway, that iconic Sterling Cooper employee, played so wonderfully by Christina Hendricks is having a party. I've been worried, as has everyone else, about her engagement to Doctor Greg. He's got a very dark side as we've witnessed, and his temper flares over Joan's seating arrangements. Joan is, by now, getting to know how to dampen his fire and deftly compromises. Their dinner party becomes a not so subtle clash of class attitudes, some woman on woman bitching ("The fact that Greg can get a woman like you makes me feel good about his future no matter what happens"), and a highly revealing moment when colleagues tells us that Doctor Greg isn't the Kildare-like figure he's made out to be. Before it goes further, Greg changes the subject of the conversation by getting Joan to play her accordion and sing C'est Magnifique. That's right. Joan plays the accordion! A tense scene is completely turned on its head by one of the campest, funniest moments I've ever seen in Mad Men. It actually leaves you sympathising with Joan, one of the fiercest women in the office, someone who takes no prisoners, who is now caught up in a weird sado-masochistic relationship with Greg.



There is also a clash of wills between Gene, now living with Betty and Don, and Betty's daughter Sally. I love the way the writers are now developing Sally's character and I feel sure they are going to do the same for Bobby too. Sally steals $5 from Gene's wallet and has the house in uproar trying to find the missing money, even to the point that Betty's maid is accused of theft by Gene. However, when Sally pretends to have found the money, Gene immediately understands what's going on and Sally realises what she's done is wrong. Ryan Cutrona is fabulous as Gene in this episode, oozing threat, blood and thunder and who scares Sally to a point where at the end of the episode she treads down a darkened hallway to his room expecting to be punished when in fact he makes her read to him from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Now, there's a subtle metaphor!



Roger and Jane are also throwing a country club party at which Don, Betty, Ken and Pete attend. There are two moments here that quite literally make you gasp. First is Roger, blacked up, and singing My Old Kentucky Home, to Jane before all their guests. Remember, this is in the early days of the Civil Rights movement so this kind of casual racism would have been the norm. This is one of the things Mad Men can do - really prod you with a mode of behaviour or a character that reminds you just how different things were. Often, a central character acts as a filter for us and here it's Don's obvious distaste for Roger's performance that connects with our own rejection of such attitudes. Secondly, there's Jane. At the top of the episode she's even bossing Joan about and yet when she was employed at Sterling Cooper she was a lowly secretary beneath Joan. At the party she gets horribly drunk and blurts about the problems in Don and Betty's marriage. January Jones is again great as Betty, here looking quite happy to get on and murder Jane for her indiscretion. Don and Roger have a face off and there's that wonderful scene where Roger questions Don why he's not happy for him. "No one thinks you're happy," Don replies. "They think you're foolish." Bravo, Don!



Like I said, it's a fragmented episode and is pretty much the sum of its parts. I often see Mad Men episodes as compact little haiku poems with a series of inter-related scenes all intersecting about a common theme. The tone of the series also lends itself to this idea. With this episode, I just felt they hadn't quite joined the verses together well enough. Still very engrossing and beautifully performed.

The Arrangements - AMC - 6th September 2009 - 10.00pm

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A week later and the series is firmly back on course, continuing with Peggy's story, with further developments in the relationship between Don and Gene, Sal getting a short-lived boost to his career, a classic Joan moment and the agency dining on fatted calf.

First of all, Gene. I was really expecting them to take the character a lot further than tonight's sad conclusion. After an upsetting talk with Betty about his funeral arrangements, Gene continues to bond with her children Sally and Bobby. Sally especially treasures Gene and goes out in the car with him, she steering the wheel whilst he operates the peddles. It's a poignant moment when he tells Sally "You can really do something. Don't let your mother tell you otherwise." which signals his disappointment in Betty and her marriage to Don.



He also pisses Don off by giving Bobby a war memento, a Prussian helmet, and describing how he shot the soldier in the war. Don is incensed and there is a great whiff of testosterone as the two men argue about the differences between an enemy and a fellow human being. Again, it tells us that Gene's views are no longer seen as particularly patriotic in the 1960s. He's already out of time. When he fails to pick the kids up from school and goes missing, a police officer arrives and informs Betty that he's dead. At the wake, Sally gets very upset with the adults because they no longer see him as a person - "Nobody cares that he's really, really, really gone." Symbolically, she falls asleep that night clutching Gene's copy of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gene's Empire may well have fallen but Sally's generation may see it decline even further.



