DVD Reviews

Mad Men: Season Three – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Apr 6, 2010, 15:34 GMT

Returning for its third season, the two-time Golden Globe®-winning series for Best TV Drama bursts with one scandalous surprise after another. Jon Hamm and the rest of the award-winning ensemble continue to captivate us as they contend with a world on the brink. Welcome to "Mad Men? - a shocking portrait of a time that was anything but innocent. Nothing is as sexy. Nothing is as provocative. Nothing is as ...more

'Mad Men’ is one of those shows that would be impossible to describe and make sound entertaining to the unaware yet, in its third season, remains one of the best shows on television. Exquisitely written, acted and with the help of Blu-ray, exquisite looking.

In fact, ‘exquisite’ perfectly represents ‘Mad Men’ which so far has strived for excellence and achieved it. Created by Matthew Weiner (who previously wrote and produced eps of ‘The Sopranos’), the series has made a relatively dull time period on first look (the early sixties) intriguing even to those whose birth year doesn’t include a five, six or seven.

Weiner does that by really capitalizing on the drama that is bubbling up under that perfect early sixties façade where worries of war were nonexistent and people were free to make a grab for that American dream.

An example of the American dream being up for grabs can be found in our main protag of the show, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) - a former hero of the Korean War who has gone on to secure a high-level advertising job and an impressive suburban home with a beautiful wife and children.

But this job, home and family hides a web of deceit and insecurities and the third season continues this trek down the dark recesses of Don’s past. If season 2 was about us seeing who Don Draper really was, season 3 now pulls back the curtain on Don for others, a revelation for a character that brilliantly coincides with a disastrous historic event from 1963.

The season admittedly gets off to a comparably slow start and once integral characters don’t quite seem to get the screen-time they did before with Don’s former secretary, now part of creative, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) delegated to an inconsequential tryst with Season 2 notable Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) and office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) mostly off-screen to take care of her new husband, an aspiring surgeon – though Joan is set to make a big comeback for Season 4.

As for our main backdrop, Sterling Cooper is still reeling with the takeover from a British company at the end of the previous season and by the end of this season, big things are brewing for our favorite ad agency - which sets up what will be a very interesting Season 4 thanks to Don Draper seemingly starting over both personally and professionally as Don’s wife Betty (January Jones) is literally leaving the state with new child in tow.

This season, the show is smart to involve historic events and characters a bit more which adds a dimensionality and scope to distinctly personal and closed-off drama. The cast is as on top of their game as ever with Hamm and Jones both forced to give characters, inherently unlikable, traits that make you wish for their happiness.

The best looking show on television, the 1.78:1 1080p AVC encodes are a marvel showcasing the outstanding set and costume design. Detail and color is super-sharp and I spotted no grain or technical hiccups. The DTS-HD Master Aud track keeps up with the impressive visuals and offers impeccable sound mixing.

Special Features start with every episode getting treated to not one but two commentaries. Matthew Weiner is always a participant on one with various cast and crew on the other. I listened to a few of them and plan on hitting them all as the tracks are filled with informative and entertaining goodies.

Next are some length historical documentaries that flesh out the time period: ‘Clearing the Air’ runs a total of 45 minutes and checks out the exploits of how tobacco was advertised back in the day – more entertaining than you would expect.

‘Medger Evers: Unsung Hero’ runs a whopping hour and ten minutes and takes a look at the real life story of Evers, the NAACP secretary who was murdered at his home. ‘We Shall Overcome: The March on Washington’ runs 17 minutes and is basically Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech which is obviously worth checking out if you have never seen it before.

‘Mad Men Illustrated’ is a quick featurette on Dyna Moe, a woman who has become popular online for creating ‘Mad Men’ illustrations and the extras end on an interactive ‘Flashback 1963’ timeline which hits all the important historical moments of the year.

The extras do focus more on the historical and not any actual behind-the-scenes but I imagine that’s more to keep the mystique of the show. If we all of a sudden saw these actors joking and playing out of character, it would undoubtedly take away a little of the magic.

I’m generally a film snob as TV rarely offers me something that is both unique and done better than what film can provide but ‘Mad Men’ is that rare exception: storytelling where television is the ideal platform. This is another great season and it looks like the show is perfectly poised to shake things up for season four. Can’t wait.