Some of you may not have heard about Mad Men, an American tv drama now in its second season on cable TV channel AMC. It’s main theme is the advertising industry in the early 1960s on New York City’s Madison Avenue, where many of the top agencies are still located. But what makes it so good is the way it captures that special era in recent American history with stunning attention to detail, down to the classic suits and the cigarette brands that people smoked. It also provides an insight into male / female relationships at the time and the chauvinistic attitudes in both the workplace and at home that are rare these days.
It won six Emmys in its first season including outstanding drama series and has been slowly gaining in popularity among discerning viewers. So much so in fact that fashion designer Michael Kors’ Autumn 2008 collection was inspired by Mad Men and many New York girls dressed up as one of the main female characters, Joan Holloway this Halloween. The Simpsons did a parody of the opening credits of Mad Men for its Halloween special this year (you know you’ve made it when The Simpsons start taking notice), and a DVD of the first season was even spotted next to Barack Obama on his campaign plane recently.
What has all this got to do with China? Well, the season two finale aired in the US on October 26th 2008, which according to my calendar, was last Sunday. The season 2 DVD of course has not yet been released. (In England, the second season hasn’t even started and it will be shown next year on BBC4.) But less than a week after the final episode aired on TV in the US, I found the boxed set of the complete season two in a DVD store in Shanghai.
I love China!
PS If you still haven’t seen Mad Men, go stand in the corner and don’t come back to this blog until you’ve finished at least season one. I’ll be asking questions to make sure you’ve seen it so don’t bother pretending either!
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
it sounds rubbish
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Sorry Dingle I forgot to mention there’s lots of sex in it as well. In fact that’s about 95% of the show most weeks.
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Awesome! can you see it going in?
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I shall go out and purchase it immediately!
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Dingle – That’s not really what I meant by “stunning attention to detail”.
Wiseman – You won’t be disappointed.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Thanks to that show I’m obsessed with grey suits and skinny ties.
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Taiko – Yep, and I wear double (French) cuffs and cuff links every day too and I’ve started drinking in the office from about 11am!
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Will check it out
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Don’t worry I can bring you the boxed set next month!
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 am
I love Mad Men! And the actor playing Don Draper is really good. He reminds me of Robert De Niro when he was young (I bet he studied him in great detail!).
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 am
HAMILTON!!!
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Wancestyle – Indeed, a great actor and now you mention it, yes, a young De Niro.
Rich – Your comment deserves an entire blog post all to itself, but YES!
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Huge huge huge Mad Men fan. I’ve changed my vote from Obama to Don Draper for president. I mean, we’ve elected womanizing, alcoholics to president before, why not elect an advertising man?
Besides Betty Draper is a dish.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:59 am
T – Firstly let me commend you on your taste both in quality TV and in women (Betty Draper, hubba hubba!). And secondly, oh actually there’s no secondly.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
i don’t have the channel that “mad men” shows AND every time i go to the rental place, the dvds for “MM” are GONE! so I’ve never seen it. =( thinking about ordering it on netflix or something.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Angie – learn to use bittorrent. It will improve your life.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The side effect of using bittorrent is that you will never go back to regular cable and sit thru commercials for any of your shows.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
well that and being targeted by your ISP, since you’re in the US. Just stay away from sharing movies and music and you should be safe(r)
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Angie – There’s a good reason why the DVDs are always gone. What’s Netflix? And yes, order it, buy it, steal it, just get it!
T – What’s bittorrent? Sounds shady. I like it already!
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)
It’s a file-sharing P2P protocol that allows for very large files (tv shows and movies) to be quickly downloaded by using a bunch of computers and taking files from all of them. You need to use a bittorrent program (like azaurus or utorrent) and then use a file tracking search site like torrentz.com – and then you’re well on your way to downloading movies and tv shows very quickly. If you use a site like eztv.it the TV shows are on there about 24 hours after they air in the US – that’s how I watch heroes, the office, the daily show, and entourage.
November 4th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Hey all! there is really no need to rent out anything nowadays! Check out http://www.sidereel.com. The site has basically all the hottest TV shows right now (Mad Men included). Megavideo is the best streaming service.
Woai, you should check out the SNL sketch with John Hamm, the actor who plays Don Draper. Funny as hell! Go to http://www.nbc.com and find SNL.
This whole post sounded like a spam. apologies…
November 4th, 2008 at 8:41 am
T – Thanks for the lesson I’ll certainly check it out.
Shanghai Ninja – Spam is unsolicited, unwelcome comments. Yours is VERY welcome and I’m definitely going to check all of those links out, so thanks.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:14 am
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