My wife and I have finished the first 4 episodes and aren’t sure if we’re going to continue watching it or not. Frankly, I was expecting more of a fun vibe from the show, but instead I feel sort of like I felt after watching a few of the Sopranos episodes where nothing much happened.
I’m inclined to give the show a few more episodes due to its critical reputation but if the show retains this sort of sterile, slice-of-life feel I’m not sure we’ll go much farther with it. My wife has had a hard time staying awake through some of it.
Mad Men is a fairly serious show with flashes of fun. The “slow” episodes let us really learn about the characters. Periodically, the action speeds up. Then events can really blow your mind
The first four episodes are pretty reflective of the series as a whole. The show is an examination of the social (and business) mores of the time, not a sitcom.
If you’re not enjoying it now, it’s not worth continuing.
I disagree with twickster. I initially watched just the first disc’s worth of episodes and said “meh,” and wrote off the rest of the series. A few months later I was having dinner with my family and my sister was so enthusiastic about the show that she convinced me to give it another shot, so I Netflixed the rest of the season and it really clicked. This was when season 2 was just about to come out on DVD, so I devoured those in short order. Now I’m happily awaiting the release of season 3. I think it just takes a few episodes before you really start feeling involved with the characters.
Tim Goodman in the San Francisco Chronicle described the show as “essentially a slow character study of one man’s existential crisis.” Now, given that, I’m not surprised that you’re not getting a “fun vibe” off of it.
I like it, partly for the look at life in the early 1960s.
I am only 9 episodes in because I only watch them on my iPod while I do cardio at the gym, so it’s been slow going lately. I think the show is very interesting but I am inclined to like serious, character-driven shows rather than action-driven ones.
I am no longer giving up on any critically acclaimed TV show I am interested in watching after I tried The Wire, 2 eps in was bored and gave up, and went months before I tried again and LOVED IT! Mad Men sucked me in because I wasn’t even alive until the 1980s so it’s very interesting to see a modern show set back then. Some shows take a bit to get into but then you get sucked it and it’s a great payoff.
There are some scenes that I would describe as “fun” (e.g. most of the episode “My Old Kentucky Home” from season 3), but more of it is character-driven drama.
I especially appreciate the costume and set design, which are fantastic. The advertising agency setting is especially interesting to me, because I am a graphic designer, and I started my career in the late 80’s, before computers took over everything. There’s a bit of nostalgia in that aspect for me.
I was hooked a few minutes into the first season (though it wasn’t the first episode). I don’t think I’d continue a show if it hadn’t hooked me after four episodes.
It’s one of my favorite shows, so I hate to say don’t continue it. Have you gotten to the part with Joan in that red dress? I remember that being where I just said, “Wow, this is awesome”. But I mostly liked it then, anyways. It does stay very consistent in tone and action throughout the series, in my opinion, so if it isn’t for you now, it might not be for you.
Yeah, fun as in “funny,” it is not. Incredibly well-written, it is. Every episode has a theme – sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle – and every single scene in that episode contributes to that theme, in sometimes surprising ways. There are no throw-away scenes, moments, or lines. Everything contributes to the meaning of the whole.
Figuring out the themes and the ways in which each scene fits into them is really fun for me. Really good writing (and acting and directing and art design) is a big televisionary turn-on of mine, and this show delivers in spades.
“Funny” humor is not the main forte of Mad Men. It can be amusing, but it’s usually pretty pointed, and can even be quite brutal. Still one of the best shows out there.
More than most tv shows, Mad Men is thematic in the way that literature is thematic. If you don’t like thinking about layered implications and themes in, say, novels or other literature, I’d imagine the show’s appeal would be rather one dimensional (nice costumes!)
While I love period pieces that explore culture as it was ‘back in the day’ I just can’t get into Mad Men. I’ve tried watching a few episodes, but it’s just so boring. Not even Christina Hendricks could keep me interested in watching the show, and she’s going to have my love-babies.
I completely lost interest after the riding lawn mower incident, did Joan ever come back and what happen to the guy with the chopped off foot?
The big draw for me were the office scenes, good good stuff there but then I became completely bored with Don’s personal life - and his constipated facial expressions.
We watched the whole first season, and liked it, kind of. I wouldn’t say we’re too likely to watch the second season. It was OK. If you’re not loving the first 4 episodes, I doubt you’ll get more involved as it goes on.
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