Mad Men on AMC

I absolutely HATE AMC.

Is Mad Men a movie? NO!

AMC stands for American MOVIE Classics!

So why are they airing a TV show?

I hate that they don't even show classic movies half the time. Just crap.

It used to be such a great station back in the 80s, playing real classics.

But then, MTV actually played music at one time, too.

I've seen half of 2 episodes, but it's pretty intruiging.

Azure Skye said:

Um, thanks?

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Any time.

ETA: To my point, AMC is currently showing Catwoman.

Catwoman!

A classic?

I think not.

I watched all 13 episodes from the first season in one week (on Demand). I absolutely love this show! I must say I almost stopped watching, though, during the very first episode because of how sexist (and racist) it is. Once I got over that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't wait for the second season.

I did the same thing. I was really looking forward to Season 2, but now I'm beginning to wonder if it won't be anything but torture, since I'm planning on quitting smoking.

Honestly - is there anywhere they won't smoke in that show?

I've heard remarkable things about it for awhile. I'd like to catch up before season 2.

This is the best thing I've seen in ages--it's smoking in more ways then one--and I love, love, love it!

I, too, watched all the episodes at one go and, I warn you, it's not a show you can take your eyes off for a second. The dialogue is great, don't get me wrong, but you can miss integral plot points in a blink. They don't hand you their point on a silver platter, they make you work for it show-in-show and show-to-show.

For instance, in the last episode when Peggy's asked, "Aren't you going to say 'Good night?'" We assume her aunt is asking if she's ignoring her. She made a rude remark about Peggy's involuntary stay in a Mental Hospital after giving birth to the child she never acknowledged she was pregnant with, earlier in the evening. She would deserve it, but no! What she's saying--and we find out when she opens a door and we hear, "Hi Aunt Peggy" and see two children, the child saying 'Hi,' and a baby in the crib next to him. This is the first reference to Peggy's baby, and the answer to why her aunt was rude to her. If we'd looked away, we'd have missed that. Previous references led us to believe Peggy gave her baby up for adoption. The final shot of the epi. is Peggy being handed her crying baby in church, looking very uncomfortable while she holds him, her aunt is taking communion. Talk about subtle!

That's just one of the great plot lines in this excellent series. The father of her child is having trouble conceiving with his shrew wife--not so subtle--at one point he asks Peggy, who largely ignores him, if she ever wants to have children and she says, "Eventually," that's a silver platter bit, but still works-- in reverse reveal. If we knew Peggy kept her baby before he asked ... mainstream crapola. Not this way.

Here's a question for "Mad Men" watchers, how did Don Harper know the agency trying to lure him away, used his wife as bait? That clue was one of those fantastic, if you looked away you missed it, ones, although, they threw it out there three or four times because it was important.

Here's another one, What's changed about Don to make him less of a womanizer? Clue: Viagra, what a perfect sponsor ...

I think Don knows the truth about what happened to Peggy? She's so loyal. What do you think? I'd like to know the relationship between Sterling and Copper. What did I miss about that? A picture in the front of someone's office? The nickname, "Peanut?"

Too good, just too, too good.


Al

Looking forward to 'power watching' the series to get up to speed. I did the same with "In Treatment" - another absolutely AMAZING show - highly reccomended on HBO series.

I'm glad to see a thread about this one. I try to stay away from the TV since I get antsy about watching instead of writing but this is one of the few that pulled me in! This show is sharp, entertaining, and complex. It's also great to watch as a writer to see how they get certain subtle story points across. It's now back in reruns (season 2) on AMC.

I look forward to chatting with other MM fans on here when season 3 begins.

Nadja

Mad Men

The second series of Mad Men has Just finished on the BBC.I thought it was really good .But ,did anybody watch it ? .The audience was tiny, despite being given good reviews. It's a mystery to me why it was not more popular.

I watched it but I suspect that the low audience figures are due to the fact that they put it on BBC3 in the first instance (and despite of the greater Freeview take-up in the UK, BBC3's viewing figures rarely break 500,000) and then late nights on BBC2. It's a shame because I thought it was a really good series, v. entertaining and well acted and with interesting storylines.

The BBC has never had a clue what to do with the few US series that it picks up - look at Damages, which they're showing at 10.20pm on a Sunday for crying out loud. Then there's Medium, which they bounced around their schedules and for the last series had on at 11.15pm on a Tuesday night (and which they've recently been repeating after midnight on Fridays). They had The Simpsons but didn't know when to show it, which was why they lost it to Channel 4 (who also have no clue when to show it). Monk got put on Saturday afternoons and again, was bounced around the schedules.

