5 Reasons Why You Should Watch Mad Men (or Maybe Why You Didn't)
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- I am a huge fan of Mad Men. It's a show that defies conventional modern programming. If you've never seen it, please listen to me try to explain why you should watch it. If you didn't like it, maybe this video will convince you to give it another shot.
On paper this show seems so boring but it was the complete opposite. I’ve never seen a show that does such a good job of dissecting the illusion of the “American dream”. It was so brilliantly written.
Oh, honey, you don’t know what the American dream is. This is a great show.
The biggest reason I feel Mad Men was so good is because each scene feels like your part of their conversation and it's captivating
I’m 15, I was born the same year Mad Men first aired. I grew up with Mad Men in the house, my dad even had a dvd box set of each season. I’ve always liked the show but in the past couple years I’ve really gotten into it and started to love it.
A lot of my friends haven’t heard of the show, now I have this video to show them, so I have other people then my brother to look across a room at a party and say “it’s toasted” and them know what I’m talking about.
now try watching The Wire.
even better than Mad Men, if you can believe it.
My favorite TV show of all time. It basically has ruined my TV watching experience because nothing can live up to the quality of writing and the visual pleasure of this show. I barely watch TV anymore. I read instead. I was born in 1971 and some of the furniture and general items from that time carried over into the 70's so it's also somewhat nostalgic for me. Mad Men had the best character development ever for a TV show. You feel like you knew these people. And there is nothing more interesting than watching flawed people and that's because we can see ourselves within them, so we can relate to their struggles and imperfections.
MM is my favorite show too but Succession is also very.
I watched Mad Men when it first came out and loved it. I was roughly Sally’s age living through these times so it was a deep dive into nostalgia, both comfortable and extremely uncomfortable. One of the most jarring scenes (I gasped out loud) was when the Drapers enjoyed an idyllic picnic in a beautiful country setting. After packing up to go go home, Don throws his beer can down the grassy hill and Betty shakes out the picnic blanket leaving all the picnic litter/garbage behind! And that’s what people did!). This show helps us to see how far we’ve come about many issues, but also helps us see how far we still need to go to normalize racial and gender equality. I just watched the entire series again-definitely binge-style! I loved the ending. The very last ad scene transformed it from forgetful mediocrity to quiet brilliance, thoroughly in keeping with the 7-year arc of the show.
I gasped too. It was so accurate.
Being born in 67 I grew up in the very rough wake of the 60s. Everytime i watch MadMen I'm torn between hardcore nostalgia (think The Carousel) and disgust. But I keep coming back every couple of years.
I was born in 1970 and I vaguely remember throwing trash on the ground was just becoming a taboo. So I don't really have strong recollection of casually tossing your garbage wherever, I remember it as a no-no.
But for me, the smoking hits... growing up I remember most restaurants were filled with smoke. At my first job when I turned 16 - ChiChi's Mexican - I looked out the kitchen window and saw literal layers of smoke in the dining room. just hanging there stagnant clouds of stink, until someone walked through churned it all up again. We had a separate non-smoking room that was usually half as full as the main.
When they started introducing indoor smoking bans, all the restaurant owners bitched that it would destroy their businesses, but instead a lot more people went out to eat now that they could breathe while they ate. (crazy, right?)
You're right, American society has come a long way since the 60's and we've gotten a lot better... but there's resistance to improvement and we have a long way to go.
Jon Hamm is extremely handsome.
What sucks about MM is that it’s not on the mainstream streaming services nowadays and though advertising at first may not be the best hook to this show turns out to be damn good and exciting to see what they do next with it. And since there’s barely any action in the series, the strength is in the writing especially when two characters clash together.
The ending was pure Don. He got what he always said he wanted. I was a kid of the 60's like Sally. I new exactly what this master advertiser got/did and it was magical.
Mad Men is *still* my favorite show even though I haven't actually re-watched it even once :) The casting, sets, clothes and the script are basically perfect. And it was all controlled by someone who got to execute his vision fully (as I understand it).
I think one of the reason it never really caught on is that it is a very slow burn. Especially in the beginning. It took me a few episodes to get hooked. And I was super motivated because I loved the setting and the costumes from the start! And while I was watching I also understood why this would never be the smash hit that it deserved. Most people just don't have the attention span that this show demands of the viewer. But when you do. You get rewarded. In spades!
I think it is a work of art.
Yeah it’s a masterpiece of a tv show!! What’s your top ten? Mine is
1. The wire
2. Game of thrones
3. Mr robot
4. Dark
5. The boys
6. Breaking bad
7. Succession
8. Stranger things
9. Sopranos
10. Mad men/BCS
My top two would be Mad Men then The Wire. After that its hard to say, I just feel those two shows are in a separate, "elite of the elite", category of their own. Granted I have yet to watch Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot, and The Sopranos from your list.@@raymondsims7042
The greatest character study in television history.
