Reason #1. Because they are MEN!

..... Here is the link and the rest of the article.....

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090713-ENTERTAIN-90713013

By Gina Carbone
gina_carbone@comcast.net
July 13, 2009 11:15 AM

1. "Mad Men" season 2 will be released on DVD/Blu-ray on Tuesday, July 14.

In addition to the many special features on the discs themselves, Maddicts will be treated to apropos ad campaigns promoting both the DVD release and the launch of season three on Sunday, Aug. 16 on AMC. (See below for more.)

Why should you care? Glad you asked…

2. "Mad Men" is the best show on television. Period.

It’s won three Golden Globe Awards and six Emmys. It was the first basic cable show to win the Emmy for best drama series.

The production design, the costumes, the music — the entire 1960s aesthetic of the show makes your eyes smile.

Even beneath the glossy veneer, it’s intelligent, mature, sophisticated, nuanced and a vital history lesson — especially for women. (More on that later.)

3. Season one was a nice shot of whisky, but season two is a weekend of martinis with Roger Sterling. So much more interesting and sooooo much more trouble.

This is the season where the mysterious past of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) starts to unravel and the silent seething of Betty Draper (January Jones) gets a little less silent.

(Favorite line summing up the Don Draper lies: "You’re garbage and you know it.")

Watch Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) smash the Sterling Cooper glass ceiling and Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) suffer the horrors of a controlling fiancé.

See Sal Romano (Bryan Batt) indulge his crush on budding writer Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton), much to the confusion of his wife. Fume at Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) and his treatment of poor Chauncey.

And don’t get me started on Pete and Trudy Campbell.

4. You can watch marathons of both seasons right from your favorite spot on the couch … for free.

To promote the premiere of season three on Aug. 16, AMC is launching a season two marathon, starting Monday, Aug. 10 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Also, as of June 10, season one of "Mad Men" has been available On Demand. Season two will also be available starting Monday, July 20.

Don’t have cable yet? I upgraded last year, just for "Mad Men." Take a test run — watch the pilot from season one, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" right now on amctv.com.

5. Special DVD features that really are special.

Downside of just watching all 13 episodes on AMC or On Demand? You miss all this from the season two DVD:

• Commentaries from the cast and crew.
• "Birth of an Independent Woman, Part 1 and Part 2" - a featurette which examines the rise of female independence in the Mad Men era.
• "An Era of Style"-- a featurette which explores the fashion of the 1960s and its lasting influence on designers today.
• "Time Capsule" - interactive featurettes paying homage to historical events of the '60s.

6. Since "Mad Men" is about advertising, it stands to reason the marketing for "Mad Men" will be creative.

To quote the July 9 New York Times article, "A Blitz That Has Don Draper Written All Over It," "The partners joining forces for the 'Mad Men’ marketing blitz include Banana Republic, Clorox, Vanity Fair and Variety. The efforts are more extensive than those a year ago, when Lionsgate released the first season on DVD and AMC was about to start season two on TV."

Among the promotions is Banana Republic’s Casting Call, featured on AMC’s "Mad Men" blog:"

"We're inviting fans to submit photos showcasing their best Mad Man or Mad Woman style with one grand prize winner scoring a walk-on role on the show. (Creator Matthew Weiner will pick the winner, who'll also receive a $1000 Banana Republic gift card.)

"To participate, visit any Banana Republic location in the United States or Canada from July 21 through August 11. Pick up a Banana Republic / Mad About Style Guide or Casting Call code card (free while supplies last) which you'll need to register your entry at madmencastingcall.amctv.com. Online instructions will then guide you as you upload and submit your photo directly to the site. Afterward, be sure to check out new submissions daily as registered members can vote for their favorites. Good luck!"

Elsewhere on the AMC blog, a reader wrote in with a clever marketing recommendation:

"While we're on the subject, what other marketers would you recommend to join the MM promotion bandwagon, and why? Let's steer clear of the obvious (alcohol, cigarettes, firearms, apparel, cosmetics, etc.) and get creative. How about a campaign for Trojans, with the slogan 'One Pete is enough.’"

7. "Mad Men" fans rock.

In case the "One Pete is enough" Trojans campaign isn’t illustration enough, drop by the AMC message boards now, and especially just after any "Mad Men" episode.

Fans are intelligent, insightful, witty, respectful, and know how to spell. This is not your kid’s "American Idol" message board.

Spend five minutes just reading the comments and you’ll ingest a dozen points you never would’ve considered from a group with almost alarming institutional knowledge of the show and its time period.

8."Mad Men" women rule. …or, they pave the way for women to rule.

Feminists, fight past your gag reflex from the pilot episode. As they say, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Last year, Seacoastonline’s Nancy Cicco wrote a sharp column about how "Mad Men" isn’t sexist, it's a wake-up call for modern women. True.