The fatted calf at Sterling Cooper arrives in the form of rich kid Horace Cook who wants the agency to market a sport no one's ever heard of: jai alai, which his father later dismisses as "Polish handball". After much wringing of hands, Don talks to Bertram and Horace's father about this waste of money. His father basically admits that Horace's scheme is just his latest fad and he'll just take it to another agency if Sterling Cooper don't spend his money. It's like taking money off a child and that's reflected in the later scene where the boys are fooling about with Horace's racquets and break Bertram Cooper's zen-like ant-farm. The broken objet is heavily symbolic of a now much changed and deeply amoral agency perhaps?



There is also much comedy value out of Peggy's ad for a room-mate and the boys mercilessly take the piss out of her with a crank call using Lois to impersonate 'Elaine' who is apparently badly disfigured and packs meat. In steps Joan in one of her wonderful scenes as she advises Peggy on what to do. Listen to your Auntie Joan, Peggy! She tries to tell Peggy that the plan to move into Manhattan and share an apartment is an adventure and not a chore. It's about being women with freedom, something which Peggy has a hard time dealing with. She eventually interviews Karen Ericson as a prospective roomy and bluffs her way around her own awkwardness. Christina Hendricks is again quite brilliant as Joan and what can one say about the already stunning Elisabeth Moss as Peggy that already hasn't been said. She really makes Mad Men such a pleasure.



Sal is offered the opportunity to direct the Patio commercial - the pastiche on the Ann-Margaret rendition of Bye Bye Birdie for a diet drink - and at their apartment, his wife Kitty, after failing to rouse him with her fluffy negligee declares he isn't himself these days. Of course, the audience is in on the game and knows that he's a closeted gay guy and is rarely 'himself', but Sal deflects this by saying he's anxious about the commercial. For me what follows is just a supreme example of the programme's tiny little moments that reveal the characters to each other. Sal proceeds to enact the commercial to show Kitty what he intends to do. He minces about doing an Ann-Margaret impression and if you watch Kitty's face you can see her slide from joyfulness to absolute horror as she realises that her husband is a screaming queen. It's so painful to watch. Toe curling. And you feel so sorry for Kitty as this major revelation bursts open in front of her. Later, we learn that the commercial is judged a flop because, ironically, the girl they use, as Roger points out, "isn't Ann-Margaret". Clearly, Kitty now thinks Sal is!



Finally, Peggy reaches a crisis with her mother, now living with her sister. After buying her mother a new TV she reveals that she's moving into the city. "You'll get raped. You know that," she snaps and decides to disown her, rejecting the gift of the TV, claiming there's obviously a man involved. Perhaps this move will ultimately be the making of Peggy because it's clear her mother has already decided, as her sister remarked earlier in the episode, that Peggy is "...going to be one of those girls". Despite her mother's hostility, it's ironic that as Peggy leaves that we hear her mother turn the TV on.

A sublime episode with a narrative that subtly shifts gears, some genuinely funny moments, major developments for some characters and great ensemble playing.

Thanks as ever to the marvelous Mad Men official site and blog.

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Out Of Town - AMC - 16th August 2009 - 10.00pm

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Welcome back Mad Men. Pleased as punch that from this opening installment there appears to be no significant drop in the quality of writing, acting and directing on this show. Cleverly the British take-over of the Sterling Cooper ad-agency has moved the series on, adding a real vitality as our favourite characters find themselves at loggerheads with their London masters.

As the episode opens we learn that a third of the workforce at the agency has been shown the door and further machinations are afoot under the auspices of new recurring character Lane Pryce. Pryce is played to steely perfection by Jared Harris (last seen as a villain in Fringe) and it's highly amusing as he uses mind games to promote both Pete Campbell and Ken Cosgrove to share the position as Head Of Accounts. Vincent Kartheiser gets to demonstrate perfectly what a whiny, spoiled little man Campbell is whilst Aaron Staton remains appealing as the doe eyed, rather dim Cosgrove. It's highly enjoyable to see these two characters suddenly realise that they've got to work together and the sparks begin to fly.



