Mad Men: Season 1 [Blu-ray]

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.

good product

Gran precio para gran serie. Lleva subtítulos en español. Audio sólo en inglés.3 discos en una Amaray del grosor habitual de las cajas Blu-ray de UK.

I've been VERY late coming to this series, but it was well worth the wait, and I was hooked after the first 20 minutes of the first episode, so thanks very much for providing so much enjoyment at such a competetive price.

Good but my wife is not enamoured - maybe its a man thing!

I bought season 1 as by chance I started watching season 2 on the TV and became hooked. Mad Men is well written, full of detail and gradually reels you in. Its refreshing because of its slow pace and straight forward camera work. I watched the whole season in a week after the children had gone to bed and my husband was working away....pure escapism.