'Mad Men: Season 1'

AMC's breakout series gets the deluxe treatment on DVD

Rick Porter
Zap2It.com

July 1 2008

"Mad Men" came out of nowhere -- or at least AMC, the heretofore little-regarded cable network that was not far from nowhere -- last summer. With a meticulous eye for its place and time -- a mid-level advertising agency in Manhattan, 1960 -- and writing and acting that were at times brilliant, the series quickly became one of the best viewing experiences on television.

Anchored by Jon Hamm's Golden Globe-winning performance as ad man Don Draper, "Mad Men" explores a culture that doesn't quite know it's on the verge of being overturned. The men of the Sterling Cooper agency, with their skinny ties and casual sexism, are helping create and sell the postwar vision of the American dream, but they're oblivious to the huge changes that we all know are coming later in the decade.

Creator Matthew Weiner, a veteran of "The Sopranos," "Mad Men" uses the ring-a-ding backdrop of the era to tell resonant stories about the way people present themselves to the world and the disconnect between that and who they actually are. It's a show that benefits from the multiple viewings that DVD box sets allow -- it's the TV equivalent of a book you don't want to put down.

DVD Bonus Features:

The Good: As is the case with the series itself, no detail is too small to be explored in the "Mad Men" DVD set. For starters, the four discs come packaged in a metal case that resembles a Zippo lighter -- a nod to the copious amounts of cigarette smoke that the show's characters inhale. All 13 episodes have commentary tracks (sometimes more than one), and happily, the actors and behind-the-scenes folks who take part are generally more interested in deepening your understanding of the show than complimenting one another. The featurettes "Pictures of Elegance" and "Advertising the American Dream" are also worth your time. The former has a stylish interface that leads to insights into the show's clothing, hair and set design, while the latter provides solid historical context from people who worked in the industry in the '60s.

The Bad: A perfunctory featurette on the show's music doesn't add much, and the hour-long "Establishing Mad Men," while exhaustively detailing the behind-the-scenes work on the show, doesn't spend much time with the people in front of the camera. Commentary tracks featuring the actors sound as though they were recorded separately and then spliced together, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but can be a little bit distracting.

The Price: $49.98