Season 4 of Mad Men starts next weekend. Mrs. Wheelz and I have never watched it, but she’s now interested in checking it out.
So can we just jump in here, or should we fire up the DVD player and get caught up first? How much of the story arc do they carry from season to season?
Sure you can. It’d be even better though if you could read up on it a bit, not for plot so much as for relationships. I think you’d still enjoy it, but you’d enjoy it more if you knew some of the back story between the characters, especially Pete and Peggy she had his baby and gave it up for adoption without telling him she was pregnant, but she told him later. Pete’s wife can’t get pregnant and his family is disappointed, Roger and Joan they had an affair and then he married a secretary, Joan married a doctor who’s a failure and an ass, and Pete and Don Pete is jealous of Don’s success at the old company and told the boss that Don was living under another man’s identity.
But the Mad Men writers are good enough that you’ll quickly become familiar with the character of the characters, even if you don’t know the back stories.
Hell yes, watch it. 
I’d get caught up first, just because it’s a great show and it would be fun to watch it all from the beginning.
I’d get caught up personally but if you’re going to dive in cold, I get the feeling this is the season to do it. The events of season 3 ended with a partial reboot of the show and I suspect entering at S4 will be easier than entering at S3.
Even then, the previous three seasons are all worth watching on their own merits and would only help you catch up.
Yeah, you could – but it’s definitely worth starting at the beginning.
Start at the beginning, and give it five or so episodes before giving up. It’s not like I’ve taken a poll, but most of the people I know who like the show weren’t hooked from the first or second show.
Ideally, you should drop everything now & spend all your time getting caught up with Mad Men before the new season starts. Start with Season 1, Episode 1. However, you might have a job, family, friends or other interests that demand your attention.
Basket of Kisses is perhaps the best “unofficial” Mad Men site. Unofficial in that the Lipp sisters aren’t employed by AMC–but they got an advance copy of the upcoming season opener. From their spoiler-free Sneak Preview:
So–I recommend you start watching with the new season. If you like it, you’ll certainly want to go back & see what happened before. I would avoid “summaries”–it’s really better to watch as things develop. Of course, there will be threads here (& everywhere else on the 'net) as the season progresses–so you’ll have a bunch of “experts” eager to explain anything.
If you don’t want to watch the first 3 seasons, the Wikipedia entries on Mad Men will catch you up enough to sing along.
And Pete’s wife doesn’t have a clue about Peggy or the baby. Don knows about the baby, but not who the father is. Pete & Peggy have a very strange relationship. In season 1 Pete didn’t seem to see Peggy as anything other than a piece of tail, but by the end of season 2 he’s better at treater her as a colleague than anyone besides Don.
That was my experience. I netflixed the disc with the first three episodes, thought “this isn’t all that great” and dismissed it. Later, my sister told me she thought it was the best thing on TV, so I gave it another chance, and quickly became caught up in it.
Even if you don’t quite get the storylines, it’s fun to watch for the clothes, and mind boggling to see everyone drinking and smoking like fiends. And the political incorrectness!!! (And last year the Drapers went on a picnic and when they packed up to go home - a shock wave of outrage swept over the internets.) Also - this season is set in the mid sixties and the times, they should be a-changin’, very interesting.
Thanks for all the input.
I think we’ll go ahead and start watching with the new season; sounds like it won’t be hard to get our footing quickly enough.
If we enjoy it, we’ll probably clean up the previous seasons later.
I’ll chime in with a “me too”. I didn’t care for the first 2 or 3 episodes. They were okay, but not compelling. I got hooked with the following shows.
Good idea. The Whole Darn Internet will soon be full of chatter about the new season of Mad Men. You won’t have to put your (virtual) fingers in your (virtual) ears to avoid spoilers.
There will be a long break between seasons. Plenty of time to get caught up then. (Or you could juggle watching old shows & new shows at the same time, if you get really eager.)
That’s a good place to start.
We just finished watching the first three seasons. This has to be one of the best series produced for TV. I would say that you should watch the first seasons, as there is a lot going on in this series that a recap is not going to give you. The tangled relationships and Draper’s history intertwine throughout.