Meanwhile, Don Draper having returned from his mid-life crisis in Los Angeles to find his ice queen wife Betty is pregnant, is caught, at the opening of the show, reflecting back on his own birth as he prepares warm milk for the now heavily pregnant wife. It's beautifully done as areas of the Draper house suddenly fill with tableaux of his mother dealing with a still born child (a heavily symbolic pointer to Don's own life and full of sinister wishfulfillment on Don's part perhaps?) and later his own adoption. Draper and art director Salvatore Romano are off on an out of town visit to Baltimore and one of their clients London Fog. The air stewardess hits on Don and, just when you think he's a reformed man after his shenanigans in Los Angeles and the shock of finding that Betty is pregnant again, he makes a play and he and Sal agree to dinner and drinks with her and the rest of the air crew.

It's at this point that writer Matthew Weiner reminds us of Sal's closeted homosexuality. Bryan Batt's always been a great cast member and he was terrific in last year's episodes where Sal developed a crush for Ken so it's great that he gets to shine in this. It's a bit of a shock when, after calling the bellboy to his hotel room to fix the air conditioning, their eyes lock and Sal pounces on what is obviously a rare opportunity for him to get mano-a-mano! And then, ironically, the hotel fire alarm goes off and interrupts play!



This has consequences because Don, himself in mid dalliance with the air stewardess, spots the bell boy, semi-clothed, in Sal's room. As with much of Mad Men, huge realisations between the characters are handled with heavily symbolic pauses in the narrative, building up the series internal soup of emotions to boiling point. Sal's gay identity stills remains an unspoken revelation but I do hope Weiner returns to this sub-plot because it is fascinating from a historical point of view as well as in the intricate way the series characters are gradually constructed.

Superbly written, the episode has an abundance of class lines. When Don finally meets with the representatives of London Fog, a raincoat manufacturer, there is a heated discussion between the father and son owners and Don smooths things over with "There will be fat years and there will be lean years. But it is going to rain." When executive Roger discusses Pryce's scheme to get Pete and Ken to work with each other as joint heads of accounts, "Is Cooper playing God or Darwin?" Don questions. Roger points out it was Pryce's idea. Roger told them it was stupid, he says, "But they don't always get our inflection."

The episode ends with yet another symbol. Don's daughter, Sally, finds the air stewardess' pin in his bag and he ceremonially hands it over to her as a gift, with Sally and Betty completely unaware of the pin's real meaning. The narrative completes a circle when Sally asks her parents to tell her the story of when she was born.

Terrific opening to a new season. No doubt there will continue to be lots of friction between the workers at Sterling Cooper and their London overlords and the culture clash between what would have been the dominant British culture of the 1960s and the remnants of 1950s Americana is fascinating.

Love Among The Ruins - AMC - 23rd August 2009 - 10.00pm

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A week later and the storylines turn their focus to Peggy Olson. Peggy is an ingenue copy writer and is the series' symbol of female emancipation. She's a woman who doesn't want to get where she wants to be by having to play the usual office sexual politics but many characters bitterly remind her that she has to if she wants to be taken seriously. It's a recurring theme from the last two seasons and it emerges again here. In the opening of the episode, she is cruelly sidelined from the casting of a new ad for the diet drink Patio because she disagrees with the way the ad is being pitched.

Elisabeth Moss is just stunning in this episode, beautifully portraying Peggy's continuing frustration that her opinions aren't valued, that she simply isn't feminine enough to warrant having a say about campaigns directed at other women. There is an exchange with Don later in the episode that speaks volumes: "Shouldn't the fantasy be a female one?", she asks. "Men want her. Women want to be her," Don says of the Ann-Margret Bye Bye Birdie dynamic they're aiming for. "I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable." When Peggy argues that the approach is very false, Don says she's not an artist. "You solve problems," he says.



