BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $49.98
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 611 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Great box for your shelf. The packaging looks like Don’s white shirt in a box!
- Original air dates: July 27–October 26, 2008
- You get a coupon! That’s right. There is some interesting viral marketing involving Clorox bleach and lipstick on the collar.
Mad Men Season 2 welcomes you to the year 1962. And I mean 1962 with the girdles off, crinolines pulled up, and the office doors flung open. What we think we know about the era–the clothes, the products, the music, the social protocol–and what was real–the affairs, the crappy parenting, the denial, and the longing for a fuller life than the propriety of the time allows, we realize is only the surface. Mad Men is about the bras and girdles the women wore, and who they let undress them. It’s the closest thing to a soap opera that I will ever watch. But it doesn’t even smell faintly of the melodrama that soap operas unfortunately offer. It’s far more nuanced and developed.
“Maybe they will notice me by the stench of my Kotex.”
When you’re watching this, you get to pull up your pillow and blanket to the fishbowl, lay on your tummy, and watch what these specimens of the 60’s do. We watch them as they are forced forward through time on waves of events that are now history to us. They drive the cars we envy and wear the fashion we love. You see them interact to modern art, grapple with new technology, and face the reality of the changing demographics of the workplace. We get to sit in the conference room with them at Sterling Cooper and become privy to some of the greatest monologues on television. All at once, what an airline advertising campaign meant to the people of the 60’s is profound.
The Gist:
This season opens with a now thin Peggy. The truth about what happens to her unwanted child is carefully unfolded throughout the season, in very small, yet shocking tidbits. Our love for Peggy becomes deep and bittersweet as we see her deal with a profound secret aging side by side with her growing corporate success. She also finds the most unlikely and beautiful mentor this season, filling a hole we’d always had with her character–a female not threatened by her, who cheers her on.
We find out that Joan, the red-headed bombshell is not as strong as she seems. She is involved in a compromising relationship although she has a huge ring on her finger now. We begin to feel near sympathy for the office bitch as her role as a fiancee to an abusive doctor compromises the strength we know she has.
“Where does the fabric softener go?”
Don’s marriage takes a turn for the worse and Betty kicks him out. This means we get to see Betty’s waxing and waning attempts at survival and keeping up appearances. This also means that all bets are off when it comes to Don and his penis, and we find it goes more places than we care to imagine. However, we find out more about Don’s past and what we come to realize almost numbs the shock of the numerous extra-marital affairs. The reveal about his past is one of the greatest treats Mad Men has to offer this season.
“So you pooped under this table. Right here…”
We finally see Betty Draper as less of a victim as her conniving, revengeful side comes out. She becomes a survivor. January Jones’ performance of Betty as she becomes increasingly bedraggled is notable.
The relationship between Peggy and her boss Don Draper becomes one of strong, quiet allies. It thankfully stays platonic, but is no less nuanced. I refuse to ruin it for you. It’s one of the best story lines of the season.
Pete Campbell grows increasingly unhappy in his marriage as his wife becomes obsessed with having a child. His character becomes so much more likeable in this season because we see him a bit trapped. He mouths off to her and we like him for it. He has a mind of his own and we respect him for it.
“Put a baby in my oven, or I’m going to SCREAM!”
Sterling Cooper, the ad agency becomes a character in and of itself, an aging beast that is forced to keep up with the times and risks being sold. The ad campaigns boiling in the conference room are still very much what this show is about. Don’s monologues represent an awareness of the times and a sensitivity for the direction the world was headed in. You’ll consider pushing the rewind button almost every time.
We also see the aspect of homosexuality dealt with for the first time. One minor character new to this season is openly gay. Another character is trapped, married, and longing for a streamlined life.
The Shortcomings:
Be warned: you will nearly hate Don Draper’s character by the end of this season. Between his numerous affairs, abandonment of his job, and a few episodes of remarkably crappy parenting, it gets really hard to find any empathy at all for him, even knowing his difficult personal history. Also, they tried to pack too much in the final episode. We are ill-prepared for Pete Campbell’s revelation to Peggy at the end of the show, and it nearly spoils everything you come to like about his developing persona. Thankfully, this show doesn’t have many parts that don’t work so well.
“My peep hurts from excessive extra-marital probing.”
The Spoilers:
You’re welcome! Season 2 of Madmen has gifted you with the following fantastic events…
Someone jacks off.
Someone pisses themselves.
A woman periods on the couch.
