It's crazy how good those first few seasons are and then how much even better it gets once they move. I can't think of another show that has something similar.
The Shield is the only similar show I can think of. It got better as it went along, always being good, but the last 3 seasons were unbelievable.
I dunno-- I just finished season 2 in my second time watching the series-- and i fucking love the beginning. It sets everything up. I love watching Don's marriage fall apart and cautiously pick itself up. So many good Betty scenes
The part where Don looks in the mirror and that harsh, ominous, bassy tone plays is something that gave me serious chills. I don't remember exactly when that happened, but I'm thinking season 2-3.
Mad Men definitely starts getting significantly better around the fourth season. That is true for a lot of great shows. The Sopranos is tonally off for the first two seasons, The Wire gets into another gear as more and more storylines develop, and the first season or two of Breaking Bad is borderline unwatchable. Someone mentioned The Shield, which is a perfect example of a good show becoming an extraordinary one in the second half.
Is that when he's shaving and Sally's in the bathroom with him, then he sees himself and gets disgusted, and tells her to leave?
That scene could have easily been executed poorly but instead it was absolutely chilling. I love this show so much.
Just finished season 2, and I like Duck Phillips as a character way more this time around. Interesting (but still a jerk). the look on his face when Don tells him in that merger meeting that he doesn't have a contract was LOL.
The whole reason Duck Phillips joins Sterling Cooper is because he was fired from the last agency for being an alcoholic.
This thread is making me want to do my rewatch. I got the blu-ray boxset for Christmas last year and haven't gotten around to a time when I wanted to spend 7 seasons with a single show again, but I should do that soon.
I'm so in love with that teacher Mrs Farrell (the one Don is going to run away with at the end of Season 3). I don't really have anything to say beyond that, thank you for your time...
You can bid on Don Draper's car (among a plethora of other things). I wish I had the money to blow on this sort of stuff.
On another note, does anyone else get some kind of different vibe when watching Mad Men as opposed to other dramas, regardless of their quality? It's hard for me to explain, but I get pulled in like a tractor beam and am transfixed the entire time. No other show pulls me in like Mad Men, no matter how many times I watch it.
Yup, and it took quite a few years for it to happen to me but when it finally clicks it clicks. It has it's own aesthetic and atmosphere about it, and very much feels like its a world of its own instead of just a good tv show. The Wire is the only other show I can think of that is so very much its own thing.
Just finished that episode where Sally takes the train into the city by herself to see Don then has that freakout at the end. Such a memorable episode IMO - the girl who plays Sally is such a good actress even at such a young age (she only gets better throughout the seasons). Also the dark humour when Miss Blankenship dies at the desk & they essentially cover her with a sheet is uncomfortably funny.
Was talking about this show the other day with a friend and it took me like 20 minutes to remember Betty's name. Probably time for that re-watch.