It's clear that Peggy is struggling with this dynamic internally and this is beautifully realised when she attempts to do an impression of Ann-Margaret in front of her bedroom mirror as if in some teenage fantasy. If Peggy's storyline is about battling against perceptions of her as a woman then this and the later rather strained scene where she picks a man up in a bar and nervously goes to bed with him show us that she's starting to tentatively push against the preconceived male perceptions of her as a woman. It's quite brave for her to leave the male pick up in the middle of the night with a curt, 'This was fun', when it clearly wasn't that much fun.

The other themes in this episode are to do with families. Roger Sterling's divorce and subsequent desire to take his girlfriend Jane to his daughter's wedding is causing immense friction with his ex-wife. I love Roger to bits. He's found a new lease of life with Jane and makes some very pithy remarks to his assembled family members as he's dumped on a table away from the rest of them at the reception. "So you get the in-laws and I get Siberia?"



Meanwhile, Betty's ailing father Gene is the subject of a family row. Betty's brother William is all for putting Gene into a home but Betty believes this is the complete antithesis of what families are all about. It's interesting here how the episode shows Don in a positive light, as a peacemaker at both work and home. He rescues an account for Madison Square Garden which he is then told promptly to drop by the London overlords. This again touches on the growing distrust between the old guard at Sterling Cooper and the Brits. "Why the hell did you buy us in the first place?" Don asks Pryce. “I don’t know,” Lane replies. But back home, he realises that to keep Betty happy and to prevent William from dumping Gene in a home, he's going to have to take Gene in.

The consequences later become clear when Don and Betty are woken up by Gene in the early hours. Gene, suffering from some variant of Alzheimers, thinks he's back in Prohibition and is frantically throwing alcohol down the drain. I think Gene is going to add a tense dynamic to the Draper household. Another utterly absorbing episode, brilliantly written and performed.

Thanks as ever to the marvelous Mad Men official site and blog.

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The award winning drama from AMC, Mad Men, is back on August 16th. This stunning series, set in the world of the New York 1960s advertising industry, boasts superlative writing and exceptional acting. This moody, introspective drama, beautifully designed and shot, is highly recommended to those of you who enjoy character driven, ensemble work. The promotional frenzy has started, with gorgeous spreads in Vanity Fair, and a number of New York based events, as well as the marketing push from AMC.

Here's the Annie Leibowitz shot of Jon Hamm and January Jones (Don and Betty Draper to you and me) from Vanity Fair.



Beautiful images from the Mad Men gallery by Frank Ockenfels 3 on the AMC website. Pop over and have a look at the full gallery of 15 images.







Here's a video covering the shoot for the key ad art, showing Don underwater in his office!



And here's AMC's 'Utterly Seductive' promo:



Join me every week from August 17th for episodic reviews! Thanks to Vanity Fair, AMC and Frank Ockenfels for the images and promos.

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Mad Men catch up time. Courtesy of Surf The Channel here are links to the last three episodes that aired on AMC.

Episode 9: Six Month Leave
Freddy Rumsen disappoints his team during a pitch. Pete finds an opportunity at the office to exploit while Don proves his loyalty to an old friend. Betty finds a welcome distraction in Sara Beth.



Surf The Channel: Episode 9

Episode 10: The Inheritance
Betty visits her ailing father. Paul's girlfriend Sheila tries to convince him to prioritize his civic duties. Pete's mother disapproves of an idea that Pete and Trudy are considering.



Surf The Channel: Episode 10

Episode 11: The Jet Set
On a business trip to Los Angeles, Don becomes acquainted with some exciting new friends. Peggy looks for romance at work. Duck starts thinking about the future of Sterling Cooper.



Surf The Channel: Episode 11

DISCLAIMER: Cathode Ray Tube does not host the episodes itself. Links are via third party hosting sites like Megavideo or Surf The Channel. Often those episodes get pulled off the hosting site and the link stops working. That's out of this site's control and apologies if you came here and found dead links. We know how frustrating that is. Don't shoot the messenger. We're looking for new ones all the time so we'll post them when we can.

TOP TIP: When you follow the links and click 'Play' you will be directed either to a poker or a dating site which will open in another window. Don't panic. This is just the advertising that accompanies the uploaded episodes. Close the poker or dating site window down and go back to the Surf The Channel window and click on play again. The episode will buffer and then start playing.

Episode synopses and images - thanks to AMC.