A celebrity gets punched in the face.
A kid gets drunk and passes out.
A father grabs his daughter’s titty.
A cooked turkey flies over the balcony.
A robot gets smashed.
Someone gets bailed out of jail.
Someone gets into a car accident.
Someone gets raped.
Someone claims to be a “homosexswuwal.”
“I’m sorry I got mad at you for cumming on my tits.”
The Extras:
They did not mess around with the extras. It’s as if the makers of this DVD set know that you must be in love with the 60’s. How can you not? It’s the beginning of feminism, the sexual revolution, and equal rights. It’s the opportunity to let us gasp at the evening dresses and to peek at their lingerie. It introduces us to the unique consumer products of the 60’s through their eyes. Basically, the producers of this DVD saw a huge opportunity for us to have our fetishes for 60’s nostalgia and our appreciation for the history further indulged… and they delivered. I’m impressed. I’m satisfied. And here’s a couple of kickers, at least for me: They didn’t dumb the material on the extras down and they didn’t tack on the documentary aspect. It’s all woven in wonderfully with footage from the episodes you just enjoyed, bridging that gap for you. Here’s what you get:
Birth of an Independent Woman, Part 1 and Part 2: You get a crash course on feminism! They owed us this, and they delivered. It would have been a crime to make a show set in this decade and not have a comment about its place in the history of feminism. Even the layman can enjoy Mad Men with his or her minimal knowledge of the 60’s and enjoy the show as it is, and yet they offer us additional historical perspective, weaving great old footage from the actual 60’s with carefully chosen footage from Mad Men episodes from both seasons. They cover contraception, abortion, sex lives of single females, fashion, changing roles in family and work dynamics, and how assertive women became a threat in the workplace during what we’ve always perceived as a demure era. Don’t worry–they laid off the propaganda. It’s entertaining and yet not dumbed down.
“An Era of Style”: For those that love and appreciate fashion from the sixties, this focus on the fashion style of the decade is for you. Again, it’s woven in with stills and footage from actual Mad Men episodes. They explain how it represents the identity politics of the era. It’s smart. It’s a blast from the past. It’s deliciously nostalgic. This is worth the watch.
In all seriousness… this is typical of how beautifully this show is shot.
“Time Capsule” –Historical Events of the 1960s: What they don’t beat you over the head with during the episodes is that each one carefully touches on some piece of history or prominent historical site from the 60’s and weaves it into the story. It’s not didactic, though. They leave that for the extras. Almost every episode has its corresponding five to ten minute documentary in this “time capsule” treat they made for you. With the exception of a couple of awkwardly included cooking shows and restaurant features, these serve to flesh out the history of the episodes of Mad Men that you already enjoyed. Some of the treats include documentary information on Maidenform bras, Jackie Kennedy’s tour of the White House, The Defenders, the Port Huron Statement, Rothko’s Art, Marilyn Monroe, the Freedom Riders, the Space Race, Hot Rods, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the film history of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and how it reflects the sentiment of the times. Let’s not forget that these time capsule tidbits include actual footage from episodes of Mad Men. This part of the extras is not tacked on as an afterthought for potential history buffs, but carefully weave the story lines of Mad Men into actual history for us. This “Time Capsule” is some of the best few minutes you spend on any of these DVD’s. They don’t mess around.
Sterling Cooper secretaries come manicured on the outside and char-grilled on the inside.
The commentary tracks:
You’re not missing much if you skip any of the commentary tracks that include January Jones, who plays Betty Draper. For someone so close to the material, she offers no intelligent insight as to how her character at times both embodied and bucked against the era in which she lived. She offers tidbits about how hot it was when they were shooting and what it was like to act with the kids (boring). She contributed nothing more than a few giggles and the ability to laugh at her own character, and I wasn’t impressed. It’s a lost opportunity and a damn shame.
Bonuses on the commentary tracks are Matthew Weiner and John Hamm. John Hamm is great enough to offer both an actor’s perspective about the show as well as some profound insight into his character.
Impressive are the commentaries by Scott Hornbacher, Dan Bishop, and Amy Wells. They’re the co-executive producer, production designer, and set decorator, respectively. They’re not artsy-fartsy. They’re down to earth. I was going to watch a couple of minutes of their commentary and couldn’t pause it. They had too much to offer. They’re commentary really serves to flesh out the Mad Men experience, and they’re pleasantly entertaining and educational without the obnoxious, self-aggrandizing banter you often find in commentaries.