Mad Men - your verdict

Quite brilliant. Great writing, great acting and real panache. Not as 'obvious' as some other shows mentioned above. A gradual build of tension and unravelling of characters made this a real treat, I savoured each episode.

 

Thanks George. I stand corrected!

I loved it. Brilliantly complex characters - Don Draper: utterly dispicable, yet extremely likeable - even the minor characters, like Sal, were so intriguing. And, yes, it was a 'slow burner' but I think that added to the style of it all. Plus, the boxset (gunmetal lighter case) looks wicked!  

Can't wait for the second series and to see what happens with Peter and Peggy's 'love' child, to see whether Betty loses her mind totally in suburbian New York but most of all to see if Don can regain any of the self confidence he gradually lost over the course of the series.  Totally agree will all other praise for his understated performance - brilliant - and the agency politics have been a constant undercurrent.  Extremely difficult to be this consistently authentic.  I'm really going to miss it - the iPlayer has been a God send as no digital signal here . . . roll on season 2.

A grower. Quite brilliant in its slow-burn distillation of moral certainties unravelling, seemingly sunny futures undermined by a seeping edge of darkness. A reminder that golden ages are larely illusory. Understated performances, economical writing, taut direction. Further proof that the most exciting TV still comes from America. Sopranos/The Wire/Damages/Studio 60 etc etc. Still, we can look forward to the next Ross Kemp/David Jason/Robson Green fronted masterpiece.

 

I enjoyed the hell out of Mad Men. I was expecting much of a different show with more emphasis on the ad men lifestyle as opposed to a period piece of the late 50s early 60s. At times, it almost felt coincidental that they actually worked on Madison Ave. It can be a little to hollywood at time as well. The episode Draper blurts out "Its toasted" in a presentation to save the cigarette client had me in stitches. If only life were that easy.... just put your fingers to your forehead to make it look like youre thinking ... thinking HARD, then blurt out "Its toasted!". Ive done it to my clients and I now have an "Its toasted" campaign about to run for my tech client. That said, its a great show and no matter how true to life to the real mad men it is, it allows me to think that our industry once had style.

Another HUGE fan here, i think its written by the Sopranos team (which i also loved). It can be slow but the story lines are well worth perservering with. As for the truth in it compared to nowadays, they don't work like the agencies i come across, the days of the long heady lunch and booze in the office are long gone, and all the agency people i know work damn hard- at least at the planning buying level. Clearly the Business has evolved, but i for one am an addict. Interesting i have mentioned the program to a number of planners and buyers at Universal McCanns which is mentioned as one of the competitors to the agency featured in Madmen and not one person had ever even heard of it. perhaps the BBC should consider advertising the show to a relevant audience who are in the industry...

"They drink and smoke too much in the office"... That's like saying pirate movies have too much sword fighting... What a dumb thing to say... It takes place in 1960 for crying out loud. We drank and smoked all the time... We also screwed like rabbits. Oh, one nit pick. In the first episode (1960, remember) The girls all pound away on IBM Selectric's... They weren't introduced 'til 1961... Time for a *** and a pint... I'll wait 'til later for the screwing.

Cheers/George

“Mad Men” knows there’s no bigger ache than self-imposed loneliness, especially when it’s the consequences of a poor decision.Everyone is part of a group and everyone assumes that the other group is not equal to them. -------------------------------------------- pandreson message Marketing

Having just returned from a short spell in the US it gave me an insight into the US ad culture. There are still agencies that are just a modern day version of MadMen.

I discovered Mad Men when looking for a TV series to cure my Lost and Heroes starvation. At first I was apprehensive, but just the utter wealth of storylines and the glimpses we got into 60's advertising world kept me hooked. Understandbly this is Weiners conception of the 60's advertising world, but he surely must of be extremely close. As for the smoking and drinking, as far as I know they are not sponsered by any major tobacco or alcohol products. I have read elsewhere that Weiner stated that without the cigerettes it would not of worked aswell, the tobacco industry was huge and at its prime in the those years. So Weiner has everyone on the show smoking herbal cigerettes to allow the scenes to come to fruition. I really like this show and have followed it completely write up to newest episode in series 2. Keep watching.

 I watch TV quite a lot and I have not heard of this at all.  So I suppose that it could not have done very well ....

Love it. Wish I had a time machine. Sadly no sexism, drinking, racism, adultery, and smoking on the client side

Is this programme available on the internet?

There is no way you can state that Mad Men was better than either Deadwood or Bleak House. Sorry, no way, as excellent as the series was, and believe me I was a fan. The levels of production detail, cinematography and lighting far outstrip those on Mad Men, and that's before we count the quality of scripting and dialogue of either show in comparison to MM.

Deadwood was one of the greatest TV series produced in the last 10 years anywhere! and HBO should hang their heads in shame for cancelling it. And Bleak House? well that was just sublime with its simmering 'up-tightness'. Rome and Cranford... well, they were just costume fodder weren't they.

Mad Men is an excellent series and I relish the 2nd series. The characters are flawed, yes to us now, but they are living in their glorious 'now'! God knows what silly mistakes we are all making now with our lives... listening to the latest fads and pressures... how will our 'now' lives look to the future 'us' in 40 years time? And don't even start on about the "70s Rod Stewart" hair-do's today's young chaps have.... hopefully they will be consigned to the same dumpster as Glam Rock.