In short: the best television series I’ve ever seen. In the UK the first four seasons were shown on the terrestrial BBC2 channel. When it was announced they wouldn’t be showing season 5 I found myself trawling the Internet so as to be able to watch the latest episode via sketchy links. I had to have my fix. The flawed characters, the writing and the obsessive period detailing are intoxicating; the story is like watching a master couturier at work and yes, Season 1 into 2 was a slow burn. Around season 5 I realised Don was the same age as my father. The show does indeed offer insight into our parents’ lives and experiences, and some parallels are striking. I still dip in now. Madmen is like a Chanel jacket; a classic that will stand the test of time.
they were all on the bbc... werent they?
This show is a piece of my soul. It does not get better. I cannot believe its been off the air for 8 years. Every spring I get uneasy because I still miss it and wish a new season was starting. While it was on, it was incredibly popular. But, it is not for everyone. There was a time when it was objectively accepted that the 4 best pieces of television were Breaking Bad, Sopranos, The Wire and Mad Men. From there it was a matter of personal choice. But your video made me realize that maybe younger generations - millennials and Gen Z - aren’t picking up MM. idk. There were a lot of watch and rewatchs going on during covid. Damn it. Its now going to take a lot to stop me from another rewatch. ❤
And these 4 shows are still best pieces of TV ever. I don't see how that has changed over the years.
@@Maltera-fj5kothat’s a great top four all of them are masterpieces. I think my top four would be
1. The wire
2. Game of thrones
3. Six feet under
4. Mr robot
I’d have breaking bad at number 7, sopranos at number 12, and madmen at number 13. All phenomenal shows
@@raymondsims7042The Sopranos at number 12? It should be in any top five at least, or better yet at number 2 right after The Wire.
@@Maltera-fj5ko I understand and respect that opinion soprano’s is incredible. Just not quite top five for me but still very high nonetheless
Im a millenial. When Mad Men was airing, somewhere around season 2, I had AMC playing on my tv almost all day until adult swim came on. Breaking Bad I was already into but when I would see previews for Mad Men come on it just seemed like some stuffy, boring soap or something. Didnt grab my attention.
Few years later I saw it was on Netflix and after having seen somewhere a lot of the actors on Mad Men appeared in a game I played LA Noire I figured I'd check it out to see them show up.
Then I just kept watching. Got hooked and just watched because it was a good show and not to just look for LA Noire faces. It's one of my favorite shows of all time now, top 5 for sure. Just finished rewatched the whole series recently on freevee. Loved it even more. Tried to peak the interest of my few friends to check it out, but they still just dont get it. I'm just glad I bothered giving it a chance.
I rewatched it all the way through for the second time. Man it’s definitely an amazing show. Binge watching it made me feel like I experienced a decade. Seeing the characters in season one and then in season 5 and then in season 7 is insane
Great analysis! I just rewatched the entire series and don’t think I fully appreciated it the first time. Besides the storyline and the drama, I am fascinated by the evolution of their company and they ran their business and the decisions they made to sell or not to sell and how they treated their customers within that era. Seeing how they lived and dressed and decorated their houses was so interesting. Some of the fashion matches sitcoms from that era like Dick Van Dyke but the storylines couldn’t be more of a contrast.
Subtle greatness is Mad Men
I agree with you about it not being as big as GoT and BB with GenZ/millennials but the reasoning is simple, the vast majority of those demo were too young to appreciate MM during its run.
Also, is Sopranos really that big with GenZ?
However, MM did have an outsize impact on mainstream culture via men’s fashion - before MM, fat ties, frumpy suits. Post MM, skinny ties, skinny suits, suspenders, and bow ties.
Also bringing back old fashions and manhattans as cool cocktails.
I agree. Mad Men was really big with Gen Xers and up. Yes, the impact on fashion was huge. The dresses from the mid 10s had a lot of influences from the mad men fashions too, and niche dressmakers began copying from that era.
Possibly I was in the target age group and demographic, but I noticed plenty of Mad Men buzz, which was why I began watching it. In Australia, it was one of the shows that Foxtel used to try to get you to subscribe, particularly when a new season was about to come out.
It likely didn't gain traction with younger audiences, because it was mostly about middle aged people, and it wasn't really designed to be accessible to younger audiences.
And here I thought I was late to the party by not watching this show until 2019. Your analysis is spot on, and I would add that another reason to watch this show is re-watchability. There are so many layers to each episode and so many if not all of the details. One example is from season 2, when Burt Cooper buys the Rothko painting. Rothko was more or less anti-commercialism, so a businessman like Cooper buying his painting just drips with irony. There are other trivial items littered throughout the run of the show that underscore the attention to detail that went into every detail of the show. In 4 years, I have watched this show from start to finish close to a dozen times, and every time I catch something new that I missed before. Bottom line, this show is a masterclass in subtext. The better you know and understand the characters and events of this era, the more complex it becomes. In over 50 years of watching TV, this show has risen to #1 for me.
