Mad
Men: The Final Season, Part One
(2014/Lionsgate Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B+ Episodes: B+
The
Final
Season
of the hit show Mad
Men
has been split into two seven episode segments (the remaining seven
episodes premiering in Spring 2015) and here is a great Blu-ray
release to whet our appetites. The first part of Season
7
begins in January 1969, several weeks after the Thanksgiving 1968
ending of Season
6,
and ends in July 1969, with characters dealing with the dynamics of
lives and offices being split between New York and Los Angeles.
The
hit show stars Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheise, January
Jones, Christina Hendricks, and more. If you haven't seen the show,
Mad
Men
is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper
advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at
the newly created firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (later Sterling
Cooper & Partners), located nearby in the Time-Life Building, at
1271 Sixth Avenue. Aside from being beautifully photographed and
acted, the show has historical authenticity, visual style, costume
design, writing, and directing and has won many awards since its
Season
One
premiere including 4 Primetime Emmys and three Golden Globes.
According
to the show's pilot, the phrase Mad Men was a slang term coined in
the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to
themselves, a claim that has since been refuted. The focal point of
the series is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), initially the talented creative
director at Sterling Cooper and later a founding partner at Sterling
Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life both in and out of
the office. The plot focuses on the business of the agencies as well
as the personal lives of the characters, regularly depicting the
changing moods and social mores of the United States across the
1960s, starting Season
1 in
March 1960 and moving through 1969 by Season
7.
Those covering the show on this site over the years have been
impressed with just how well the series has captured its period, as
well as what it has to say and show about it.
Seven
episodes in the set (with the season coined Part
1: The Beginning)
include:
Time
Zones
A
Day's Work
Field
Trip
The
Monolith
The
Runaways
The
Strategy
And
finally Waterloo
Sound
and Picture are incredible on this release with a 1080p high
definition transfer in 16 X 9 anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1), a
flawless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track and optional subtitles in English SDH
and Spanish. That lines up well with the exceptional quality of the
previous Blu-ray releases of the series, which have been top rate
since day one.
Extras
are lengthy and informative and include Gay
Rights, Gay Power, The Trial of the Chicago Eight: Parts One and Two,
The Best Things in Life Are Free,
and
Technology 1969.
If
you are a fan of the show, then this is a must own!
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv