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Apologies for the lack of updates on links to streaming episodes. I've had some difficulty in finding them. But, hey presto, I've got links for the last three episodes transmitted courtesy of Surf The Channel.

These are all links back to Megavideo. Click on the Surf The Channel PLAY icon and you'll go to where the episodes are streamed on Megavideo. You will see the usual Party Poker image - click on the PLAY icon. If Party Poker or another site opens a new window then just close that window down and go back to the Megavideo window again. Click on the PLAY icon again. You should see it then say 'buffering' - wait and then click again. Good luck.

Episode 6: Maidenform
Don and Duck take a stab at making peace. Peggy tries to insinuate herself into the execs' after-hours meetings. Duck deals with a family visit at the office.



Maidenform - Surf The Channel link

Episode 7: The Gold Violin
Don buys a brand new car which befits his image as an executive who has "arrived." Don's secretary makes a grave error, which could spell trouble for Joan. Cooper has a new piece of art in his office that attracts the interest of the employees at Sterling Cooper.



The Gold Violin - Surf The Channel link

Episode 8: A Night To Remember
Father Gill convinces Peggy to contribute on a pro-bono church project. To win the business of an imported beer brand, Duck and Don try to create market appeal to a new demographic. Harry is overwhelmed with the workload in his department and recruits assistance from an unlikely source.



A Night To Remember - Surf The Channel Link

DISCLAIMER: Cathode Ray Tube does not host the episodes itself. Links are via third party hosting sites like Megavideo or Surf The Channel. Often those episodes get pulled off the hosting site and the link stops working. That's out of this site's control and apologies if you came here and found dead links. We know how frustrating that is. Don't shoot the messenger. We're looking for new ones all the time so we'll post them when we can.

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EPISODE 5: THE NEW GIRL

Don once again finds himself having to deal with issues between TV comedian Jimmy and his wife, Bobbie. Joan finally finds Don the perfect secretary.



Watch the episode here:

The New Girl on SupernovaTube

DISCLAIMER: Cathode Ray Tube does not host the episodes itself. Links are via third party hosting sites like Megavideo. Often those episodes get pulled off the hosting site and the link doesn't work. That's out of this site's control and apologies if you came here and found dead links. We're looking for new ones all the time so we'll post them when we can.

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Cathode Ray Tube Mad Men Season 2 Episode 5 AMC

27.08.08

DISCLAIMER: Cathode Ray Tube does not host the episodes itself. Links are via third party hosting sites like Megavideo. Often those episodes get pulled off the hosting site and the link doesn't work. That's out of this site's control and apologies if you came here and found dead links. We're looking for new ones all the time so we'll post them when we can.

OK, I've just checked and the embedded versions are unavailable. However, the direct links to Megavideo do work so don't click on the embedded version, click on the Megavideo links in the post. I'll remove the embedded versions.

22.08.08

More streaming episodes from Season 2 of Mad Men . Quite simply one of the best dramas on television at the moment.

As ever follow the links to Megavideo to enable full screen playback and don't be fooled by the poker. Just click on the centre of the screen.

EPISODE 4 - THREE SUNDAYS

Peggy's family hosts lunch for a new priest in their church. Don and Betty enjoy a family weekend together. Freddy and Ken take a client out to lunch who stirs Roger Sterling's heart. Sterling Cooper staffers work double time to prepare for a last minute pitch meeting.

Three Sundays on Megavideo

EPISODE 3 - THE BENEFACTOR

Trouble arises on the set of a commercial while Don plays hooky from the office. Meanwhile, Harry, determined to make improvements in his career, tries to gather support around a controversial sponsorship. Betty joins Don when he attempts to appease his clients with a friendly dinner.

The Benefactor on Megavideo

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Mad Men is set in the world of Manhattan's advertising industry of the 1960s and its ensemble cast take us through the emotional ups and downs, the pressures and self-abuses of both the ad-men and their secretaries, their wives, children, friends and neighbours. The first season is now available on a three disc Blu-Ray edition with a boat-load of extras and commentaries.

