TVSquad

I'm not sure why anyone, at this point, hasn't seen the first episode of AMC's Mad Men yet (anyone who wants to see it, that is). The entire first season is up on iTunes, AMC reran the show after the first run, and the DVDs have been out for a couple of weeks now, so there have been a lot of different ways for newbies and fans alike to get caught up on the show if they're interested enough. And now there's another way: AMC has made the first episode available for free on its site.

If you become hooked on the show after watching this first episode (of course you will!), check out AMC on July 20. They're going to have a marathon of the entire first season starting at noon. The second season starts the following Sunday, July 27, on it's new night, Sunday at 10pm.

(After you watch chapter 1 after the jump, click here for chapters 2 and 3.)

There's a fantastic story in yesterday's New York Times Magazine about AMC's Mad Men. It's actually the cover story (you don't see many cover stories in the NYT Mag about a TV show) and is one of the best articles I've read about a TV show in a very long time.

Besides interviewing creator/producer/writer Matthew Weiner at length, writer Alex Witchel also sits in on auditioning sessions and script meetings for the second season, interviews advertising icons (George Lois, Jerry Della Femina, William Bernbach) about the show, and gets choice quotes from cast members such as Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, and January Jones. It's a beautifully written piece, really getting behind the scenes of the show, and includes this great paragraph to explain the show quite nicely.

American Movie Classics is really getting into original scripted programming, eh?

First the network brought us Mad Men and Breaking Bad, two of the most critically-acclaimed shows from last year, and now it has been announced that AMC has two more dramas in the works. The first one is Carter Beats The Devil, about a mysterious magician in the 1920s, and the other show is Ice, which is about the inside goings-on at a family owned diamond company in New York City.

I have no idea what Ice could be like (though with AMC's track record I'll definitely be watching), but I am familiar with Carter Beats The Devil. The show is based on a really intriguing novel from Glen David Gold, and Gold is going to work on the show as a consultant, so hopefully the series will have the same color and intelligence and mystery that the book had.

AMC has announced that the critically-acclaimed drama Mad Men will return for a second season on July 27, in its new Sunday at 10pm time slot. This moves it away from another hit cable show, Burn Notice, which is staying in its Thursday at 10 time slot, but puts it up against Lifetime's Army Wives (and, for the record, network shows like ABC's Brothers & Sisters)

I don't really see this as a bad thing. People record and watch shows at all different times now, and besides, a lot of hip cable shows have been successful on Sunday nights (The Sopranos, Deadwood, etc). AMC will also have a marathon of the first season's 13 episodes on July 20.

In other news, a soundtrack from the show will be released on June 22, and the first season DVDs will be in stores on July 1.

What do you think of the move?

[via TV Tattle]

It's interesting how some shows that come out on DVD are really bare affairs, with basic packaging and little or no extras. That's why it's great to see that the people behind the new Mad Men DVD (out July 1) have gone all out.

That's the DVD on the right, made to look like an old-fashioned cigarette lighter (if you haven't seen the show, it's set in 1960 and just about everyone smokes). You don't see many DVD packages, or any other packages for that matter, that actually celebrate the pastime of smoking (except, um, cigarette packages). But this one is even better than I could have ever imagined. It looks like a lighter when closed and it also opens like a lighter opens.

And did I mention there are a ton of extras?

AMC already has one critically acclaimed and Golden Globe nominated drama under its belt with the brilliant Mad Men. A second new series, Breaking Bad, hopes to follow that success, beginning in January. Malcolm in the Middle's Bryan Cranston stars as a high school chemistry teacher who turns to a life of crime in order to support his family after he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. If it's half as good as Mad Men it'll be twice as good as most of what's on TV.

But not content to wait around to see how Breaking Bad does critically and commercially, Variety reports that AMC has no less than four more shows in various stages of development, including two westerns. Westerns haven't been able to find success on the broadcast networks in years. Now by "Western" I'm talking the John Wayne/Clint Eastwood brand of Westerns with gunfights and saloon whores, not the likes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which did find an audience but was a very different kind of show.

(S01E13) "Who knows why people do what they do?" - Don

True story: About 20 years ago, I worked with a woman who was overweight. She wasn't feeling well one day - I think she had an upset stomach - so she left work and went to the doctor. She found out that she was 8 months pregnant. Not a month or two months, but about a month before the baby was due.

I thought of that tonight after watching the season finale of Mad Men. So many things answered and so many doors left open for a second season...

