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Mad Men (TV Show)

zwida

zwida

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 5, 2001
595
23
NYC + Madison, WI
Anyone watching Mad Men on AMC (in the states, anyway). Story of Dan Draper, a Madison Ave ad man in 1960. Matthew Wiener (former writer on the Sopranos) has created a series that is highly stylized and actually includes character developer. While not glamorizing 1960, the show certainly manages to show you both sides of the coin. I downloaded the first eight from iTunes a few weeks back and am now caught up and stuck waiting for new epsisodes to air.

Anyway, I highly recommend the show. I figure many people might have issed it because it's on AMC (supposedly HBO passed on it), but it's worth checking out.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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Sep 19, 2002
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I've been watching it. I learned a bit about how they make it from a relative who talked to the producers of the show. They have consultants who were businessmen from the 60s, and they confirm to the writers that "people really did act that way."

I cringe at the way women were treated in the workplace - it was really a caste system. Not to say that the problem will ever completely go away, but it was so blatant, pervasive, and worst-of-all accepted, that it's hard to believe.

But the show is hilarious in places, with scenes of doctors smoking in the examining room, the psychiatrist who routinely tells Don what his wife Betsy says in her sessions, shunning of the divorced woman :eek: down the block, and my favorite scene of all: A kid is playing dress-up, with a plastic bag from the cleaners over his head. His mother scolds him that her dress had better not be on the floor. Off he runs, with the bag still on his head.
 
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Blue Velvet

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Jul 4, 2004
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It's just started its run here in the UK on BBC4 but I watch it on the BBC's iPlayer; have seen the first two episodes so far. Great performances. Absolutely love it so far, the production values and art direction are superb; love the title sequence as well. Appointment television with so many nods and cues to modern life, as Q pointed out with the dry-cleaning bag scene.

My first thought was those poor actors having to smoke in virtually every scene. They're herbal stage cigarettes but I doubt that they're that pleasant to smoke...

It's been commissioned for a second series, so that's good news. Those in the UK who like snappy US drama, go for it. The writers have some pedigree with The Sopranos. Unhesitatingly recommended. :)
 
irmongoose

irmongoose

macrumors 68030
Dec 3, 2001
2,864
7
Sometimes Tokyo, sometimes California
All they've stated is summer, but I'm glad they've made even that much clear.

You know what I find absolutely fascinating about this show? It creeps up on you. I saw the pilot episode and I thought, "Yeah, that was pretty good. I guess I'll watch some more." By the fourth episode I was hooked! The characters are so solid, the direction so confident, the writing... just brilliant beyond comprehension. And yet they keep churning out these episodes, consistently, like it's any other day at the factory.

And don't get me started on production value. Never before have I seen a TV show that refuses to waste any screen space - every inch of the frame is filled with something that tells you some idea, some fact about the character. How HBO turned this down, I cannot begin to imagine, but I'm glad someone did take it up. I'll say it again: great ****ing show.



irmongoose
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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Free iPhone app: Mad Men Cocktail Culture
Think you can make an Old Fashioned as good as Don Draper can (or a Tom Collins as deftly as daughter Sally)? AMC's Mad Men Cocktail Culture game challenges your skills at making popular cocktails of the '60s. How much vodka do you pour in a Gimlet? How long do you shake a Martini? What glass do you use for a Blue Hawaiian? Get everything right, and Roger Sterling just may just invite you to his next party!​
 
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184550

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May 8, 2008
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Besides NBCs comedy line-up (The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Rec), Mad Men is the only other show I watch. I got into it between Seasons 2 and 3 so having to watch 3 weekly on AMC was hard after blowing through the first two season on iTunes. :p Have a feeling season 4 is going to be the exact the same.
 
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184550

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lmariottix7 said:
Hi...Zawida, its my favorite show as well. Can you do me a favor please share some tunes here so that I can upload them for my iphone. Thanks.
Click to expand...

If by share you mean, where can I find the music from Mad Men, here's the AMC Mad Men Music Blog.

If by share you mean, can you upload the music so I can download it, that's not allowed on MacRumors.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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I liked the show a lot this season.

I'm surprised Betty hasn't gone totally postal yet.

One complaint: the writers don't do a very realistic job with the lines for the kids. Kiernan Shipka is a good young actress but Sally and her creepy pal often talk like adults.
 
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Blue Velvet

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Doctor Q said:
I'm surprised Betty hasn't gone totally postal yet.
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Next season. Bound to be an almighty custody battle, if she isn't committed at some point.

Doctor Q said:
Sally and her creepy pal often talk like adults.
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I know people use the word creepy, I don’t understand it. I don’t find him to be off-kilter. I’m very proud of their conversations, because anyone who has seriously eavesdropped on children, that is the way they talk to each other. Glen’s always going to be defined by the fact that he asked [Betty] for a lock of hair and he walked in on her in the bathroom, and I know that. But we have a delusion, I will say, in this country, that children are not people. People forget the thoughts they had when they were 6 and 7 years old, and how much of them was in there already.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2...s-on-season-4-of-mad-men/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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Even Marten Weiner, who plays Glen, says that his character is a weird kid.

Matthew Weiner said:
I’m very proud of their conversations, because anyone who has seriously eavesdropped on children, that is the way they talk to each other.
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Sorry Matt. I'll stake my eavesdropping against yours. Kids speak in kidspeak, are self-centered (not in a character-flaw way, but in a normal kid's-point-of-view way), and have misconceptions about the adult world. All of these affect what they say. They think they understand the world and sometimes even get it right, but they don't say things the same way as adults even when they play grown-up e.g., try cigarettes. If I watch any of the episodes again, I'll look for specific examples.

Anyway, it's a minor issue. The story is fun, the costumes and cultural references are great, and it all keeps you thinking you're watching people who are really in another era. It would have been funny if they had spliced in old footage of Disneyland to show the kids on the Rocket to the Moon! :)
 
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Blue Velvet

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Doctor Q said:
Sorry Matt. I'll stake my eavesdropping against yours.
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Not disagreeing with you, although I'll swap any run of scenes in Ossining for anything in the agency or in town... or even the two-parters with Trudy and Pete. Know it's there as counterbalance but the family drama leaves me a little cold after the extended soap of season three with Betty alternately on her fainting couch between her horse-riding sessions; the only character there who I had time for was Carla.

However, what struck me as a little peculiar is how Bert Cooper seems to have slipped away, shoes in his hands, with no mention at all by the cast.
 
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Blue Velvet

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Just saw this and had to post it. Weird incongruence of visuals and technology.



boysclub_sommer_staton.jpg




More pics behind the scenes. The cigarette props are interesting.
 
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Blue Velvet said:
Just saw this and had to post it. Weird incongruence of visuals and technology.

(snip)

More pics behind the scenes. The cigarette props are interesting.
Click to expand...

Loved the behind the scenes photos. I thought that it was interesting that Hamm and Weiner meet before each season and something makes it way into episode 13.

I've heard a lot of critics, or people rather, claim that season 5 might mark the end. I hope not, I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that Weiner's original contract called for five seasons, right?
 
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Blue Velvet

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NathanMuir said:
I've heard a lot of critics, or people rather, claim that season 5 might mark the end. I hope not, I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that Weiner's original contract called for five seasons, right?
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Somewhere, can't remember where, I read that a sixth series had also been discussed... and in that article, it was mentioned that Matthew Weiner had already planned how he intended to end the show, so my hunch is that we'll see at least another two seasons.
 
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