Mad Men 1x01 Reaction
Comments (91)
Watching along with yall, this is my first watch too
Pete’s real life wife is the girl from Gilmore Girls
Ex-wife
I'm fascinated to see which character becomes their fav, like Carmela, it seems Joan is the current favorite.
I have a guess but I feel like it might be weirdly spoilery to say it out loud cause it implies a lot about their character arc.
I forget how well drawn the ensemble cast is, and how many careers got launched by this show. The writing is really world class and the show itself a wonderful time capsule. You're going to have a blast!
man i remember watching the series finale premiere back in high school so it’s gonna be nostalgic revisiting the show and all the characters. it’s been 10 years so i dont remember too much outside of peggy being my fav character
Girls, if there's anything about Mad Men, is that it's just as subtextual as it's textual. As expected, loved your post-discussion/analysis and ecstatic to be on this journey!
I think it's been over a decade since I've watched Mad Men so everything is familiar but fresh at the same time, fun to watch along. I will say I don't remember the Salvatore dialogue being THIS overt lol. It's straight out of a comedy sketch, it's giving Holt from Brooklyn 99 undercover as a straight man. "You know me, I see a pair of thick weighty breasts, and all logic flies out the window!"
The pilot has probably the least subtle writing of the entire run. They started figuring out the characters a little better after this.
Does anyone know if they are planning to watch Andor at some point?
They've said multiple times they'll watch it. It's technically a 'short show' and would fit in the short slow slot, which is currently occupied by The Last Of Us. So it depends if they want to watch Andor or The Bear S4 (all 10 episodes dropping June 25th) after TLOU S2 (they've actually already watched the whole season of TLOU already).
Feels a bit surreal seeing the thumbnail. I love The Sopranos with all my heart, but plenty of channels react to it. Mad Men I think there are literally two others that have done it. I’m so excited. I remember some time during The Wire run making a very long comment about how you should pick this over The Sopranos because I was afraid you guys would hate every character and it would become a chore to get through lol. Seems silly now considering how well it went, but I’ll just reiterate that there is no show I can think of that suits LM better than Mad Men. I cannot imagine you two not loving it. Have fun.
which 2 channels are you thinking of? I watched the Joe and Kevin one last year and it was enjoyable (but lacking in the way almost all channels are).
Little trivia: the picture Pete holds up of his wife Trudy (who had not been cast yet) is actually a picture of the creator Matthew Weiner's mom.
Matthew Weiner, the creator of the show, wrote and directed on seasons 5 and 6 of the Sopranos. Mad Men started immediately after The Sopranos ended. You’ll see where he’s coming from. But you guys are in for a hell of a ride.
I always thought this was a very accurate way to compare the sopranos and mad men: The sopranos always talked about and mourned about what happened to the Garry cooper types then mad men shows you what happened to them.
That's fun, I love that. I just checked and Tony Soprano was born on August 22, 1959 👀
It's hard to pick up on on first watch when you're just being introduced to Don, but I just love the scene when Rachel completely reads and disarms him by correctly pointing out his feeling of being out of place. It's such a significant scene when it comes to setting the stage for who Don is as a character.
reads him to filth and then also has a personal development re: understanding how men are also victimized by patriarchy, queen!
Also having your main character say that love doesn't exist and then later reveal him going home to his wife and kids is a wonderful way to introduce us to him. It really sets the tone for his character and his home life.
I'm not gonna watch the entire video but in case you don't know. The creator of Mad Men is one of the writers on Sopranos.
I always love the second-to-last shot of the episode, where we see Don crouched over his children while his wife watches from the doorway. Some say it's over-the-top, but I think it's the PERFECT episode closer for a show about advertising: That is the very essence of Americana, what every TV show and magazine has been selling since the '50s. The strong family patriarch home from work, the caring wife & mother behind him having kept watch over the house during the day, and the two kids asleep in their luxurious bedroom. This is the lie that Don Draper has made a fortune convincing other people to believe. A subtle example of the antisemitism and cultural blindness of the Sterling Cooper company (On top of the OVERT antisemitism we see) is that they serve shrimp cocktails during the meeting with Rachel Menken. All shellfish is forbidden under Jewish dietary laws, and this is one of the more well-known rules (I would say only the "no pork" rule is more well known). They're eager to impress their new client, going so far as to pull a random Jewish employee out of the mailroom to use as a prop, and they don't even realize that they're serving food the client can't eat (and would be offended to be offered). In one of those "the bar's on the floor but at least he didn't trip over it" situations, I appreciate that Don didn't consider accepting Peggy's flirtation even for a second. His expression changes instantly and he removes her hand from his as soon as he realizes what's going on. He may be a philanderer and cad, but he didn't even consider taking advantage of her for a moment.