...he can sell you everything from cigarettes to slide projectors in a very unique way

The focus is on Don Draper, played with such efficient coolness, mystery and ruthlessness by the lovely Jon Hamm, who is deemed one of the advertising gods at the series' main setting of ad agency Sterling Cooper. He's on the way up, knocking aside those in his way whilst also dealing with younger colleagues out to usurp his position. And he hides plenty of secrets and isn't who he seems to be. But he can sell you everything from cigarettes to slide projectors in a very unique way. He can make anything uninteresting the most glamourous thing in the world and he can make you want it. This culminates in the the stunning episode The Wheel where Draper brilliantly pitches the idea for the Kodak Carousel slide projector whilst the episode itself uses it as a metaphor for the ideas of nostalgia, the unrecoverable past and the relentless wheel of progress. One of the first season's main plot lines was to slowly chip away at the stony exterior of this man, who frankly can be the most unpleasant and uncaring individual when he wants to be, and expose some of his inner workings.

Whilst the first season attempts this, and still keeps his enigma intact, we also get to see how he and his office colleagues manipulate each other, their secretaries and the various clients they come into contact with. Into this mix, bearing the 1960s background in mind, we also get to see the casual racism, sexism and emotional exploitation that goes with the territory. The series doesn't hide from the vices of over-drinking and chain-smoking, the disasters caused by casual sex, the flagrant acceptance of anti-Semitism, the angst of deeply closeted homosexuality...it's all here in all the self-loathing glory and hypocrisy of the early 1960s when the world was on the cusp of massive social and cultural changes.

Peggy gets sucked into this dog eat dog world but it's her ambition to be more than a mere letter taker and phone call fielder that raises the interest...

The pilot, shot over a year apart from the actual first run of episodes, introduces and establishes this milieu and centres on Elisabeth Moss' character, the new secretary Peggy. Peggy gets sucked into this dog eat dog world but it's her ambition to be more than a mere letter taker and phone call fielder that raises the interest here and it's fascinating to see how creator Matthew Weiner uses her to depict the hideous exploitation of women in this workplace as well as illustrate the nascent feminist ambitions lurking under the surface. Moss is really superb as Peggy. She's charmed by one of the younger ad-executives, Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser in a stunning role as an utter slime-ball), who has a one-night stand with her before he gets married and she emerges, emotionally battered but with a fiery gleam in her eye, to get on and beat these dysfunctional men at their own game.

Whilst this transpires, she's mentored by office manager Joan, an uber secretary who knows how to play all these games. Contrast both women with Betty, Don's wife, a repressed and brittle blonde whose ambitions and emotional life are subservient to the whims of her husband. She's not an entirely sympathetic character, even though Don is hopping into bed with the bohemian Midge and, later, Jewish store owner Rachael, because she's so distant from him and from us as an audience. Their relationship consists of stone cold psychological warfare with Don wheeling Betty out as a pretty face to impress clients, using an analyst to delve into her apparent psychosomatic ailments and Betty behaving almost like the children she's bringing up.



Throw in the two partners of Sterling Cooper - the creepy, sleazy Roger (a barnstorming performance from John Slattery) and the mad as a box of frogs Bertram, who seems to be more bothered about his devotion to Zen than the client melt-downs of the company he runs - the snobbish neighbours, various sets of parents, relatives popping out of the woodwork and you get a fascinating ensemble of wounded characters, all with their own hang-ups, glittering against the chic 1960s design of the offices, restaurants, hotels, bars that are full of wonderful detail and observation.

...writing that's witty and sharp and observes the way media impacts on our social and psychological well being

This is all delivered with a leisurely pace, allowing us to explore characters and issues with great depth and detail. This pace won't be everyone's cup of tea. If you're looking for remarkable acting, writing that's witty and sharp and observes the way media impacts on our social and psychological well being, stunning period design and slowly evolving plots and character development...then welcome aboard. If you're after explosions and car chases...try elsewhere. In this first season, I would highly recommend the following episodes: Marriage Of Figaro; where Campbell returns from honeymoon and the Drapers have a birthday party for their kids with a razor sharp observation of the class and social divide; New Amsterdam; where Campbell pitches an idea to a client and tramples all over office etiquette and Draper uses the opportunity to take him down a peg or two; 5G where Draper's past comes back to haunt him and we find out he's not who he seems; The Hobo Code where closeted designer Salvatore is given the spotlight and we delve further into Don's shady past; and Long Weekend where the excesses of an office party have serious consequences for Roger. Plus add in the aforementioned The Wheel and you've got a very consistent, high quality drama.