Notice I didn't put an exact date for when Monsterfest starts in the title. I'm not quite sure when it starts. The American Movie Classics site doesn't have an exact start date. If you click on Monsterfest Schedule it goes to October 21, and the first couple of movies are The Birds and Psycho, but then there are a few war movies and dramas, so I'm not sure if this is the "official" start of the Monsterfest but I'll take their own link as gospel.

(S01E12) "Fire him if you want. But I'd keep an eye on him. You never know how loyalty is born." Cooper, to Don, about Pete.

I don't think I'm giving anything away when I tell you that at the end of this episode, Kennedy wins. But it's not really about that anyway, despite the title. The first half of the ep is all about the election and the different pairings we see at the Sterling Cooper all night party - Harry and Hildy, Ken and a secretary, even Sal and Joan, though not in the way you might think - but the second half finally explains what the deep, dark secret is in the past of Don Draper.

And the secret is...

I'm so happy to see Mad Men getting the recognition it deserves. It doesn't get Grey's Anatomy numbers (it's on cable) and it hasn't spawned devoted web sites like Lost, but it's critically-acclaimed, loved by those in the know, and has been given a second season by American Movie Classics. And AMC has some treats in store for fans when the season finale airs on October 18.

I've been trying to get friends of mine to watch Mad Men, but not a lot of them take me up on it. Their responses run from "Oh, I don't need yet another TV show to watch" to "Huh? Mad Men? What's that?" It probably doesn't help that it's on American Movie Classics, a niche network that a lot of people don't even watch (if they even have it on their cable system), but I want to advise anyone who loves good period drama - and by period I don't mean the 1700s, with elaborate costumes, I'm talking 1960 New York City - or anyone who loves good drama, period, to watch this show. Overall, it's the most consistently well written and well-acted (and well cast) show on television right now, and the production design is intoxicating.

After the jump is a preview of tonight's episode, "Indian Summer." It summarizes many of the plots, including Rachel thinking of having an affair with Don, Pete (Vincent Kartheiser from Angel) being a jerk, Peggy's place in the office, and the Sterling Cooper team brainstorming an idea.

(UPDATE: The video is now the correct episode.)

(S01E10)

"Remember Don...when God closes a door, he opens a dress." - Roger Sterling

I'm having a real hard time trying to figure out if Roger Sterling is just misguided or an out and out sleazeball. He's married and has a daughter he desperately wants to understand, but at the same time he's having an affair with Joan and also tries to boff any cute girl that might come into the office. Or, in the case of tonight's episode, two girls that come into the office. Twins, to be exact, that he chose for a new ad campaign. He even asks them to kiss at each other at one point. Joan's going through that too, with her best friend Carol coming on to her as well, telling her she's been in love with her since college. All of the Mad Men episodes seem to have a theme, and tonight's seems to be "girl on girl action!"

Woo-hoo!

Variety is reporting that American Movie Classics is going to renew the critically-acclaimed 1960 advertising drama Mad Men for a second season. The show is currently nine episodes into its first season.

(S01E09)

"I didn't think you had it in you. And I mean that." - Roger, trying to "compliment" Pete on an ad campaign

Last week I told you that I thought that one of the themes of this show is freedom, and I think in the opening scene of this week's episode solidifies that a little bit more. It's a shot of the neighbors prized birds flying off from the coop, though they return when he has food in his hand. I get that feeling that all the characters are looking for that freedom, or at least a change. Betty wants to go back to modeling, Don might want a new job, and Pete wants Peggy. Maybe. Kinda.

This week's episode was also directed by Freak and Greeks creator/producer/writer Paul Feig, and that makes me perk up a bit. I'm curious to see what he does with a show like Mad Men.

(S01E06)

"It was interesting...like watching a dog trying to play the piano." - ad guy Fred, about Peggy's great lipstick ideas.

Someone sent me an e-mail after last week's episode, and the person said that they didn't like Mad Men because "nothing ever happens." I disagree with this statement strongly, but I know what they mean. Nothing ever happens in the sense that there aren't any cliffhangers before each commercial, there aren't any explosions or murders, and there isn't some incredible event that pushes the show in another direction for the next episode. But to say that "nothing every happens" as a general statement about each episode is proof, I think, that we've been conditioned to expect all shows to be the same, and if they have a different pace then it's "boring" or "nothing ever happens."

If Mad Men is boring, then all shows should be this boring.