Mad Men – Season 2 (Lionsgate Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: B+/B- Extras: A- Episodes: B+
As one of
the BEST series on television today Mad
Men stands out as both creative and engaging. Season
One (reviewed elsewhere on this site) of the series kicked it all off, but Season Two truly takes it to the next
level. The series is well paced and
contains performances that are to die for.
It is truly maddening how good this series is. The story of Mad Men is held together with beautifully strung lies. These are lies from a time where behind each
smile was a world of torment and a time when nobody spun that web of lies
better than the advertising industry.
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) amazingly sells each lie that comes out of his
mouth. In Season 1 we were introduced to a man with such undying confidence
that it would make you think he didn’t have a care in the world; oh, how wrong
we were. In Season 2 Draper’s professional and personal life continues to be
one that perpetuates the lies that got him where he is today; now whether that
is good or bad is the question. After
some wear and tear that his lies had on his soul in Season 1, Draper seemed to be a changed man, but that was only the
tip of the iceberg. Set in the 1960’s,
the world of Mad Men is a place
where the once well reserved and decorous happenings of daily life have evolved
into a twisted tale of internal and societal turmoil that is busting at the
seams as the future approaches.
Mad Men: Season 2 picks up more than year after the
end of the Season 1 on Valentines
Day 1962. For those who have been
following the series, Season One ended
with Don (John Hamm) about to expose to his wife Betty (January Jones) all of
his infidelities, lies, and wrong doings; and for those who don’t know, Don’s
life is one big sham that he has kept painstakingly secret for many years. Don is not his old self anymore. Somehow Don has lost his spark (basically his
lying ways were his confidence and edge) and now is a submissive husband, a
pipsqueak in society, and unable to assert himself or create order at Sterling
Cooper. Advertisers are looking to tap
America’s youth market and continually demand younger and younger copyrights;
in the end essentially strong arming the older, established staff to take the
backburner to the brash, inexperienced that is stepping into the office.
Many of
the characters come into their own this season as Don has seemed to have lost
himself. Betty is a stronger woman now
that she realizes the power of her sexuality; Pete is confident in office even
when internally he struggles as his personal life remains tattered and torn;
Duck becomes highly developed as he has many life changing choices to make as a
recovering alcoholic, stern businessman, and a man searching for a happiness he
knows nothing about.
Each
episode is highly dependent on the last to completely understand what is
occurring. If you missed Season 1 do not just jump into Season 2; you will certainly miss the
complexity that the series has to offer.
Season 2 expands upon the
lies and deceit of Season 1 and
firmly established that the sex, lie and everything in between were never for
pleasure, but rather for power. Mad Men is one huge power struggle and
each character affects each other whether they know it or not. The stories are extremely insightful,
gripping, deep, engaging, and will always leave you wanting more. The acting is of a pristine caliber and the
set designs are to die for. Down to the
last gin and tonic the series screams the 60’s as if you were there; and even
though it may take the decade to extremes, it is a fun and captivating series
throughout.
The
technical features on Mad Men: Season
Two are outstanding as they vividly recapture the series’ 1960’s backdrop
and project the series as it has never been seen before. After viewing the gritty, color washed
episodes that are broadcast on television weekly, the Blu-ray was a more than
pleasant surprise. The video on the
Blu-ray release of Mad Men: Season 2 is
presented in a depth filled AVC-encoded 1080p High Definition that has
wonderful textures, bright colors, dark blacks, and is an overall well
displayed feature. The video has a very
cinematic feel and is pleasing to the eye, even with the occasional snag here
or there concerning the frame rate and such.
The sound is a 24-bit Six-Channel DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track
that projects wonderfully even as most of the dialogue driven series comes from
the front. Each word and whisper is
crisp, clean, and clear from the front as the entirety of the sound spectrum is
utilized for the series’ musical scores.
As if the brilliantly written scripts weren’t enough the music of the
series truly gives the audience a sense of time and place; making the series a
home run. Just as each character has
more beneath the surface the sound offers up a nice batch of ambient noises as
one thing is going on in front you; behind you there is music, others
chattering, phones ringing, and traffic whizzing by to create a solid
viewing/listening experience.
The DVD
does not project the same quality (obviously) as the Blu-ray, but it is still
nice. The Widescreen image is crisp and
clean, with colors/blacks that don’t compare to the Blu-ray as it has a fair
bit less depth. The sound is a simple
Dolby Digital Surround Track that does not offer the range of the DTS-HD 5.1
mix as ambient noises are lost and the music is a tad flatter.
