MAD MEN (TV SERIES) - Blu-ray review

What do you do for an encore after you help transform American TV drama by writing for and co-producing "The Sopranos"? In the case of Matthew Weiner, you pitch another TV show, and when HBO says no, so what? "Mad Men" is a better fit for AMC anyway.
What better way for the vintage movie channel to get into the trendy business of original TV series than by giving the public a rich period show that completely captures the feel of the early Sixties? Though the pacing in "Mad Men: Season 1" is far slower than dramas like "24," there's something spellbinding about the world that Weiner recreates.

Young people ready to join the work force today will watch this with dropped jaws. "Mad men," we're told in an epigraph, refers to the Madison Avenue advertising men whose golden age was the late Fifties and early-to-mid Sixties, when the selling of America had all the rules and decorum of no-holds-barred wrestling. This was the era that gave us such slogans as "Nine out of ten doctors prefer Chesterfield," and the first thing you notice in "Mad Men" is the smoking. Everybody lights up, whether they're in the doctor's office, a meeting, at lunch, or in the sack. It was also a time when it wasn't uncommon to reach for the bottle at work to bolster one's courage or take the edge off of a particularly stressful encounter. And sexism? The office workers are called "girls" and group-ogled by the lecherous males in this boys' club with all the subtlety of pashas reviewing their harems in order to make their next selection. But as a secretary named Joan (Christina Hendricks) says to a newcomer in the stenographer's pool, "If you really make the right moves you'll be out in the country, and you won't even have to work." Meaning, of course, that she'll snag a husband. Housewives or secretaries--those were the main life choices for women.

The microcosm is the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency in New York City, but the values we see are typical of a whole nation. After all, these are the guys who gave people their perceptions. As one ad man says to his mistress, "What you call 'love' was invented by guys like me . . . to sell nylons."

This well-balanced show gives us two main characters to follow, one male and one female. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is a junior partner who enjoys the same relationship with his immediate superior, Roger Sterling (John Slattery), as Darrin Stephens did in "Bewitched"--though there's no magic left in his marriage to Betty (January Jones). And naïve newcomer Peggy Olsen (Elizabeth Moss, who played Zoey on "The West Wing") feels a little like "Ugly Betty" without the laughs as she tries to "make it" in the business world, conflicted whether that means using her body or her brain. Both characters are complex, with more shades of gray than a knitting circle.

In "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," the season opener, we watch Draper try to salvage the Lucky Strike account and walk out on another big client because she had harsh words for him, and "no woman is going to talk to me like that." And with that slap in the face, viewers are transported back to a time when "sexual harassment" wasn't even a concept, much less the law. The biggest "pig" among these male chauvinists is a newcomer named Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), who's getting married but still is hot to sleep around. "Of course I love you," we hear him reassure his fiancée over the phone. "I'm giving up my life to be with you, aren't I?" Meanwhile, Peggy is told, "They say they want a secretary, but most of the time they want something between a mother and a waitress. And the rest of the time . . . ." She doesn't have to finish that sentence. We get it (and so does Peggy), especially when we're told that Peggy has become Draper's new secretary because he didn't have any interest in the other "girl."

The costumes feel real, the hairdos look authentic, the dialogue rings true for the decade, and the morality is encoded in every scene, which is why "Mad Men" sustains our interest even when there isn't the customary tension to hold things together. When Mrs. Draper asks her husband whether he had a nanny when he was a child, we realize early in the series how little she knows about her husband--which, of course, underscores how little the audience knows as well. Don and Peggy are characters we gradually get to know over the course of the season, and that "reveal" becomes nearly as fascinating as a whodunit. As with "Bewitched," some of the account shenanigans become familiar as the season progresses, but the character development quickly pulls things back on track. "Sopranos" fans will recognize some of the same structures, with a stay-at-home wife dealing with her husband's sometimes shady business dealings and his imagined philandering, and a focus on individual personal stories that makes this as much about people as it is about "the business." Thirteen episodes are included on three BD-50 discs:

1) "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Don Draper saves two accounts, with the unexpected bonus of bedding a client--whom he can barely see through all the smoke.

2) "Ladies Room." The more Roger Sterling encourages Draper to "open up," the closer he seems to play his cards. Peggy, who slept with the engaged Pete in the very first episode, carries a torch for him and deals with the aftermath of office gossip. Pete isn't exactly a closed-mouthed fellow.

3) "The Marriage of Figaro." Pete shows signs of a conscience, especially after getting a lecture from Draper. Meanwhile, a turn in his business relationship with client-mistress Rachel (Maggie Siff) makes Don rethink his own life.

4) "New Amsterdam." Pete tries to assert himself at work and at home, and struggles mightily in both places.