The season hardly puts a foot wrong and I would say there isn't one really duff or dull episode in the whole run. The drip-feed plots and sub-plots keep you watching and once you get to know the characters, even if you can't stand most of them, you actually care about what might happen to them. The entire season is stunningly presented in HD on this Blu-Ray disc and the image quality is immaculate. Lovely flesh tones, vivid colours, deep blacks and the detail in the 1080p resolution is breathtaking. This is a fine example of HD and should prove to the many nay-sayers that the format can truly deliver and make the viewing experience so pleasurable with a rich palette that echoes the period setting and captures fine detail. It really is superb. Sound quality is high too with a DTS lossless mix that provides crisp dialogue and a suitably atmospheric sound field. It isn't an action series so the field is relatively low key anyway but again the standard is very high.



Extras a plenty too. There are 23 commentaries! Pretty much all the cast members are involved, and producer/writer Matthew Weiner, the directors, designers...some episodes even feature two commentaries. I've listened to three on this set so far with the ensemble cast commentary on Marriage Of Figaro one of the best. They are a bit dry, especially the solo commentaries, and some are more successful than others but I've only scratched the surface. Featurettes Establishing Mad Men, Advertising the American Dream, Scoring Mad Men all do what they say on the tin and provide a good grounding in the making of the show and the cultural backdrop it's set against. Music Sampler is a wasted opportunity and only gives us some of the music featured in the show. I suspect a rights issue might have held them back from including the full music soundtrack. Pictures of Elegance is an HD gallery and there's a brief preview of Season Two but it doesn't feature any new footage.

If you missed this on BBC4 or BBCHD then now is the time to catch up with a truly excellent drama that was well deserving of its Emmy, Peabody and Golden Globe awards. It won't be back for Season Two on BBC4 until 2009 so you've no excuse not to get this Season One Blu-Ray DVD. This Blu-Ray release hasn't arrived in the UK yet (only a standard DVD release is available) but you can get this on import and it will play quite happily in your PS3 Blu-Ray drive because it's region-free.

(Screencaps courtesy of Blu-ray.com, Anthropomorphic Fruit and LadyBlueLake)

Mad Men - Complete Season One (Lions Gate Blu-Ray - Region Free - 3 Discs - Not Rated - 0031398240761)

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The season's second episode 'Flight 1' is now streaming courtesy of www.watchmadmen.net

If you intend to watch don't click on the centre of the screen, click on the play icon in the left hand corner. Unless you want to play poker...and if the poker site pops up just click back here and then click on the play icon again in the left hand corner!

Hot tip: If you want to view it in full screen mode then click on the link: Megavideo and you'll find the player here has an option to view in full screen.

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Cathode Ray Tube Mad Men Season 2 Episode 2 AMC

A special treat for those of you who caught the first season of Mad Men on BBC4 recently.

The first season of this award-winning drama took us into the world of 1960s ad men with a look into not only how they came up with ideas and pitched for work but also how they conducted themselves in the office and at home. It "evolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values."

It's a stunning series, beautifully acted, superbly written with a fantastic ensemble cast and production design that has real attention to detail. If you managed to catch it on BBCHD you'll know what I mean about the production values because the the HD format brings the colour and detail to vivid life. It's one of the best television dramas to appear in a long time and is highly recommended.

Mad Men Season 1 is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD and I'll be looking at that very soon with a full review. I've watched the first two episodes on the Blu-Ray and the quality is stunning and I would offer it as an example of why you should be watching films and television in High Definition because this set shows the format off to its best. The episodes all have commentaries and I've listened to two so far. They are a little dry to those of us used to ensemble commentaries featuring programme makers and actors discussing the work together. More later on that Blu Ray set.

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The second season premiered last Sunday in America on the 27th July (don't know if and when BBC4 will pick this season up in the UK) with 'For Those Who Think Young' and thanks to the series' AMC website you can see the premier via streaming video in four 15 minute segments. Here's the opening segment:



To pick up the rest of the episode go to Mad Men Season 2 Premier

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