It’s not easy to hear a woman like Peggy Olson do the copywriters’ jobs for them, only to have one of the men marvel to the others, "It’s like watching a dog play the piano."

But it’s gratifying to see Peggy rise through the ranks of Sterling Cooper -- albeit in realistic way. We’re seeing how tough it was for a young, ambitious woman in 1960s Manhattan, complete with temptations and some very bad decisions. (*Cough Pete Cough*)

The women on "Mad Men" are truly the strength of the show.

Peggy comes off as the sweet innocent one and Joan Holloway is the vamp who is more Marilyn Monroe than Marilyn Monroe. But Peggy is the one who gets "in trouble" at the office and ends up something of a ball-buster in the workplace, while Joan ends up trapped in a troubled relationship and denied her own advancement in the fledgling TV department.

(It’s also refreshing to have a full-figured female body type represented -- albeit Christina Hendricks’ drop-dead gorgeous one.)

Then there’s Betty Draper, a meaty, layered, incredibly frustrating role if ever there was one and I can only hope January Jones gets an Emmy for breaking this cool Grace Kelly out of her emotional shell.

9. You need an anti-role model.

Parents, don’t let your kids grow up to be like … pretty much anyone in the Sterling Cooper office, with the possible exception of Peggy, but only when Pete isn’t charming the good sense out of her.

I found out recently my eldest brother loves "Mad Men," a fact that came to light when he expressed disgust with my own crush on Pete Campbell. (But really just Vincent Kartheiser. Really!)

Although he loves the show, he said there are no sympathetic characters. I started to argue otherwise, but … in truth … this is not a good group to emulate.

And I don’t mean drinking all day and not doing a lick of actual work. I mean pretty much everything they do when they stop just sitting around and drinking.

But perhaps that’s another reason to like the show. The characters are complex. Insecure, ambitious, confused, materialistic, emotional, cold, shallow, deep, witty, ignorant. Layered. Real.

I wrote Ken Cosgrove off after his first misogyny-heavy episode. But he’s grown as a character, showing a sensitive, caring side. (He was the good cop to Peggy’s bad cop on that Relaxicizer radio ad.)

Just a guess, but I think we’re going to see more positive character attributes emerge. The show started on the shallow side as we immersed ourselves in the look of this world and its characters. Season two delved a bit beneath the surface and I can only hope season three takes us for a good long swim.

10. A whole new world in season three.

Season one was set in 1960. Season two jumped ahead to 1962. Will season three jump further to 1964 — or beyond?

Matthew Weiner the show’s creator and executive producer, simply told Rolling Stone, this season "is about how people respond to a changing world."

Guess that means us, too. I can’t wait grab a bag of Utz potato chips and immerse myself in that world. Are you coming?

.....Actually, there are several really good articles today, including one on Ariana Huffington's blog about Mad Men and feminism, but I'm waiting to see which ones, if any, Lily or John will want to post.

.....If you re-watch the pilot episode, available on the AMC site, you might notice the evolution of "just a bunch of really talented actors acting their best" to a truly gifted ensemble cast who completely intuit their, and the others' characters.

It was very clear in that first episode that they were still feeling their way along with the characters, and finding their voices.

Some things were quite different - Peggy started out more stylish and fetching with bright lipstick and a not-unfashionable outfit. Her voice is less "Peggy" than it becomes not long after that, and the same goes for everyone else also.

"Pete" is more "cowboy bro'," and less "annoying rat," than he becomes soon after that.

Bryan, Vincent, Christina, everyone, really.....they were saying all the lines and doing it very well, but the dynamic was still a little nebulous, and their voices and delivery were slightly different.

Watching that evolution really illuminated for me the fine acting on display in this series.

What an amazing group, many of whom have paid a lot of dues along the way. They are very deserving of the attention they are getting right now.

As great as "almost alarming institutional knowledge of the show" is as a compliment, noticing that we can spell is quite wonderful as well!

.....Well, geez, we've all seen the epis like a hundred and fifty-seven thousand times.

I'd be more worried if we didn't have them fully analyzed by now!

The spelling comment made me laugh out loud.

I just hope that Mad Men doesn't become politically correct. Unfortunately, this seems to happen to a lot of great TV shows -- ER, for instance.

These shows start out great, with fearless and bold writing that makes for truly compelling television. Then they start hearing from all of the politically correct critics and the politically correct interest groups. The writers trim their sails and change the writing to accommodate the sensibilities of the politically correct. Sadly, this runis otherwise great television.

We see the seeds of this, unfortunately, for Mad Men. It's not sensitive enough women and gays, and it doesn't champion leftist causes, we're told. In fact, the show started out as a late '50s-era piece; but now its marketers are championing it as a '60s show.

