Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The revolutionary decade, from the viewpoint of the establishment.
Comment: Who doesn't love a good period drama? I'm certainly not such a person, so upon hearing the idea of a cable series set on the Madison Avenue advertising scene as the nation stood on the cusp of the 1960s had enormous appeal. Especially interesting is the HBO-style (indeed, this was originally pitched as an HBO series, and shot down; I'm grateful, if only because the DVD prices would be that much more severe) unvarnished presentation of the era. Moralists who romanticize this period as a haven of old-fashioned morality will be disappointed when confronted by the truth (or something like it) about contemporary attitudes.
Our main character is Don Draper (Jon Hamm, in a marvelous performance; it is surprising that he doesn't do more period work, because he's absolutely perfect for the look of the 1950s), the creative director at Sterling Cooper, a moderate-sized ad agency run by Roger Sterling (John Slattery, best known to me from "Jack & Bobby") and Bertram Cooper (Robert Morse). He and his team, most notably newcoming Peter Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser, Angel's son Connor on "Angel"), are charged with marketing such illustrious products as cigarettes (and helping the company duck restrictions imposed by federal health agencies). Don is something of a mystery both at work and at home, where his wife Betty (January Jones, in a revelatory performance; I'd previously never thought of her as anything other than a pretty face) is living a life of quiet desperation. Through Don we see the life of a successful male executive; he's got a beautiful wife, more than one mistress on the side (proto-hippy Midge, then department store executive Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), the only woman in the show not occupying a menial position, and she owes that to her father), and is friends with his boss Roger. Below him, Campbell and his cohorts battle for favour and advancement.
Standout performances come from Hamm in the title role, Christina Hendricks as Joan, a secretary well-versed in using her sexuality to get what she wants (she'd be running the place if she lived 40 years later), and Elisabeth Moss as Peggy, a newby secretary with professional ambitions that are well beyond what is expected of women in that era, althoug timid Peggy doesn't seem the type to overtly identify with the feminist movement.
The DVD packaging has been a point of some contention here (see many of the 1-star reviews). The original lighter-shaped box is a nifty design, though you do indeed have to watch while you close it (although the explanatory booklet in the back seems an effective shield on my set).
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Takes a long time to "get into it"
Comment: I had very high hopes for Mad Men given the wildly positive reviews given in the press. I'm in advertising so the subject matter is interesting to me -- but this series is a tough sell.
I was bored beyond belief for the first two episodes, and had to force my way through the first disc. It was dull, plodding, and dreary. The show goes out of its way to show a 'slice of life' from roughly 1960, and sometimes in doing that they lose the momentum of the show.
It's difficult to like any of the characters so there isn't a lot of emotion to the story. The series doesn't really pick up until late in disc 2 when you see all the subplots start to intertwine. By the end of disc four you're interested in what happens, but frankly I wouldn't be disappointed if I never saw another episode.
The acting, set and costume design are all well done -- it just doesn't move fast enough.
There have been some complaints about the case but I have no problem with it. Closing it can be a little annoying when the discs don't line up with the slots correctly, but it's fine.
I like the Play All menu selection so you can watch all the episodes on a disc back-to-back. I'm glad to see they include that when so many other sets do not.
I really wanted to like this series more than I do. But I'm left with an "eh, I can take it or leave it" attitude.