@@raymondsims7042 I'm pretty old school, so my top to go back to the last century: 1. Mad Men 2. Seinfeld 3. Friends 4a. Family Ties 4b. The Cosby Show 6. M*A*S*H* 7. Happy Days 8. The Andy Griffith Show 9. HEE HAW 10. ER, and a shoutout to what I think is the most important show to ever air but I was too young to have seen it: The Smothers Brothers
I love this show. I feel like i can only recommend it to people who appreciate a slow burn. The first two seasons, like you said, admittedly drag on a bit
Good review. I caught a few episodes of the final season when it first aired and thought it was pretty interesting. So not long ago when I saw the first 3 seasons on DVD for sale at a Goodwill store, I jumped on it. Just finished watching the first season and I'm hooked. The characters are so well written, and the sets so accurate to the period. I also find the commentaries on the DVDs provide interesting insights from the actors, writers, and directors.
Thanks for sharing. Started watching during Season 5, I recall, when it was running on AMC and caught up with some of the earlier seasons on DVD. I enjoy it for several reasons. One is how it blends the soap opera with the historical drama. Another is the nuanced characterizations, both in the writing and the acting. Love the costuming, too, which provides a reminder that changes in American fashion were slow. And I love the approach to the use of period music. It tends to use popular tunes from the decade, but doesn't regurgitate the same songs film and TV producers often use to evoke the 1960s. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
I’m about to wrap up my 4th watch since the Summer of 2020. The best series I’ve ever watched.
@@raymondsims7042 Starting with my favorite: Mad Men (it won’t be dethroned from this spot on my list), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Americans, Suits, The Boys, Billions, original Magnum PI, Animal Kingdom, Felicity. I can’t think of some of the other top shelf shows I’ve enjoyed but will update this list when I do. Thank you for your feedback.
@@wg8290 I think mad men is phenomenal and it’s a top ten show ever in my opinion but “the best ever”I can’t go that far I think that title is reserved for the wire. You’ve got to watch it!! Also me and the missus plan to watch marvelous Mrs maisel what are some great aspects about that show in your opinion?
@@raymondsims7042 I think MMM is just terrific for how all of the main characters and supporting characters are fleshed out. I like the time period it’s in as well. I always enjoy seeing movies or shows depicting that era. It’s a fantastic show for sure. I’ll put The Wire on my list to watch. Another series I enjoyed watching was Boston Legal. Spader and Shatner were hilarious!
@@wg8290 nice will be checking it out and yeah get to the wire man. You’ll probably change your opinion on what the best show ever is as soon as you finish it
@@raymondsims7042who is gonna tell him about the pacing of the wire? ☠️
I was born during this time and I would be about Sally’s age. I used to go to my grandfather’s office when I was little and the office was exactly as portrayed here, typists in the middle, all women, and the men occupied the offices around the perimeter. All the products they create advertising for on the show were the actual big brand products of the day. I and my husband loved this show. For us it’s a step back in time. (We loved the Soprano’s too).
Awesome! On a similar note, I have heard that during the first season, AMC would run television ads of products from the 60s (coca-cola, cereal, etc.)- would have been really fun to experience that I'm sure
Mad Men is imho the best show ever written, but it's just sooo mature. There are no teenagers, there are no young people. Peggy is young but by our modern standards she's way more mature than you average 22yo. Draper's kids get to be teenagers in the end, but we see it through adults eyes mostly. So it doesn't really appeal to average tv binge watcher.
There;s plenty of awesome little bits when they mention commercials, movies, songs, books from the era. I love to explore that, most viewers not.
Also there is nothing going on. Imagine if you were to write a short description of each episode. It would sound like a soap opera: Don struggles with death of his old relative and finds a friend in a co-worker. Betty suspects her husband of infidelity. Pete is still remorseful about moving to the countryside. Roger suffers heart attack. Lane has a problem with paying off taxes.
It's a drama. No action, no thriller, no mystery, no crime. It's an awesome psychological spectacle set in one of the most beautiful and defining decades of US history. It's a show for modern history freaks but even more so for people who love to study other people. Obviously it won't appeal to most.
PS #1 reason to not watch it -when you trying to quit smoking. Speaking from experience ;)
Sally Draper is one of the main characters and she’s a child🤷♂️but I get your point it’s certainly a mature adult show. One of the greatest shows ever made without question
Thanks for your fantastic review of Mad Men, which I've seen many times. It's just very well written and portrays the 1960s as it happened, although I don't know personally. I was born in 1970, but from what my parents and others alive then have told me, this show captures it perfectly. Characters like Peggy and Pete and a few of those who were younger adults at the start of the show were around my parents' age, and so that always throws me for a bit of a loop, seeing these characters who were in the same age group as my parents, the generation before baby boomers. I'm Gen X.
You're right about Trudy. She was probably the only character in the show who wasn't totally nasty at times or just plain horrible much of the time. I do have to say that, when she and Pete were at their best, they were honestly my favourite couple. They were such a good fit and could be quite delightful to watch. Yet Pete ruined it all, although I loved when they got back together. I also really loved when Stand and Peggy got together in the end. It was something I'd been waiting for since shortly after Stan entered her life.
Mad Men captured a certain portion of the population at the time - it definitely didn't represent everyone alive back then. My parents lived very different lives from anyone in this show - but it had the overall feel of the US, and the world at large, including here in Canada, during that turbulent decade.