It's only a mattter of time, I suppose, before Mad Ment starts championing all of the "rights" movements of the '60s. At that point I'll tune out, change the channel, and watch something else -- just as I did for ER. I'll watch something another show that tries to intelligently entertain viewers, without conforming to politically correct dogmas. We want to watch great television, not politically correct television that preaches to us how and what to think.

If you want to know why reality television is such a big hit, that's the reason: because television shows all too often cease to be reality-based when they become politically correct. Mad Men: don't follow that primrose path! Stay true to yourself!

Cool article, Dry...thanks for posting!

.....JohnDC.....It's going to be okay..... everyone is going to have their say.....

Be cool, mah bebes.....

I jist wan u to no thet I can spel n I am a woomin, to!

.....There you are.

.....Heer me rore.

Doolah!

Git in that box!

Rat now!

An' flower...jes' showin' off agin, ain't ya??

Hmmph.....

.....This is totally off-topic and might even go better on Greg's thread up there, but in a fit of insomnia, I happened to roll by Without a Trace, and there, in a technicolor close-up was Christina Hendricks.

Frankly, I'd never seen that show, but hung out because she had a major role in the episode.

Turns out it was a pretty weird and cheesy storyline - get this - about an agoraphobic journalist unable to leave her house for years, or to come to terms with her lesbian proclivities which are apparently connected (?).

They worked in a whole past-trauma adolescent event where she is trapped, completely alone, in the machinery at a bowling alley for 8 hours.

I told you - weird - but the point of this post is this one scene, where she pays Hiro Nakamura of Heroes $50 to DRAG her out of her apartment, so she can revisit the bowling alley of her trauma.

In the end, the FBI finds her laying down flat, behind the machinery, trying to cleanse herself of the memory and recover from her agoraphobia.

The scene I'm talking about is a Christina you've never seen before. She was pretty amazing.

He's dragging her out the door (and isn't really sure why), and she is screaming and truly disturbed. He wimps out a couple of times, she screams at him to drag her again, and so on.

Wow. The story was terrible, and I will never watch that show again, but she was really amazing.

Plus she looked and sounded nothing like "Joan."

The casting directors knew what they were doing when they rounded up this group - I'm guessing they are the cream of the crop in the acting world.

Oh, and for you Nasty Boys out there, Christina does, indeed, kiss a girl at the end of the episode.

Wow.

....@JohnDCArea...on July 14 8:03 PM...

I'm not familiar with "ER," but I agree with the gist of what you said. You make an excellent point. I would think Matthew Weiner is a true artist -- so will not succomb to PC. (I hope not, anyway).

Of course, even "artists" have their biases and POV's...and thus can't keep their works completely devoid of a "message." But in my opinion, the more subtle and "hidden" the message, the better. (This all assumes that I like the "message"... ha!)

Along the lines of your topic...I found it interesting how posters would absolutely go "mad" (regarding number of posts, degree of outrage, etc.) about points in various episodes....usually treatment of women, African-Americans...to name a couple of the "hottest" topics...and yet one chillingly offensive comment went virtually without a mention by posters. (I say "virtually," because I have seen a handful of comments, but nothing in volume to compare with sexist, racist issues)...

And that was the comment by Betty:

"You people are so ugly..."

Maybe by even bringing that up, I'm fostering what you and I both hate: the "mixing" of politically correct issues into entertainment. I just wanted to comment on it because I've never forgotten it, and have always wondered about the relative "silence" on that comment.

Maybe it was too offensive for people to even comment on -- kind of like the: "It's like watching a dog play a piano" comment ... which was so blatent, and yet, I've only seen it quoted once -- and that was in an on-line article, recently referenced (site address supplied) by DM.

I'll crawl back into my sand box now -- I fear I've ruined my attempt to endorse your comment by ranting on about the lack of ranting on a particular "issue."

Wow, Dry, wish I'd seen that epi of Without a Trace, which I've never seen either...that had CH in it...yes, there is NO doubt that MW has the cream (of the cream!) of the crop as far as his acting team...uh oh, now I'm getting anxious again for S3!

Ohhhhhh no! (presses lips tightly, shuts eyes, lays fingers across chest) ... "I'm feeling a little verklempt!....it will pass.....I'll give you a topic....'The off season of Mad Men was neither off nor a season......Discuss!"

Ah, that's better....it passed.

That Christina Hendricks.... her skin!...I just want to scoop it out with a melon scoop....she's like buttah....

Dry, that's the episode I saw on my lunch break the week I was on jury duty. I was sitting in a restaurant and looked up at a TV screen on the wall and there was Joan. I couldn't hear any of the dialogue, so I had no idea what the heck was happening. I think I even posted a comment about watching that show while I ate and trying to figure out what the heck was going on and why she seemed to be paying this guy to yank her over the door jamb of her apartment just to go eat pie. When you watch a show like that with the sound off, things can get really bizarre.