i've watched the show over a dozen times and thanks to your comment this is the first time im realizing they served shellfish to a Jewish client. Every time I learn something new, not even being ironic
Let's goooo!!!! Thanks for the shoutout 😭🥰 I may have been the earliest champion but it was a team effort! we went from 15% to 38% vote share in a year... praise Tony Soprano and the gababool enjoyers 🙏 I'll say this up top: 9/12 of all the Mad Men writers are women. For 2007 this was unheard of. I love all the amazing shows written by (mostly) men but I think you can feel something here, even as early as S1. The TV Time spoiler was in fact that Don has a wife and kids. It's a great "twist", I'm glad Milena could experience it unspoiled. I agree with Milena that this is a great PILOT, it manages to effectively set up an entire era, an industry, an office, a bunch of characters and their culture + dynamics perfectly all in 45 mins??? crazy that shows these days need 1h10m to barely set up 8 episodes of stakes 💀 100% agree with Lola that the sexism while overt is vital to setting the scene. Before watching Mad Men I knew nothing about the 1960s, American History or advertising. IMO the show does a great job at teaching you how to watch it. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't randomly stumbled on Mad Men while channel surfing as a teenager, just like Lola did lol. For fans the first episode I saw was S2E11 'The Jet Set' which is an INSANE first ep, if you know you know 😅 I'm soooo excited to start this journey! I'm glad you liked it! The show is about a lot of things and I'm excited to yap about them all but its absolutely about gender roles, contextual "queerness", capitalism, cultural upheaval and what it means to perform in society. Lets gooooooo
If only Lola hadn't already seen The Leftovers...what could've been.
"This is the greatest advertising opportunity since the invention of cereal." Objectively speaking (if there is such a thing), The Wire is probably "better" show than Mad Men. The Sopranos is certainly more important to TV history. But this is easily my favourite. It's gorgeously shot, from the first frame. The writing is thematic, mysterious, heartbreaking, thrilling, and *damn* hilarious -- whatever gear it needs, this show has it. The production design is perfect. The music is incredible. The costumes are best-in-class. And never in TV history has there been such a kaleidoscopic cast of vivid, perfectly-performed characters. Jon Hamm & Elizabeth Moss are geniuses from the jump, and there is so much still to come. January Jones only has one scene in the pilot! So thrilled that they're checking this out. It's a crime how few Mad Men reactions are out there in the wild. It's going to be joy to share this series with everyone.
I'm so compromised I can't even fairly compare it to other shows, I think it's the best show ever made lmfaoooo. I was excited just rewatching the pilot for the ~15th time 💀
Mad Men was always on my watchlist for years and years but I never got around to it. When I saw that it won, it felt like the perfect opportunity to start watching so that I can watch and discuss it with you ladies and everyone in the comments. I finished the first 2 seasons of the show already and it's really funny because the show is very entertaining and good but I really dislike almost every character, lol, and I don't think I have ever started a show and disliked every character this fast, hell even with The Sopranos it took like 3 seasons for me to start to hate everyone, this show took like 3 episodes, lol. But while I don't particularly like any character, I do like the story so I can't wait to continue and get you ladies's thoughts on the show/characters.
All I'll say is I think the show is fundamentally different from the Sopranos with regards to textual character evolution and I don't think you'll hate everyone forever 💖
The spoils of victory feel as satisfying as a toasted Lucky Strike.
Other people's reactions are poison. LM's is Toasted.
Btw, the "It's toasted" was the real slogan used by Lucky Strike, and it was quite effective. Difference it's that in real life it was created in 1917 instead of 1960.
Gilmore Girls counts for the teen classics, Lola!
I used to pray for times like this.🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Historical context (spoiler free) - The series starts in the spring of 1960 so the war in which Don received the Purple Heart was the Korean war (1950 - 1953). - While the US had a minor presence in Vietnam in the late 50's (there were only 900 'advisors' there at the start of 1960), in March of 60 the US upped that number to 3.5k. - There were 17 African nations that gained independence from European countries in 1960 (13 of them from France) - The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was signed in May of 1960 - The Cold War is in full swing; the Soviets shot down a US spy plane over the USSR in May (U2 incident); the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite which more or less kickstarted the space race; the CIA plan to invade Cuba was set in motion (Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961) - Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959 - In 1960 the US population was 181 million, Russia was 121 million (in 2023 it was 340 US and 144m Russia)
Just to add for context, WW2 took place between 1939 and 1945. So WW2 ended 15 years before the episode and 5 years before the Korean war.
LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO! You’re ok, girls.
- Cinematography stood out to me the most. The analog aesthetic is gorgeous, as is the backlighting. It made me want to rewatch the episode in black and white I was so impressed. The coloir palette itself is vibrant without feeling like pastiche or lole an 'advertisement' unto itself. - I'd heard vague whispers of Mad Men having things to say about gender, so I was taken aback by how overt it is as not only as essential characterisation and character development. I'd literally spent all day today arguing with strangers on Facebook that gender is a social construct, I should habe just showed them mad men. My non-binary ass is gonna love this shit for discussions. - More on the show itself and it's portrayal of gender, for a show that isn't necessarily off beat or quirky in tone, it was impressive with how it subverted Don Draper as a nuanced character. They did a good job of having the other gross men act as a foil, but then pushed it one step further by showing his defensiveness when called out for his nihilist peacocking, and then once more when he's revealed to be cheating on his wife. This feels like an actual contemporary to Walter White, a weak and pathetic man who has so much strength and earnestness in other parts of him that I can't look away from him. - Likewise with our introduction of the Peggy. It's clear that the writers wanted to get the Audience Surrogate and Witness Character archetypes out of the way asap to give the character more characterisation and something to hook us. By the end of the episode I was invested in Peggy and actively wanted to see more of her, which says a lot as to the writing that a secondary-protagonist who had to serve the aforementioned expostional function was able to do. - I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here about the merits of how this show will handle its portrayal of patriarchy, and how internalised/externalised misogyny will affect all characters. I've heard so much praise for this show from people I trust that I know I'm not just projecting an optimistic take on the heels of literally one episode. Assuming the writing stays this consistent for 7 seasons, then I can already assert that this is going to be a triumph for representation of gender critique in line with something like American Psycho or Fight Club, and isn't going to indulgence masquerading as satire like The Wolf Of Wall Street. Jesus fucking christ The Wolf Of Wall Street is legitimately one of the worst films ever made relative to the high standard of the director who made it. Anyways, I'm gonna go to sleep as it's 2.30am here, I'll watch the girls when I wake.
9/12 of all the Mad Men writers are women. I didn't even know that until recently but somehow it seems obvious in retrospect. This only becomes clearer as the seasons progress. The show is beautifully shot and it only improves. It's not 'showy' like late season BB and BCS. It's not intentionally perfunctory like Sopranos or Wire. The lighting + blocking is like a stage play sometimes. It makes me yearn for a time where shows weren't afraid to cut to a well-blocked wide, feels like every modern show shoots mid/close coverage and makes the underpaid editors figure it out... Big agree on Don - in this pilot he is 'progressive' (FOR 1960!!), he admonishes Pete for casual sexism, he shuts down the racist bar manager to have a conversation with a Black worker (for market research sure but still), he expresses a very unorthodox worldview to Rachel Mencken in the restaurant. Yet still he's a 1960 man, he's cheating on a wife, he storms out of a meeting because a woman expressed a viewpoint. He's our central protagonist for a reason. I would never frame Mad Men as a Queer show, but it's absolutely a "queer" show and I think you're already picking up on some of those themes. there's an NB/trans reading of the show and its not even that deep....
dang i was really excited for the next monster episode lol. it’s alright it should be coming soon. i’m happy for all the mad men fans though
OMG LET'S GO!!
I feel like I’m going to need to drink watching the show
not my 17yo ass watching this show, smoking Marlboro Reds and forcing myself to enjoy Rye old fashioneds..... i still drink old fashioneds 💀
The show is so much better than this pilot, even. So excited for you girls to watch this.
I honestly think it gets better every season... Until S5, which imo is the best season of television ever made. Seasons six and seven(s) -- oh god, another split final season situation -- are magnificent, obviously, but you just can't top season 5.
