Mad Men: Season One
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Movie Reviews of Mad Men: Season One
Movie Review: Truly Mad
Summary: 5 Stars
I experienced a visceral reaction to Mad Men unlike any response I've had to a television show for a long time. The show elicited a feelings of security and insecurity, comfort and discomfort. The rigid social structure had me reflecting on a time very early in my life but had a continuous effect in shaping the adult I would become. As a kid in 1960 I was very aware of racial prejudice and remember the subservient roles played by men and women like the ones cleaning the offices and running the elevators or so told to me with anger and disapproval by my parents and other adults. I remember my mother dressing in the style of Betty Draper and learning lessons on "proper" comportment. I remember how tall (like Dan Draper) my father was and the uneasy but comforting smell from my father's cigarettes. I remember how cute my mother looked in pedal pushers and how we went on family picnics together. Only as I have grown older can I relate to Don Draper's darkness and the darkness of racial and gender prejudice in American society. Are we so different now? A loaded question to which I will not speculate.Movie Review: worth watching multiple times
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this show from the first episode. The setting and the 1960s fashions are spectacular. Sometimes it's incredibly nuanced satire and complex character study, and sometimes it's crazy, over-the-top "Dallas" style drama. I don't know how it's possible to do both at once, but it does.
I agree with other reviewers that a lot of fascinating tension comes from the time period: all the rigid professional classes and gender roles are on the brink of collapse--or are they just about to sneak underground? It all looks so shocking yet so familiar...
For more (600 pages more) on the bankruptcy of professional success in the 60s, see Joseph Heller's Something Happened. I also recommend Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders, which was about the ad industry and written in 1959.
This is the only show I've ever liked so much that I built it into my schedule. It's SO GREAT!
Movie Review: Juxtaposition of the "Real Working World" then and now!
Summary: 5 Stars
i couldnt have said it better than the previous reviewer. This show is absolutely addicting and completely in the realm of almost entertainment therapy, since any adult can relate to the situations of this show. The social strata and class labels of "secretaries", "bosses" and "wives" and their assigned roles and duties is sheer brilliant drama and the frustrations of those in the classes is effectively conveyed to us. You can see the 60's ready to explode with the liberation of all these classes and "free" the women from the men, the men from their almost god-like bosses (having to take off their shoes to enter his office like entering a temple) and the general workplace poplulation from onsite smoking and drinking and carousing. it makes you wonder how would life today be if things were still like that, but i get the feeling that the creator's purpose is not so much to contrast, but to juxtaposition, to make you really think... did it really change?... is it really any different now?......
When this comes on DVD every adult in America will enjoy this show!
Movie Review: One of Televisions Best Drama's Period!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think the title says it all! Mad Men has great writing, great directing and does an amazing job at establishing a period piece without falling into dumb cliches or hyperbole. The characters are ones who have a timeless quality about them and the issues they face, while not as great today, are still understandable.
Mad Men works on so many different levels because it combines both the traditional drama setting of work out and out work settings and conflicts with realistic and sympathetic people. Mad Men excels at showing the flaws at its protagonists while not making them out to be pure evil. The Don Draper character is so well formed he seems ready to jump off the screen. Pete Campbell is the evil little weasel every show must have, yet he is also someone with a touch of humanity showing that while Mad Men is to a certain degree soapy it is not a classic soap opera.
I would recommend Mad Men to anyone who wants to watch a compelling drama with real and believable people. This again is great television!
Movie Review: Absolutely magnificent (and that may be an understatement)
Summary: 5 Stars
Mad Men is by far the best dramatic series I've ever seen. It has blown away all of my expectations and hopes, and indeed what I thought is artistically possible in this day and age. I use the word genius sparingly, but it certainly applies to the creators of this series.
The historical setting (Madison Avenue circa 1960) is great for showing us how times have changed during the past two generations, every character is developed and portrayed in a way that I can believe and empathize with, and countless facets of the human condition are explored with remarkable depth and nuance, so I'll assert that this series deserves to be classed with the world's great stage productions and literature (dare we mention the name of Shakespeare?). Simply put, I've learned a lot about life and therefore myself from this series, so my appreciation goes beyond what words can express.
If you're a reflective person who takes a real interest in what makes people and social groups tick, don't miss this series.