|
|
|
This American period drama TV series was created as well as produced by Matthew Weiner. It premiered July 19th of 2007. It airs on Movie Extra/Foxtel and is a Lionsgate Television production. It finished its 5th season June 10th in 2012 and since then was picked up again for a 6th season that is scheduled to premiere April 7th of 2013.
The series is set back during the 1960's. Originally it was set at the fictional advertising agency of Sterling Cooper on New York City's Madison Avenue, but later on it moved to the more updated firm of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce.
The series' main focus is on the character of 'Don Draper' (played by Jon Hamm). He is the creative director for Sterling Cooper as well as one of the founding partners of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce. The story revolves around himself and the other people who are in his life both in the office and out of the office.
The plot focuses around the agency business along with the personal lives of all the characters. It reflects a lot of the changing moods and the social mores that existed back in 1960's America.
The series won critical acclaim mainly for its realistic historical authenticity, acting, costume design, visual style, and directing. The program won various awards along with 15 Emmies and 4 Golden Globes. The show is the one and only series on basic cable to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. It actually won this award in each of the first 4 seasons (2008, 09, 10, and 11).
The opening of its title sequence features credits that are superimposed over the graphic animation depicting a businessman who is falling from a high place. The scene is surrounded by tall skyscrapers with windows reflecting period advertising billboards and poster. There is a short instrumental that accompanies this scene. It was the RJD2 instrumental 'A Beautiful Mine'.
Then the businessman is seen only in black-and-white silhouette. The titles themselves pay tribute to Saul Bass for his opening titles filled with skyscrapers in the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'North by Northwest' back in 1959, and for the falling man poster for the movie 'Vertigo' in 1958.
The titles for this series were the creation of Imaginary Forces (a popular production house).
Aside from creating this series Matthew Weiner also runs it, is an executive producer, and the head writer too. He makes great contributions to every single episode. He writes and co-writes scripts, he casts different roles, and does some costume and set design approvals.
He is known for his selectiveness in every aspect of this series. He promotes a very high standard of secrecy when it comes to production details.
Mad Men is a depiction of various interesting parts of the American culture and society from the 1960's. The program highlighted drinking, smoking, feminism, sexism, racism, adultery, and homophobia.
Plenty of hints have been flying around about future radical changes coming in the 1960's. You see themes saturated with social mobility, alienation, ruthlessness, and more. It was noted by MSNBC that the show remains majorly disconnected from our current outside world. That makes it easier to reflect the cultural trends and politics of that world and in the lives of those people rather than illustrating broad sweeping arguments.
| |
