'Mad Men' on AMC HD

Also available here in NJ.

What?!!!! I loved the first episode and was thinking this show NEEDS to be in HD the whole time I was watching it.

Well, you turkey, I've been cussing my comcast and looking every day for that 2nd episode.

I don't get this show in HD but I think this thread needs to be bumped so that the forum members who really and truly love the art of great writing, acting, directing, and photography will watch this program on AMC, high def or not. After one episode it looks like this is going to be one of the all time great series. Intelligent, atmospheric, dark, funny, with a charasmatic leading man whom I don't remember seeing before. It's so cool to discover a new show out of the blue with such potential. Take a chance.

This show, 'Damages', and 'Burn Notice' have been a pleasant surprise for me this summer. Which is good, because that's about all the time I have for new television. Unfortunately, while all three are blessed with terrific writing and inspired casting, none are available in HD on their flagship networks, which is the only place most of us can, or want, to see them.

It will be a wonderful thing when all the big cablenets go full-time HD, and the providers have the bandwidth to carry them all.

Burn Notice I like as well but it's lightweight whereas Mad Men is sophisticated and brilliant. I will be watching the recording of the premiere of Damages tonight and have hopes for it as well. It's exciting that the "lesser" channels are starting to put a lot of effort into independent programming.

Edited: After watching the premiere of Damages with Glen Close tonight: Hated it.

I thought Damages was good, but Saving Grace, though a bit hokey, was overall more enjoyable to watch. Mad Men is right up there. I think with those three, carry-overs from July like The Closer and Burn Notice, and upcoming series The Company, Jekyll and Hotel Babylon (not to mention Kill Zone, which I haven't seen but am burning to DVD to watch later), this is perhaps the best August ever on television.

no amc demand on Cox$. Would luv to see this show in hd with all the colors. They must have some serious ventilation on the sets with all that smokin... Good show so far.

Watched the first 3 episodes so far. Good show. It reminds me stylistically to Weeds. A little glitchy, the audio crackles a bit.

In any event, it's free. Hard to argue with that (I don't even subscribe to A&E-HD).

We tend to forget these days how pervasive smoking used to be, and how uncomfortable the indoors used to be because of it if you were in the minority. Ditto the sanctioned-subjugation of women. This show is like a video time capsule of an age that many hold up to be morally superior to today. Good to give it a fresh, unvarnished look.

Wife just picked me up an old full page "Lucky Strike" newspaper ad. Partial text reads:
Highlights:

"TOASTING expels SHEEP-DIP BASE naturally present in every tobacco leaf.

"They're out - so they can't be in!"

"It's toasted"

I don't want to know what "sheep-dip base" is, but since it naturally occurs in tobacco, it's probably safer than the 150 or so man-made chemical additives found in every cigarette.

Ya, I watched the first show in HD on demand. While it is a very well done show, the subject matter is kind of boring to me I guess.

Keep watching, it gets better. It really is social commentary on an era. There are really some shocking scenes as the series continues- you think to yourself "I can't believe they actually thought that was OK"

Love the Mother's concern for her clothing when she sees her little daughter with the dry cleaning bag over her head.

There are plenty of those types of "it was a different time" references that seem to be obviously shoe-horned into the script - but they are still humorous.

Also what is interesting is the commentary about the advertising business and about really how they knew about smoking even back in '59. They all knew full well that smoking was going to kill them but didn't care.

I loved the marketing research they had the psychologist do and how she found out how everyone had a death wish and how they should try to make that association in selling them. Of course that wouldn't fly... Not then. Little did they know that only 10yrs later we had marketing schemes like the Marlboro Man that appealed to that sense of adventure.

This weeks Boston Phoenix has a really good article entitled Nice Package - Mad Men practices truth in advertising. Worth a read.

They even went to the extent of putting "Cancer", "Death" and a skull and cross-bones subliminally in their magazine ads to exploit that subconcious draw.

Great article, thank you.

R

Deathray pointed this thread out to me. Great show, brings back a lot of memories. The decor and clothes are spot on, as are the attitudes. FYI, Mad Men also appears on TWC's HD Showcase on Demand, at least in the Austin/Waco branch.

TTx

HD Mad Men has disappeared from OnDemand in Chicago; it is still available in SD, but oddly skips episode 4 (1-3,5 are available).

Hopefully, it'll come back in HD for you. I actually spotted the reference to Mad Men in HDOD (Showcase) on TWC's site (attached jpg), so I would suspect it's a longer term arrangement.

Strangely enough, we have the Overview, Making and episodes 1,2,4 & 5, with episode 3 missing in Austin...very odd.

TTx

I'm on TWC here in Charlotte, and we don't seem to have that. Wonder why?

I live half way between Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN and we're pretty much the same here as Chattanooga(Comcast) and I noticed that all the Mad Men HD episodes had disappeared and didn't notice exactly which SD versions were there, but I do remember it wasn't complete, aka it had some gaps.

HD episodes are gone in Baltimore.

As of today in Atlanta, all of the HD episodes are gone, but episodes 1-4 of the standard definition broadcasts are still there.