Mad Men - Season One DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Mad Men - Season One DVD Release Date: 30th June 2008

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Mad Men - Season One DVD Review:

You would think that the AMC channel had turned into HBO overnight with the way that Mad Men was such a critical hit for the 2007-8 season. As well as winning awards, the show also features executive producer and writer Matthew Weiner, best known for his work on The Sopranos, which was HBO. Mad Men certainly carries a similar structure, which ahs proven a success several times over, as long as the show is interesting.

It isn’t coincidental that this television show about the advertisement world takes place in 1960. The 1950s were filled with images of perfection, although the sentiments beneath the surface often revealed spider-webs of underlying social, political, and cultural problems. 1960 was around the time when the dark stain began to seep through, and in the first episode of Man Men we watch the advertisement agency handle the recent revelation about cigarettes. Doctors no longer support them and they have been proven unhealthy, leaving the advertisement world with a unique situation where they needed to change their methods. It is just unfortunate that much of Mad Men is far more interested in the relationships of the characters in the show and the style of the period it takes place in.

Mad Men is the term coined by advertisement men that worked on Madison Avenue during this time. They called themselves this, which tells you a little something about the swaggering personas that roam the halls of the advertisement agency. Leading the agency and the show in many of the campaigns is Don Draper (John Hamm), who is successful at his job and his personal life. He has a beautiful wife and two young children, but like everything else, his life has a seedy undersurface. As an attractive and successful ad man, Don is afforded many opportunities with attractive women, constantly hiding these affairs and his personal background from his family, friends, and co-workers. The beginning of the series introduces us to the busy world of the agency through the hiring of Don’s new secretary, who manages to see more about Don than anyone else.

Although the seedy underbelly of the world in 1960 is introduced with the glossy cover of a better world, the accuracy of the conversations are often blinding. Sexism, racism, and constant alcoholism is openly practiced at all times. The workers are predominantly white, flippantly using racial slurs as a way of speaking. It is a different world, and again, much more fascinating than the many titillating affairs that become the focus of the plot.

The packaging for the series is somewhat inconvenient, however sleek and cool it is supposed to be. The package is shaped like a metal lighter, and open like one as well. The discs are fit into this lighter-like case in a foam base. Fancy, but mostly just obnoxious. The features on the inside include all 13 episodes from season one, along with audio commentaries on all episodes. There is also a featurette about the unique recreation of Mad Men, a photo gallery of the costumes and hair with commentary by the show’s Costume, Hair and Production Designers. There is also a brief conversation with the show’s composer, David Carbonara.

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Mad Men - Season One DVD review written by: Ryan Izay