I admit that one of my favourite parts of the show was watching the changing styles, especially the women's. Each actor managed to make their characters truly their own, and the clothes and hair and other aspects of the way they played things were very much a part of this.
This show could've been much bigger than it could've been, and in some ways I wish it had been. I admit that I didn't watch it all the way through when it first came out. I started watching it when it did, but I ended up not moving to a place where I didn't have cable and didn't get cable for a long time. When I finally did have cable again, the show was in its last season, and there was no point at the time for me to start watching it then. A friend of mine in New Zealand was talking about it a lot, and so I started watching it when I found it on a streaming service. I've watched it several times since then, and I'll watch it through again. :)
This show is brilliant. It is written, mostly, for Boomers and GenX having our lives touched directly by this era. It is a shame, however, that it was at the end of the era of good writing before identity politics was injected into everything.
In my personal top series Mad Men is in first place after The Sopranos, BoJack Horseman, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and The Wire. After watching it, I do not even know if there are still exactly the same, on the elaboration and depth of the series as Mad Men. If you know any, please recommend them.
Yes some argue it's about Peggy's arc as much as Don's, and notice over time into the '70s basically everyone's look changes save Don's. He's stuck. The music of a given episode also great, tapping into the times. Season 5's You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra etc etc. Very poignant show on duality and identity. Great piece obv I'm a fan. And hey as a smoker, you gotta love it.
People forget how big this show was when it was coming out. It was at the same level of popularity and zeitgeist as Breaking Bad, though I think operated on a very different volume level and thus had a different range if viewer. The difference between crime shows like Breaking Bad, fantasy epics like Game of Thrones, and a drama like Mad Men is that the stakes in drama are rarely ever life and death. And I think for some, that's not enough to be gripping. But Mad Men held its own against Breaking Bad in popularity even as the two ran parallel.
But while Breaking Bad's memory was kept alive by Better Call Saul, Mad Men didn't have a sequel, and so people's memories of it faded. But I think this video is a part of a slow, subtle revival of the series. It's been coming up in internet conversation lately. People are looking back and remembering it with new appreciation, of for no other reason than that no other show in this ongoing Gold Age of Television did what it did quite as well.
Mad Men is phenomenally well-written and well-acted. It's rich and complex. As you point out, every character sucks. But in the same breath, you can easily say that every character is lovable. Even Pete. Fucking Pete is the worst, but it doesn't take long to work out what he's struggling with, and how utterly doomed he is to a miserable life. So when he manages, by the end, to scrape together something vaguely resembling a redemptive ray of hope, I found myself deeply moved, and rooting for him.
And that's the thing about the show. Everyone loves Peggy, but you're absolutely right about her. She sucks too. Everyone sucks, because they're all deeply human characters, struggling in the dark to figure out who they are and what they need to be happy, and mostly failing. The show is so brutally honest about people, yet so compassionate. Its world is everything people says it is, sexist, racist, venal, elevating style over substance. Yet the show is a merciless critique of all those things, and how they strip people of their souls and their happiness. The thing that makes Mad Men hard to remember is the very thing that makes it great, you can't just glance at it and get a clear sense of what it is. It's layered, complex, contradictory. Like all of the greatest works of art, it's a show that defies a single interpretation, demanding multiple simultaneous readings. Like all of its characters, it's brilliant portrait about a world that sucks, a world that's living a lie. But it's also about the slow, endless struggle to find truth, because that's the only path to any kind of happiness.
absolutely loved reading this! Thank you for such candid thoughts!
Torn between “Mad Men is all of those things you said it isn’t” and “Huh, maybe it’s just me and my friends who like it so much.” I’m literally mid-rewatch right now, but you’re right in that I’d probably make a Sopranos or Better Call Saul joke than one about Mad Men. Some of that is literally just the internet and meme culture, but in turn, much of what drives memes is younger people who we probably less interested in a show about 1960s advertising. The show is also harder to parse. Weiner has said that when he originally pitched Mad Men to HBO, they asked how people would know what Don was thinking if there was no therapist character to coax it out of him. His point was that you don’t know what he’s thinking and you have to infer from what he does. And that’s really the gist of the show, not only with Don but with all the characters. Why are they all so miserable? Even the ones who benefit from the way society was set up? Unlike Tony Soprano, who at least thinks he knows why he’s unhappy, there’s no longing for Gary Cooper in Mad Men, just miserable people who barely know why they’re miserable. And as it turns out that mirrors reality more closely than we might want to admit. I think especially now, with everyone so cognizant of what it feels like to live in a historically transformative time period, a show like Mad Men is poignant because it’s a reminder that people have felt this way before, maybe always, and it’s generally not fun, but the world moves on regardless. Sure is hard to actually access the show, though. It’s on AMC+ and Starz, but who even has those (me lol). Also I feel like GoT would have lost much of its social cache if not for HotD, but that’s another topic.
Absolutely love this point! I really do like to compare these shows since they are all great (even if they are not all that similar). I think the Sopranos comparisons you've made are quite apt however. Don's actions without therapy sessions certainly leave themselves more room for speculation and interpretation. I could not agree more with the difficulty of watching it- there are so many good holiday episodes for unsung holidays (literally, there's a labor day episode) and I often find myself wanting to throw one on and my best option is to buy an individual episode on Amazon. Come on Lionsgate, cut a deal with Netflix out from under AMC's nose!
