Mad Men Season 1

Mad Men Season 1 made its debut on the AMC channel in 2007.  Mad Men Season 1 is a period piece set in 1960 at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency on New York City’s Madison Avenue.  The drama centers on Don Draper.  He is the agencies Creative Director and the show goes through the workings of the office and its personnel in conjunction with Don Draper and the changing social views of the 1960 era.

This was an age when women were still supposed to answer their husbands at the door with their apron on and dinner on the table.  Kids were not supposed to speak unless spoken to and the phrase “just wait until your dad gets home” was he last thing any child wanted to hear from their mother.

In its infant state the show has already garnered great critical acclaim for its historical accuracy, visual style and has a trophy case full of awards including three Golden Globes and six Emmys.

Here is a little background on some of the lead characters.  Don Draper is the Creative Director for Sterling cooper.  His past has not been fleshed out, but has been successful.  His real name is Richard “Dick” Whitman and he assumed the Don Draper identity during the Korean War.  He is married to Elizabeth Draper and has two children.  He has a history of infidelity.

Peggy Olson was Don’s secretary but now is a copywriter with her own office.  Peter “Pete” Campbell is an ambitious account executive who wants to get ahead any way he can.  Campbell tries to blackmail Draper with details from his real past.  Joan Holloway is the office manager and head of the secretarial pool who has an affair with Roger Sterling – see below.

Roger Sterling founded the firm with Bertram Cooper and is a good friend of Don Draper.  In one episode there is a picture of Sterling in Cooper’s office as a child alongside Cooper as an adolescent.  Cooper refers to Sterling as “Peanut” thus cementing the long time friendship between the two.  There are a variety of supporting characters too numerous to mention in this review.

in Mad Men Season 1 Many themes shown may offend some modern day viewers, but the show is being historically accurate in depicting smoking in offices, homes and in every day life in several scenes.  Sexism is rampant in the episodes and it seems that business only has room for the middle class young white men.  Talking about smoking being bad for your health is dismissed regularly and mainstream advertising downplays the “new” Volkswagen Beetle’s “Think Small” campaign that sold millions of bugs in the United States.

Mad Men Season 1 is available for rent.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.