Monday, February 6, 2023

Binging on the Seven Seasons of Mad Men TV Series

 

Mad Men was listed as one of the Top Ten TV series of all Time, I agree!

The last couple of weeks I have binging on a couple of old award winning TV series. The latest series I am currently watching is Mad Men. In case you are not familiar or has not seen this TV series, here's a summary from Wikipedia.

Mad Men received widespread critical acclaim for its writing, acting, directing, visual style and historical authenticity; it won many awards, including 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes. The show was also the first basic cable series to receive the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning the award each year of its first four seasons (2008–2011). It is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time and as part of the early 21st century Golden Age of Television.

Mad Men is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fictional time frame runs from March 1960 to November 1970.

Mad Men begins at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, and continues at the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (later named Sterling Cooper & Partners) near the Time-Life Building at 1271 Sixth Avenue. According to the pilot episode, the phrase "Mad men" was a slang term coined in the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to themselves, "Mad" being short for "Madison" (in reality, the only documented use of the phrase from that time may have been in the late-1950s writings of James Kelly, an advertising executive and writer).

The series's main character is the charismatic advertising executive Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm), who is initially the talented creative director at Sterling Cooper. He is erratic and mysterious but is widely regarded throughout the advertising world as a genius; some of the most famous advertisement campaigns in history are shown to be his creations. Later, Don becomes a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce but begins a struggle as his highly calculated identity falls into a period of decline. The plot of the show tracks the people in his personal and professional lives. As the series progresses, it depicts the changing moods and social mores of the United States throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. 

Personal Note: There were numerous memorable and iconic scenes in the epic novela depicting true historical events and social mores of the 60 and 70's. Two of the scenes depicted in the last 15 minutes of the Season 7 and the final episode that still lingers in my mind was the Esalen Experience and the TV coca cola commercial. The Esalen scenes and depiction reminds me of a closed and beloved relative. 

Here is the list of 10 other TV series similar to Mad Men. I have seen all of them except Fargo, The Wire and Peaky Blinder.

 https://www.cbr.com/best-shows-if-you-miss-mad-men/#fargo

 

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