I completely agree with your synopsis of the show. I loved Mad Men when it first aired and I’m currently trying to convince my fiancé to rewatch it with me since I’ve gotten so bored with our current programming. He got to the episode where Adam finds Don and they meet up in the diner and quit because he says it’s “boring.”
I've admired Mad Men since it first aired and own all seven seasons on DVD, which I revisit frequently. The show is never as compelling as the scenes with just Elizabeth Moss and Jon Hamm. Their dynamic together was always awesome. After the series finale, there was a great deal of commentary on the internet about the closing scene--I'll always remember it.
For me as a history person, the initial draw was the 1960s setting, knowing what would happen, but with the main characters pretty much unaware. And that ties in with the slow burn that gradually explodes into the occasional blow-ups, whether at personal or macro levels. I do agree as well about the flawed characters, but at least many of them also had redeeming traits (well, except for Duck). The sense of style is just the icing on the proverbial cake. One of my top favorite shows!
Another series that probably still gets less attention (at least in the United States) is Babylon Berlin, which shares a number of affinities with Mad Men. Set around 1930 primarily in Berlin, there is the sense of micro and macro level slow burn ("they" don't even appear until the second season), a sense of style and flair, and flawed characters. The male lead (Gereon Rath) is a detective transferred from parochial Catholic Köln to worldly Berlin, and haunted by his past as a veteran of "The Great War." The female lead (Charlotte Ritter) is basically a 1920s German version of Fiona Gallagher from Shameless, but in even more squalid conditions, who starts off moonlighting between working as a police clerk and a prostitute at a gang-run nightclub. The first three seasons are on Netflix, and I'm waiting "patiently" for season four (which broadcast last autumn in Germany). Definitely up there with Mad Men in my esteem!
Love Babylon Berlin ❤ and hope to see another season.
Great analysis !! And good that you can discuss the show with your parents. I recognise them relating to Sally, because I am their age as well.
Mad Men encapsulated the 1960s so well, ands layered. And, without needing drug-dealing or murders as shots of excitement between the dialogue scenes. Mad Men = good actors with a good script in a room.
Its so rare that studios give writers/creators free reign to make great programs, but when they do, [sometimes] they come up with real magic.
Absolutely one of the very best shows of all time love Jon hamm ❤
This show kinda of ruined TV viewing for me. It’s so well written and acted, has humor and pathos plus amazing attention to detail. Love the many layers of the show and flawed characters. Don-one step forwards, two steps back. Incorporating Sally more fully into the story line was brilliant. Don knows his many failings, this is why I could never hate him and sympathize. I’ve watched each season multiple times still makes me laugh and cry. Absolutely brilliant show. Thank you for the video.
One of my favorites shows - I've probably seen every episode 3 times, others even more. When I watched the first 2 or 3 episodes, I didn't get into it because the people seemed fake. Then I realized it was about people and an industry that prized surface and image. Then I began to see complex characters under the surface. I'm 2 years older than Sally, so this reminded me of so many things while I was growing up.
I thought initially that it was very slow moving but it all about giving enough space for you to see the nuances of the characters
When an audence it one click away. Mad Men is a slow burn.
I'd love a Sally Draper spin off.
John Slattery used to be on a show called Homefront where he played a labor union leader. Kyle Chandler was also in it. It was great but got cancelled. I loved Mad Men. Didn't watch the sopranos or game of thrones or the wire or any of those things. I like character studies. You were correct when you said it was just people doing stuff and then understanding why they did it. It wasn't because of any huge negative influence, except maybe capitalism, but otherwise it was just people being people.
Sir/ma’am - the wire, breaking bad, the sopranos and game of thrones are all character studies. Yes, the Wire is trying to show systemic problems and yes game of thrones shat the bed in the last 2/2.5 seasons. But each of those shows was popular BECAUSE they were intense character studies. Now, for me Mad Men takes the cake. But its all a matter of opinion.
@@izattyu6863 I'll take your word for it because I didn't watch those shows. You're correct. It is a matter of opinion. I think I'm more partial to Mad Men because I grew up in that era and identified with some characters, mostly Peggy.
Great review. I agree with the assessment of the characters. None of them are always good, or always bad. Just like real people.
The ending was fine, sir. In every way, this series is perfect.
Yes, I love the ending too but I remember the opening credits (specifically the visuals) inspired theories about how the series would end in a much darker manner. As I watched, I considered this but then quickly realized there's absolutely no way the show ended like that or else people would have talked about it incessantly (to the tune of the Sopranos finale). It's sort of a thorn about knowing basic things regarding a show's production (i.e. we know Spiderman won't die or stay dead in the Avengers if the studio has already green-lit a separate sequel).
Thank you for watching!
Ive seen it twice, its amazing show i wish for a new season 😂
11:40 - "Maybe everyone's been having secret MadMen watch parties without me ..."
