"Mad Men": Anybody else watching/watched it, and love it?

I might be wrong, but the end of last season felt like " BAM...BAM....BAM" to me, and this guy is very methodical we know so I thought the easygoing was intentional..but as I said not everyone agrees.

I can see I had better watch three!

I have some days off and am broke, and I can combine kitten whispering with watching DVDs, so here I come

Yep, you've got some catching up to do in Adelaide, Deb!
Then we can all compare notes.
And as I said on your HBO thread, you are most welcome to borrow my series 4 when I've finished watching it.

Thank you!

Just finished watching series 4 tonight.
Phew, that was a bit of a marathon!
And it did pick up after the first 3 or 4 episodes.

OK, but was the slowdown likely deliberate in your opinion, are was the writing weak??

I think the "transition phase" went on for longer (& dragged quite a bit) than was necessary.
(spoiler alert coming up, Deb! Tune out now. )
I'm assuming there are a number of script writers for Mad Men. Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone.
But some episodes, like Don's meltdown overnight (with Peggy on her birthday) seemed to me to have been much better written than some of the earlier ones.
The writer of that episode did a brilliant job, in my opinion.
Yes, I know it was a more "dramatic" time in Don's life than earlier on in series 4, but in the hands of a lesser writer that episode could have seemed a lot less convincing.
That's my opinion. You may disagree, of course.

I am so excited. The next season of Mad Men is starting tomorrow night.

I had never heard of the show until last year. I found it on Blockbuster, and watched every season on Blu-Ray within a period of a few weeks, completely captivated.

I can relate to the '60's, and the types of interactions between the sexes is very familiar to me.

Sunday night, between 9-11 p.m., my phone is off the hook!

Hey, mckenzie, how's series 5 going?
Living up to the standard of the previous 4 series?
I think I'll end up watching it on DVD again, but not sure if it's available for sale in Oz yet. Probably not.

I somehow missed your post, Phoenix.
(How could I possibly miss your signature green text? )
I'd be interested to know how you're finding the 5th series, too.
And anyone else who's been watching it, too!
(But please, no spoilers, OK? )

Actually, msolga, I am not enjoying it at all (although I can't stop watching the show). I have been spoiled rotten. I watched all the earlier seasons on Blu-Ray. This season I am watching it on TV, and the commercials are awful. I think that the series is half content, half commercials.

The flow of the story is constantly disturbed. I think that from now on. I will record it on my DVR, and fast forward during the commercials.

(The show is still great, so I won't give anything away!)

I had thought the deal was that AMC was adding 3 minutes of commercials per hour, but it sure seems like more. I also notice that they are staggering the start and end times by a few minutes off of the advertised just to **** with those who are trying to DVR it. We shall see how the ratings hold up, first season averaged about 1 million viewers, last season 2.4, this season premier was 3.5 with the second and third weeks around 2.8 million.

The premier was great, but so far I am MEH about the story lines overall, not sure what is missing. Maybe I am just spoiled. Peggy sparkles this year though.

The deal was that the show would be cut from 47 minutes to 45, however that did not happen. MM gets 47 minutes, but according to my DVR the recording goes 1:09, making the show 32% commercials. Assuming last year the 47 minutes was run in one hour then the show was 22% commercials, so the increase is almost 50%, which is a lot. What Mathew constantly said that he cared about was minutes to tell his story. He was thrilled when AMC let him get his 2 minutes back and said at the time that he did not know how they did it. He should have been more concerned with the customer experience of his art I think, as allowing AMC to cut up his art with so many commercials is not in his best interests.

Oh that's a shame, Phoenix.
But I know what you mean.
Before Mad Men became so popular here (in Oz), quite a while ago & was appropriated by pay TV ( ), it was shown on SBS, a free-to-air channel.
Even though the ads were played in blocks & not every few minutes like on commercial channels, they were pretty distracting.
Also the lengthy "what happened in the last episode" bits at the start & the previews at the end, along with the ads, seemed eat up a helluva lot of of the program's broadcast time.
Very, very frustrating.
I found it much more satisfying to watch the 3rd & 4th series on DVD.

But anyway, I understand we are now in the swinging sixties?
Has that transition "worked", do you think?

Wow, now I know what was bothering me about this season, it was too soap opera. Tonight was cool, very creative and unpredictable.

msolga- Yes, I think that the portrayal of the "swinging sixties" worked. I did notice one goof though, a play on an expression that was not used in the '60's. (Can't remember offhand what that was though. )

One thing really bothers me. Yes, it was true that cigarettes were an integral part of life in the sixties, and the portrayal of cigarette smoking is accurate. I just hope that young people don't decide, because of this show, that smoking is "cool" again.

hawkeye- I was having just this discussion with Mr. P. before last night's show. It did seem a bit "daytime television". I think that they redeemed themselves with this last show.

I've only watched Mad Men sporadically. At the start I watched, then had some matters which took me away from it and when I returned I was surprised, relieved and perplexed at how easy it was to continue along. It shows me that it's well written if several episodes can be missed and the program still has enough of a hold to keep me from leaving it in mid-episode.

I neither love nor hate the show, it just fills some time for me.



My personal feel is that seeing characters smoke in one show won't send teens and pre-teens scurrying to buy ciggies. It is enjoyable to see a period piece which does indicate what was going on at the time, even as the deadly consequences of smoking were being brought forth to more and more people.

It is my belief that the younger viewers would be more likely to rush towards smoking if they saw the actors of the series waving a burning cigarette during an interview. When I see actors, musicians, writers and others smoking while in a filmed or a live sit-down televised interview I move well past annoyed. These images to me are much more likely to do damage towards the thinking of the impressionable 10, 12 or 15 year old.

Images shown on album covers more likely contributed to the idea that smoking was cool for many than that of a character within a show being shown smoking. (remember Simon and Garfunkel with a cigarette in Simon's hand...which years later was airbrushed out, much like the one Bette Davis once held, which vanished when she was elevated to postage stamp status? How many 6th and 7th graders saw their favorite singer Paul Simon holding that smoke and thought it 'cool'?