Mad Men : DVD Review


Title: Mad Men – Season 3
Starring: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks
Directed By: Phil Abraham (and others)
UK Release Date: 26/04/10
Certificate: 15

Mad Men is set in the early 1960s and centres on the Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue, New York.
As season three begins the Sterling Cooper advertising agency is struggling having been taken over by a British parent company – Putnam, Powell and Lowe. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the boss – he has it all, money, power, looks and a beautiful wife, Betty, who is about to have their third baby. She is however not quite as perfect as she looks and even though they reconciled after potentially marriage threatening arguments in season two, she is now attracted to another man. Elsewhere in the agency account directors Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton) and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) fight over who should have control.

I’d not seen the first two seasons of Mad Men before reviewing this release but did a little reading to catch up with some of the storylines. From what I can tell season three picks up well from the previous seasons and continues to have clever, well written, multi-layered scripts with strong acting and very good direction.
I hadn’t seen it before but the concept of advertising executives in the 60s seemed a very interesting premise for a TV show. In the days before everything was so cut and dry, everybody has to be interviewed three times before being offered a job, the 60s were a time when talent could walk into the door and be offered a job there and then and charm and brashness often shone through. In a time when things weren’t so dull, so desperately corporate, when you cold actually have opinions and ideas, when things were fresh and new. Mad Men gets across this feeling of spirited young men and women trying to do a good job. It was also a time when on the job drinking, smoking and internal office sexual liaisons were not looked down upon. I’m not saying this is a good thing. But it does make for entertaining TV.

Mad Men season three is thought-provoking, emotionally charged, and adept at addressing political, gender and social issues. It’s a great watch and while it might be a bit of a slow-burn show, it also doesn’t leave you guessing at the end, actually giving the audience something back with plenty gasp-aloud moments.

Author : Kevin Stanley