The
extras on Mad Men: Season 2 are
first rate for sure as they offer a good mix of solid bonus feature that you
will find no where else. With almost 40 hours
of extra content and over two dozen audio commentaries Mad Men: Season 2’s extras are something to be reckoned with as
this reviewer hardly ever sees this quantity as well as quality put into a
single season of television. The extras
are as follows:
Each
episode has a total of two audio commentaries; so with 13 episodes this season
that adds up to 26 very individualized commentary tracks.
- For Those Who Think Young
- Commentary 1: Matt Weiner (creator)
- Commentary 2: John Hamm and January Jones
- Flight 1
- Matt Weiner and John Hamm
- Lisa Albert (writer) and Vincent Kartheiser
- The Benefactor
- Matt Weiner
- Lesli Linka Glatter (director), Melinda McGraw, and
Rich Sommer
- Three Sundays
- Matt Weiner and Maria/Andre Jacquemetton (writers)
- Elisabeth Moss and Colin Hanks
- The New Girl
- Jennifer Getzinger (director) and Robin Veith
(writer)
- John Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, and Melinda McGraw
- Maidenform
- Matt Weiner and Janie Bryant (costume designer)
- Phil Abraham (director) and Mark Moses
- The Gold Violin
- Matt Weiner and January Jones
- Bob Lebinson (advertising consultant) and Bryan Batt
- A Night to Remember
- Matt Weiner and Robin Veith (writer)
- Lesli Linka Glatter and January Jones
- Six Month Leave
- Matt Weiner Michael Uppendahl (director)
- John Slattery and Joel Murray
- The Inheritance
- Matt Weiner and Lisa Albert
- John Hamm, January Jones, and Vincent Katheiser
- The Jet Set
- Matt Weiner, Phil Abraham, David Carbonara
(composer)
- Scott Hornbacher (executive producer), Dan Bishop
(production designer), and Amy Wells (set decorator)
- The Mountain King
- Matt Weiner, Blake McCormick (post-production
supervisor) and Jason George (sound effects supervisor)
- Christina Hendricks and Robert Morse
- Mediations in an Emergency
- Matt Weiner and Elisabeth Moss
- Karter Gordon (writing assistant), Elisabeth Moss
and Vincent Katheiser
Woo! That
was a lot to type! I wasn’t trying to be obnoxious, but rather I was attempting
to emphasize the time, depth, and variety of people who went into the creation
of these well executed audio commentaries.
Whereas they are not the best commentaries ever (especially with a
considerable amount of dead air from the actors), they are at least there and
the few brief moments of insight do shine through. As far as Matt Weiner and others involved in
the production process (as opposed to the actors), from beginning to end they
are interesting and give much insight into the series’ construction and
creative processes.
Other
extras are equally impressive as they include:
An Era of style – a featurette that lasts about
22 minutes and discusses the transition in fashions from 1960-1963; a once
flannel suit stuck gentlemen class with the ladies in very proper feminine
attire soon evolved with outside influences (British) into a much freer,
rebellious group. The fashions of that
era foreshadowing a forthcoming Hippie Revolution.
Birth of an Independent Women - If it wasn’t obvious enough in Season 1, the disparity between the two
gender classes was astronomical and how as the years passed after WWII that
women were no longer content being “little miss housewife.” Just as fashion and everything else was
changing, so were women’s mentalities about their place in the world. The featurette parallels the Civil Rights
Movement with the Second Feminist Movement as well as an array of other
historic events such as the advent of Oral Contraceptive Pill and the demand
for greater recognition in the workplace.
It was obvious that something big was about to hit; it was just a
question of when.
Time Capsule – The featurette explores the
year 1962 in great depth as it harbors over 30 topics in all that made up this
13 episode Season’s backdrop. The
lengthy featurette discusses how historical, landmark events were used to
structure the series and a great deal of time and effort were placed into
making this featurette. There is a even
a list available of popular music, TV series, soap operas, films, books, plays,
and much more from the year 1962. This is
NOT something to skip over.
Mad Men Soundtrack Music Samples – 30 second clips of the
brilliant music that gave the series presence and solidity with acts such as
The Decemberists, Perry Como, and Ed Henry making appearances on the
soundtrack.
The
extras are astonishingly well done and not something to be missed. A great deal of time, effort, and creativity
went into making this set and it delivers exactly what fans want across the
board. No one will be disappointed here.
This is
an amazing series that will only get better with time. Each episode leaves the viewer salivating for
more. With such intense storylines and
great acting Mad Men stands alone as
one of the best series son television today.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