About the only show that they haven't completely shagged about with is Heroes, which is ironic because the last 2 series have been flipping awful IMHO (and I've got a whole separate rant about the pathetic whiner they've turned Sylar into and the moronic man-baby that is Hiro). I've also got a separate rant about how the BBC should be showing Family Guy on BBC2 or BBC1 instead of relegating it to BBC3, but I'll save that for another occasion.

So yeah, I blame the BBC not being able to schedule shows.

MM

Maybe we should move this thread to the "Movies, TV, Theatre section"? You'll get more discussion there.

To answer the question, it's pretty popular in North America. It will never be like the sitcoms or CSI shows, but it did win the Golden Globe. It's coming back for a third season, and its creator had his contract renewed for 2 more. So they aren't canceling it which is a sure sign of an unpopular show.

It just will never be as big a deal as the obvious candy shows, it's quiet, the pace is totally different from anything on television, it requires thinking to watch it. But as long as they don't cancel it, I'm happy.

I tried watching it but couldn't really get into it. Maybe I'll try with the DVD and see if watching a few episodes at the time would help.

maestrowork said:

I tried watching it but couldn't really get into it. Maybe I'll try with the DVD and see if watching a few episodes at the time would help.

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It was the same for me. But I had a bad cold last year and had a marathon where I watched every episode of season one On Demand---then I was hooked. I love this show! And I usually stay away from TV in order to read/write. You need to see it from the beginning to latch on.

The writer doesn't take the audience for fools that lack brains and an attention span. He lets the plot unfold at a delicately rich pace. The creators also make use of the visuals to add to the story (theme, plot, foreshadowing, etc) in creative ways. So you have to look alive in the cheap seats to catch the nuances that are placed throughout

For example, the opening credits of the show finish with a B&W cut and paste version of a man with his arm slung over the back of a sofa with a cigarette in his hand. At the end of an episode late in season two they replicated this image in vivid color with the main character posed the same way but shirtless and not smoking which, if you watched the show, was very telling about how very far away he was from his 'other life' as a Mad Man (the name for advertising men during the 50's-60's).

What I like about this show is that it shares elements that attract me to a great book (complex characters, a sense of place, humor, nice pace, good plotting, etc). The show works like a good read. Give it a shot from episode one and try to go from there if you have time.

stephenf said:

The second series of Mad Men has Just finished on the BBC.I thought it was really good .But ,did anybody watch it ? .The audience was tiny, despite being given good reviews. It's a mystery to me why it was not more popular.

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It had a weak start here in the States as well. It was greeted with critical acclaim and several awards but not a huge audience. After a few awards got them some attention more people started watching. They also ran it here on an On Demand channel where you could watch season one and two like a DVD through your cable provider.

Nadja

I, on the other hand, got into it a bit too much.

The chain-smoking in my office at the bookstore was bad enough. The three martini lunches were tolerated. But when I hired a curvaceous assistant and required her to wear tight sweaters and form-hugging skirts... well, HR got involved.

So now I'm limited to one episode a week, even with the DVDs.

And I'm doing better. I've been watching Deadwood, and I think I'm on the mend. On my best behaviour... those dread f*cking, HR c*cks*ckers don't f*cking know what hit them.

Yup, it's for the best.

Season 3 just premiered on Sunday.

I believe Mad Men (And Breaking Bad, AMC's other show) is one of the greatest things on television today, though I think I'm getting lung cancer just by watching it. I particularly enjoy how they use our knowledge of real products and the future to develop plot points. It's very smartly written.

As an in-house Mad Man in real life, some of the portrayals are pretty accurate, even today.

I found it incredibly "meh". I tried watching an episode and it didn't suck me in as much as others have said it would. Nothing sharp or intriguing to make me stick with it.

I adore "Mad Men" -- which is, in a lot of ways, more like books than it is like the general TV show. The stories are so much deeper and told in so much more detail that it takes almost the full season to really appreciate what they're getting at. (Not that I don't enjoy it tremendously week to week, because I do.) Thought the premiere was outstanding, and I'm very curious to see where they're taking Sal and Joan in particular.

Mad Men

Am I the only freak here who's addicted to this show? Anyone else watch this Sunday's season premiere?

Love it!

Enjoyed the premiere.

Not so sure I wanted to know that Don likes to be slapped.

: )