5) "5G." Shades of "The Fugitive," a photo of Don accepting an award brings back a past that he's not ready to face, while another co-worker (Aaron Staton) gets a story published in The Atlantic Monthly and sets all sorts of things in motion--not the least of which is envy. Don has an unfinished novel sitting in a drawer.

6) "Babylon." Peggy earns her stripes when she brainstorms with her boss and shows that she can be more than a secretary. But Rachel feels conflicted when Don seeks her advice for a new campaign.

7) "Red in the Face." An evening of dinner and drinks leads to a rift in Roger and Don's relationship; meanwhile, Pete struggles with his new marriage.

8) "The Hobo Code." As pieces of his past haunt him, Don feels as if he's starting to slip; Peggy, meanwhile, is full of new confidence as she rises at work, and that success begins to threaten her relationships. In this episode, one of the ad men, Salvatore (Bryan Batt), crosses the line with a client.

9) "Shoot." Don gets wooed by a rival agency, with Betty caught in the middle. Meanwhile, these Nixon guys look for ways to best the Kennedy ad team.

10) "Long Weekend." When Don loses an account, Roger tries to cheer him up; meanwhile, Joan and her roommate have a night on the town.

11) "Indian Summer." The plot threads twist slightly as Peggy gets a job that might prove too difficult, Pete grows even more frustrated, and Betty finds an outlet for her dissatisfaction.

12) "Nixon vs. Kennedy." On election night, the Sterling Cooper staff pull an all-nighter as they watch the returns. But Pete finally challenges Don directly in an alpha male bit of horn-locking.

13) "The Wheel." Betty makes a startling discovery, Peggy gets a new opportunity, and Don finds it hard to balance home life with work.

Video:
"Mad Men" is presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which completely fills a 16x9 monitor. The codec is MPEG-4, and this series looks awfully sharp in 1080p, with natural-looking colors and plenty of detail, even in the shadows. I noticed less than a handful of what appeared to be artifacts in a few scenes, but nothing so egregious that it took away from the viewing experience. Skin tones are perfect-not too orange or pink-and the office lighting that's predominant poses no problems. Though the colors are pleasingly saturated, there's a softness that feels compatible with the idea that we're supposed to be watching a show that takes place 48 years ago. And there's a nice sense of 3-dimensionality as well. Press materials indicate that this is an all-region release.

Audio:
The soundtrack is a DTS 5.1 Master Audio, which does the job but doesn't impress nearly as much as the picture itself. Tones are clear and there's a pleasing timbre, but this isn't a dynamic soundtrack and you won't find much in the way of ambient noise coming from the rear speakers. There's some, but not nearly as much as you might expect. Clarity is the biggest thing that the audio has going for it. There's no distortion, and since the Sixties were a time of Mono, I frankly don't have a problem that the soundtrack isn't more pulsing or assertive.

Extras:
Wow. That's all I have to say. Who can get through all these extras? I mean, the producers have included 23 commentaries for just 13 episodes, totaling around 18 hours. I watched a bunch-enough to pronounce them superior, average, or sub-standard-and found myself wishing I had the time to watch more. There's something for everyone here. Weiner appears, but so do the directors (Andrew Bernstein, Lesli Linka Glatter, Tim hunter, and Alan Tayler), who cover all the bases. As a writer, though, I enjoyed hearing from four who penned the scripts, though as with the director commentaries they're pretty standard. What I thought were above-average, though, were the cast commentaries. Here, you really see how committed these actors are to the show. All of the principles appear, and there are even commentaries featuring such production people as the set designer, costume designer, and editor, so fans get the "inside look" on "Mad Men" from all angles.

There's an hour-long making-of feature included as well, and "Establishing Mad Men" charts the show's development from concept to set and costume design, with plenty of behind-the-scene production footage and the usual number of cast-crew interviews.

What's nice is that Lionsgate has included a short (20-min.) feature that traces the development of advertising in America, so you can compare notes with what appears in the series. After that, though, it's all throwaways, as far as I'm concerned. As if to admit that not enough viewers watch full-length features on the music, poor David Carbonara barely has enough time to talk about his scoring in this under-10 minute mini-feature. And the "Mad Men Music Sampler" that accompanies it is really a random edited teaser of clips from the overall soundtrack, none of which even stretches to fill a full minute. Then there's a photo gallery (in Hi-Def) that covers all areas, including costumes, sets, cast, ad campaigns, shooting, etc. A Season 2 "preview" isn't much of anything--no clip, even. Just an announcement that there's more to come. But the commentaries and two features should make fans happy.

Bottom Line:
"Mad Men" is richly evocative of the Sixties. Watching this show is like hopping in a time machine to see how advertising shaped a decade. These ad men may not be as ruthless as "The Sopranos," but the characters are just as complex, and their lives equally fascinating.