And so it begins
Bryan Cranston literally cited Mad Men as a reason to take the Breaking Bad script seriously as they would both be on the same network.
that actually makes so much sense. I said this in the poll thread but AMC was a joke channel before Mad Men and Breaking Bad. They aired Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead all at the same time. Imagine that - going from a literal joke channel that aired cheap old movies with adverts crammed in to having 3 of the most talked about shows and proving that networks other than HBO could make banger TV...
I laughed how quickly you guys caught on to Sal lol
I love this episode but there are definitely a few spots lacking Mad Men's usual subtle touch. Pete ogling Peggy in Don's office is another one.
So happy they're watching this. I love this show, easily one of my personal favourites, very few shows come close. Often I watch along with them so it's nice that they've picked a show I watched at the time as well as rewatch and appreciate in new ways. I love that Lola immediately clocked Sal's over the top 'I love sexy women' comments lol. The first episode does lay things on thick, but that helps set the scene. Looking forward to the next one!
Ladies, the show starts in 1960. And the war Don served in was the Korean War which happened 1950-1953.
Or maybe let them discover this for themselves as they inevitably will.
The Breaking Bad pilot was made for HBO. It had boobs in it. HBO turned it down, AMC picked it up on regular TV, and no more nudity for Breaking Bad.
I always remember seeing ads for this show on AMC back in highschool and never knew what it was about. I’m looking forward to watching with you guys
Wow. LM just absolutely nailed their first review of MM. Just spot on. I am so freaking excited hooly.
Couldn’t help smiling when Milena said the characters were all on one side. Cue Judy Collins…
I keep waving and smiling at the characters 'Hi Joan!' 'Hi Don!' 'Hi Peggy!'. I just love them all
And they're all babies in this episode! I think Mad Men probably has the biggest, most vibrant cast of characters of any show in history. Like, a standout character here is Sal. Sal! Ken has 5(?) seconds of screentime. Cooper is totally MIA. And there are *so* many incredible characters still to come in later seasons. What a show.
Have you ladies watched Dexter? If not I think you'd enjoy it, I hope you add it to a future poll.
+1 for Dexter
Shout out to kara
💖💖💖
I hope the version I have will sync up with theirs..
My local copy synced fine, there doesn't seem to be a framerate issue like with Sopranos.
Damn. I haven’t even watched yet but I’m so so so so so happy. Thank you, LM. Just one thing. Both Mad Men and Buffy are in my very top 5 shows of all times. There are two reasons I voted for Mad Men over Buffy: First, there are many Buffy reactions. There are virtually no Mad Men reactions. The one or two Mad Men reactions I found out there are from small channels and poorly produced and edited. It's just a void out there in reaction-land for us Mad Men fans. Second, there is no one better in reaction-land than you two for a nuanced show like this. I trust we will get to Buffy some day. But for now, yes Mad Men 🔥
I was thinking that poll must have sucked ass for Mad Men AND Buffy fans lmao. The channel should cover Buffy at some point! It gets views too, I know Normies covered it.
Aaaaaahhh I'm so excited. Though I think this episode is actually my least favourite episode of the entire show
One of my least favorite episodes too. Jokes like magic machine that makes copies are corny. But I love the rest of the season and the show. I don’t think the writers figure out what the show is until episode 6. From that point, I think it’s as good as Sopranos or The Wire.
The creator of Mad Men was one of the writers from the Sopranos. He was the writer on Chrissy’s death episode. It’s always nice to see folks from dope shows go on to make other dope shows. Kinda like Moira Wally-Beckett wrote some of the best Breaking Bad episodes like Ozymandias then went on to make Anne with an E…RESPECT! Lol
wait i didnt know that?? that explains my love for anne with an e
heeeeeeeeeeeere we gooo, afterwards six feet under pls
I want to thank God
Aaaaand they're in love.
Damn I might have to set the pirate seas to watch this show since I only have Netflix and HBO max lol
So happy for the Mad Men crowd but sobbing cause it feels like it’s been forever since the last Monster episode dropped
same here 😭
Yes!
And so it begins! From Tony Soprano to Don Draper, two classic American TV characters representing two very different sides of America.
7 seasons of greatness coming.
Wait it’s 7 seasons..?
We made it!
One of the best shows ever made. The guy who created this show was a writer on The Sopranos.
But what is a Mad Men reaction? It’s a moment before you need more Mad Men reactions.
Wooooooooooo
Nice, I've only seen this till like half of 3rd season and dropped it few yrs ago. Will start again with you guys :)
Yeaaaaa
HERE WE FUCKING GOOOOOO
A thing like that!
OMFG