Hahaha, but unfortunately No. I rewatch the series regularly on my own, I have lend out my DVDs to friends, but damn no one has taken the time to even watch the pilot.
I never met anyone who loved the show as much as I do, then or now. I watched it in solitude and only had people online to discuss it with.
Sad really. Watching great TV is even better when you do it together.
I'm Gen X and started watching Mad Men in 2007. The show is fascinating but very difficult to watch because of its complexity. I watched your video because even today, I still try to understand the subtle nuances of the performances and what was going on. It didn't provide fast gratification like deaths and revange like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Game of Thrones. For me, it is still what sets it apart in television history.
Have you watched The Wire? That might be a better lead-in for Mad Men because, while there is the occasional shooting/death, it relies much more heavily on character development, good writing, and plot than the other shows you mentioned.
Breaking Bad, Mad Men, House of Cards, Homeland, Succession - Those are the best TV/streaming series you’ll ever see!
@@raymondsims7042 dark is very good
@@raymondsims7042 nice choices
@@pdgf what would be your top ten list? Like if you had to rank ten like I did🤔I appreciate hearing different opinions from mine
Anybody know what the background song is? So comfortable!
It's a royalty free song I downloaded called "Lost My Soul in the City"- I'm sure you can find it for free somewhere
Give it time Gen Z (like me) will eat this show up.
It’s not for everyone but I think if you tell someone it’s kind of like The Sopranos and it has the same relaxed vibe, they might stick with it. Idk.
Quality content
Mad Men is my favorite all time show and I actually think it is art. Just the multilayer plots of each episode, how they all tie into each other, the thematic stuff, the costumes and acting are all superb. The attention to detail is unrivaled.
But I also understand why there are people that do not like it. It is a period piece about an industry that some people do not care about, it is not really about anything other than inner struggles and slow moving relationship issues. But most importantly, it is very complex with a lot of subtext. Many people who try to watch it just do not get it because it goes over their head. If you do not get the themes and the subtext and what they are trying to do and just watch it on a surface level, it can leave you with "um, why is this show so raved about?"
I am like this with The Leftovers. Every critic raves about it and called it the best TV show of its time. I hated it. I thought it was cynical, nihilistic and dumb with a high concept made up premise where people acted odd. Not everything is for everyone and people forget that.
I do not not look down on people who do not get it. Artsy stuff is not for everyone and if your tastes are more basic and just want zombies! or some easy to follow procedural, well, that is okay. Art is subjective. There are people who do not like U2 or Bob Dylan. They are wrong lol, but that is why you have choices.
Have you watched Marvelous Mrs Maisel yet? I just finished that one and I feel like it's a comedy cousin to Mad Men.
@@pamelalansbury94 Yep, I loved that show and it really is like a comedy version of Mad Men. Ridiculously well written
Well Done.
0:57 general discourse* unless you think societal discussion is just one big argument 😅 or maybe you were referring to a specific discord server, idk 🙃
Mad Men is a very slow burn but it's so incredibly well written, every character detail and plot point is caeefully considered and often doesn't pay off in the "easy" predictable way. A character will do, or say, or conceive something that doesn't fully bare fruit for several seasons. It's not a super "exciting" show but there's such forethought, and like Sopranos before it, the ending was perfect and closed the narrative loop that S1E1 opened.
The ending is up there as one of the greatest of all time and people certainly recognise that. I disagree with the last point. The ending is perfect
I hear you. I really enjoy it as well (especially the moments that tease Coca-Cola throughout the season) but I just personally didn't remember a lot of discussion around the finale when it aired (as a non-viewer at the time) while I did remember (while also being a non-viewer at the time) Sopranos and GoT over-saturation in pop culture during the ends of their runs. I think my thinking when I made this video was that Mad Men's intro potentially foreshadows a much darker ending to the show that I see some had even theorized and while I watched the show, I thought to myself: "Wait, there is absolutely no way the show ends like that, it would have been talked about at nauseam/so controversial". Maybe I'm equating too many different things here but I hope that makes sense. Regardless, thank you for watching!
Your example of modern advertising rules though
I swear - “Mad Man” makes me miss what truly were the good old days.
You lost at me at "Everyone Sucks".... The showcase is how the world they live in sucks... but is so familiar. Don is the real scoundrel and everyone else is trying get by or move forward, each trying to reach their own version of "The American Dream". I found Roger to be the most charming because he is the one that is totally honest about almost everything to himself, Peter grows to be a respectable man you even like. Megan is a simple tragedy that has happened a million times in the movie biz. Joan is simply awesome, has a good heart but deals with the reality of her situation. Allmost everyone on this planet will commit some kind of sin, and we had a Hitchcock style view of these characters. If everyone on sucks on the show then I argue that everyone on the planet sucks even more.
There is a scene (JFK Shooting) where The Head of Television and The Head of Accounting have a heated argument infront of Bert. I never understood when Peter said: "Let me put this in terms you understand! The man had 4 children and a wife!". Now in my mid 40's I understood, he was a 1960's democrat blaming the others... The next day they had coffee together. GENIUS.
Loved it so much bought it more than twice.
Definitely had more depth than the other shows you mentioned.