Heeeeere's that thread, z...hope that trial came out good (for somebody?) if you got picked, that is....

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/talk/2009/05/while-taking-a.php

You and Dry have got me ready to be on the watch for that episode...sounds too good to miss.

Wow, SCfan, I kinda rambled on, didn't I. It really was weird watching the middle of that episode with no sound and no clue what was going on and why. I do remember I did not want to return to the jury box.

.....z, I remember.....so that's what you were going on about. It was crazy, but she looked wonderful in her modern-day urban style clothing.

She's good, and that was my main point.

Why she feels she has to style her locks in that curly-cue style every time I don't get, but hey - I'm not her.

SCfan.....If you can, don't miss it.

Okay, who here has ordered a "Snuggie?"

'Fess up.

You can run, but you can't hide.

.....jackie.....(Laughing).....No need for the sandbox!

It's all good, and you are an integral part of this forum, so fear NOT, and fire away!

Dry is right, jackie...feel free...we like reading your posts, and you are a Maddict, too!

(when I lamely bring up The Box, it is a reference to Cool Hand Luke when they'd have to go to The Box for an attitude adjustment, along with two buckets...one with a lid...I always thought, if that didn't adjust your attitude and fix the "failure to communicate" nothing would!)

.....and I didn't mean YOU should go to The Box, jackie, not at all...it's just a lame attempt at humor, (usually between Dry and me)...one of my accomplices in crime....poor soul(s).....

heeee

SC, did you ever see the Saturday Night Live when Strother Martin (the guard from Cool Hand Luke) guest-hosted and they did the skit about French Camp? French Camp had a box, too: "Failure to communicate bilingually; spend a night in the box. Failure to conjugate the verb etre; spend a night in the box."

Strother Martin - now there was a great character actor. He'd be great on Mad Men. Can't you just see him as Elroy Whitfield come to blackmail his nephew Dick?

"The crops are doin' poorly this year, Dick, and the wife is too, and since you seem to be doin' so fine for yourself up here in the big city and all, I reckoned as how you might have a few dollars to share with your kinfolk."

Gosh, Dry, you always have such great information! Thanks for it all! Christina is so great! I'm sorry she didn't get nominated. It takes a while for someone playing the part of a sex symbol to be taken seriously. Because, just, walking around doing oohs and aahs doesn't get it. You really have to embody the character, and more! She really does it seamlessly and it's not easy. She makes it look easy as a good actor does. But, it's great everyone else got nominated...sorry for January Jones too. I can't believe she got snubbed too. She's had some difficult scenes and has pulled them off beautifully.
Well, so much for my 2 cents worth. I really just wanted to contribute to one of Dry's great blogs.

No, Mambo, I missed that one...but I will try to find it on hulu or YouTube...sounds hilarious.

Yes, z...ol' Strother would be great as a conniving old coot come to blackmail Dick! Wouldn't that have been fun? Also, remember him and his "chaw" in Butch Cassidy always talking about the "banditos Yanquees!" and pptttttt--ding! with that chaw juice...gross but funny!

Hidey Nora!

It is hilarious, SC, my husband and I quote it freqently. I'd love it if you could find the clip. And Strother Martin would be great in MM, wouldn't he? He could be Don's uncle and run into him when he was with Roger. I'd love to see Don squirm out of that one.

.....No! That sounds fabulously funn, and I'm sorry I didn't see that.

You guys are "sooooo smah!!"

Howdy, Norita.....Long time no writey. And I agree, watching her evolve into the Joan at the end of Season 2 was inspiring.

As far as contributing, you've been very quiet lately!

Get on the stick, Chick!!!

Yeah, Mambo...I looked and so far no luck (YouTube and hulu anyway)

That clip (of Strother's French Camp Box SNL skit)sounds along the lines of when Anthony Perkins hosted SNL and ran "The Norman Bates School of Motel Management" -- !

But, doubt any of even those old/classic SNL skits (that were almost always funny) could top JH's "Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women" ~~ I'd put it up against the classics!

I'll see if I can at least find the "banditos Yanquees"/tobaccy-spittin' clip somewhere....anyone? I was surprised at how few Strother M. clips YouTube and hulu had...lots on "SSSSSS" (a movie) but not much else....maybe I just overlooked them....

I feel awful!!!!....AMC has a lot of (new?) reference stuff now (probably always did) We should just use that for clips! SCfan! You traitor!

heee?

I just started watching MM recently. Can someone tell me who Dick Whitfield is and why he is now Don Draper? Thanks. BTW, my tongue hangs out every time I look at him- OMG! What a maaaannnn!!! LOL

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