The show is big. It's huge. It hasnt been even 9 years since it ended and people and journalists and critics are already considering it the best or at least top 3 dramas of all time. We dont need idiotic Gen Z or Millenials to make it "big"....it's gotten there already.
Mad Men is the best television series ever.
did you record this outside?
I've been working on my sound ever since! Admittedly I couldn't quite figure things out back then
Not sure why you downplayed Jon Hamm when talking about the "star power" of the show. Hamm's known for more than Slattery and Moss combined.
I love this show... I couldn't watch your whole video though as your voice was very quiet and when I turned it up then the title cards blasted. Agreed with your first couple of observations though.
Sorry about that! My sound engineering was pretty bad back then but I've figured a lot out since. Thank you for watching!
I watched it more for how well it was done from a production standpoint and not so much as being emotionally involved with it. I am concerned when I see a series like this one, that it will go over some people's heads and some pretty toxic behavior will be idolized and glamorized by some. At some point the writing is so realistic that if I wanted to see this kind of thing I could go be involved with terrible and messy people in real life. It is the most tasteful tastelessness. The highest brow low brow elegant trash. A trainwreck to watch. So my major criticism of it is just to ask "why?". I feel like it's 50% impressive and 100% a waste of time to watch it.
Wait, Ross and Rachel end up together in the end? Thanks for spoiling Game of Thrones for me!
Top shelf
I watched I think the first 2 or 3 episodes of Mad Men and it really didn't appeal to me or entertain me, my favorite shows are also "prestige television" like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Wire etc. I also enjoy Suits (which is maybe more similar ig), but with Mad Men I genuinely just didn't find anything appealing I cant remember laughing in those few episodes I didn't feel any particular connection to any of the characters and the core theme didn't appeal to me like the mob stuff of The Sopranos or the drug dealing and police surveillance of The Wire. Big props for that nod to Weeds btw 9:44
Hey man that’s fine it’s not a show for everyone it’s a very very slow well written character drama. It doesn’t have the action of excitement of the other four shows you named, but it is equal to those shows writing wise. At least you gave it a try 🤷♂️
I started watching Mad Men right before season 2 of Good Omens dropped so i could see more of Jon Hamm (which i only discovered in Baby Driver and saw in Good Omens and Black Mirror). I do love Joan and Peggy so much tho. Trudy deserves better. And every five episode or so, i tweet that i hate Pete Campbell. Fuck that guy. Also apparently the actor played Dr Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow in season 3 of Titans (which i did watch). So maybe that’s why i had bad vibes about Pete Campbell from the get go. But fuck Pete Campbell so much. Also, Teyonah Parris (Dawn, Don’s secretary) is Monica Rambeau in Wanda Vision and The Marvels.
the audio could be improved.
Word of advice: invest in a pop filter for your microphone and raise your audio levels
Thank you, for sure this is a game changer
Lemme save some time and effort here and answer your question:
Bc you and other gen zers (and frankly) social media, were fetuses when this show started... now that you’ve grown a little... what are you? 29? You’re starting to have some of the perspective that allows you to appreciate the show.... rewatch it 40 .... will blow your mind
For YEARS women had said, "You're [like] Don Draper". So I watched the series on NETFLIX. Great series. But, after so much character development, the finale was very disappointing. Like a Seinfeld end-of-the-finale finale - OK character ark, but was leaving us starving for more the same as starving for an ending???
You point the right reasons but in poor manner. That mentality is exactly why younger generations don't get closer to this show.
Prob it's a matter of taste but I didn't like the other shows (except the ENGLISH version of the Office)...On the other hand at the beginning of Mad men I was not sure, then I didn't miss an episode....
1950s through 1970s
Mad men is my favourite show, but succession is allowed to sit at its table, with the wire and sopranos
Interesting! Would you put GoT or Breaking Bad in the same group?
@@hosangeles nope sorry. GoT was fun but the show runners showed they didn’t really get the books and were tracing… until they weren’t.
And Breaking Bad was good but just not as well written as the shows I listed imo. I hear better call Saul is better though
I loved Mad Men, but I too found that one of his flaws is that one can never really root for anyone, as long as some attention is paid to the rotten, petty, garbage behavior that every single one character displayed from day one. Sure, some are less worse than others, but this series never really gave even the impression that any of its characters could be someone we put our hopes on - unlike Breaking Bad, at least in the first season or so. Great show, though.
If you LIVED through the Sixties, the series resonates better. They did a clever job of throwing in moments that were totally Sixties but people today would think were horrible, such as Don's kids running around the house in the clear plastic bags that his suits came back through the cleaners in. Today's parents would be aghast to see that but my parents let us do this as kids and nobody thought it was child endangerment. Same with flopping from the back seat to the front seat or hiding in the foot well of the car. Kids just did those things and parents were blind to the dangers.
Another aspect (disparaged today) was that everyone knew their place. Minorities had low-paying jobs and it was just accepted by everyone. Women's jobs were mostly support positions like nurses and secretaries. Yes, it was limiting and stereotyping but it kept life organized and it's disruption in the second half of the decade is why so many remembered the Fifties and the early 60s more fondly. Knowing your place meant there was less to think about. You just did as you were expected.
Lastly, I thought the last season reflected the chaos left by the Sixties. Marriages ended in no-fault divorce. We saw the first generation of druggies that had no ambition and no self-respect. It seemed we were being shown that America was just a lie and I don't think it was. I would have ended the series with wandering Don catching a flight from Portland to Seattle and buying a ticket as "Cooper, uhhh, Don.. Don Cooper." then having it misreported as "D.B. Cooper". The man who had to invent himself in order to function in society, flies off into the clouds having invented an entirely new identity.
I don't agree with this that only Elisabeth Moss has got a succesful career after "Mad Men". What about Jon Hamm ("Good Omen", "The Morning Show"), Kiernan Shipka ("Chilling Adventures of Sabrina"), Alison Brie ("Community", "GLOW") to just name few?
Great point! When I made this, I think I was thinking about how shows get green lit today with much bigger actors attached than what I remember when I was younger: i.e. Jason Bateman with Ozark, Jennifer Aniston with the Morning Show, Steve Carell with Space Force. I was trying to say that if a younger viewer turned on Mad Men today, they may not recognize too many actors in it. I can't imagine many people are massive Vincent Kartheiser fans for his work post Mad Men and would then watch the show for the first time just to see him. Whereas if someone who's a huge fan of say, Jeremy Allen White, for his roles in The Bear or the Iron Claw, he or she may revisit Shameless purely to see him. That's definitely a product of him being younger than much of the Mad Men cast, but I believe that is where my head was at.
Good analysis. Sound sucks.
Thank you for watching! and I cannot argue with you at all, my early videos had putrid sound. I've done my best to upgrade it since
I've been consuming entertainment for 50 years. I adore well-written, well-acted shows. However, I'm 5 eps in and I just CANNOT get into this show. Mad Men is 2 or 3 people talking in a room ... that's it. It's the same scene in a different room, over and over and over again. I have a very patient attention span, but this stuff is boring as hell.
What a poor effort at review. Your various premises are just your personal emotional reaction. Who cares that you didn’t quite understand the ending?
Almost any American TV show has a cast full of scumbags. The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad (Jesse was pushed as the only decent one but it didn't really work), so I don't see how it's a refreshing thing for Mad Men. The Wire being the exception for having stone-cold villains (Marlo, Stringer Bell) and some good people, which could almost be called heroes (Frank Sobotka, Bunny Colvin, Mr. Prezbo, Bubbles), and none of them was perfect, but they were just good people with their flaws and problems which they struggled with. And that's refreshing.
Thanks for watching! And yes I totally agree, but I loved that these character were humanely flawed like you pointed out and didn't commit or condone murder. The Sopranos, GoT, Breaking Bad, are filled with scumbags but they resort to extreme criminal/unethical tactics often (especially murder) making them somewhat less relatable. I suppose the scummier cops on the Wire are the best comparison to the Mad Men characters but still things get so murky in the crime or war focused stories. I just like watching everyday people in the 60s who are interesting and I used the term "sucks" to describe that. It's just my perception but there always seems to be 1-3 "voice of reason" characters on more modern shows that are portrayed as a little too morally clean to be believable/engaging.
I got bored with the plot dwelling on flawed characters wallowing in their flawness. During Season 1, I thought the show was going in a more philosophical direction about modern society. There was no tension between right and wrong, either within characters or among them. Still, it is one of the better shows that's been made and did a great job immersing the audience in the 60s.
Maybe your generation hasnt reached the point in life when the themes discussed in the show aren’t relevant yet
Maybe! Not totally out of the question
Constructive criticism: You video essay is well thought out, but your video sound production stinks. You need to adjust your levels and stop poppin your P's (try a dead cat over the mic), also the music blares as opposed to your narration.
Millennials don't watch TV like this, they don't have the attention span to watch a slow burn show like this. I love this show and have it on DVD.
That's got to be one of the most annoying voice to listen to... This vocal fry... It's just too much.
dude harry was ok, he had ups and downs but he was a good person.
Oooooh. I didn’t like Harry Crane.
@@valerieunger211 he helped paul when he was lost and he was loyal to don after the hershey chocolate drama.
@@muhammadbilalawan6182 he was a misogynistic, sexist jerk. He was a good male friend but a creep in the way he viewed and treated women, including his wife, Joan, Megan, and Peggy. He wasn’t all bad but he made my skin crawl.
@@valerieunger211 yes, but what im trying to say is he was better than other characters. what flaws he had almost all other male characters had as well. but come to think of it, i think ken was a better person than harry.
Trudy not true, she is low us person. Not true, not Queen. Just settle down for first man who treat her with no love and respect
at least she communicates coherently
It started great but each season was worse than the one before, by the end of Season 5 I was done.
What do you mean lad? Can you explain why you thought “each season got worse”🤔
Season 4-5 were Peak TV. I even adquired a taste for the Dark Season 6
My number 1 th show ever 👍
Woke snowflakes leftists today wouldn’t be able to handle such a brilliant show today