Features
Wednesday, February 8 2012
A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men'
Looking beyond the aesthetic surface of the series, what is the true motivation behind Mad Men’s frank depictions of these troubled social times? Is sexism being used as some sort of nostalgic trope, or does Mad Men actually delve deeper and explore these issues?
Thursday, February 10 2011
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Nostalgia for the '60s in TV
The early-'60s -- Mad Men time -- has become a source of endless fascination in popular culture. Timothy Ledwith investigates the many uses of nostalgia.
Wednesday, January 12 2011
The Best TV Shows of 2010
Running the gamut from the ever-present to the new and novel, PopMatters' TV picks prove that, as a medium, the small screen challenges the big at every entertainment (and aesthetic) level.
Thursday, January 6 2011
The Best DVDs of 2010
As the medium continues to struggle with significance in the steady "streaming" of the 21st Century, here are PopMatters' picks for the best the format(s) have to offer.
Friday, October 15 2010
An Original Mad Man Reflects on the Real 'Mad Men' and the Show
As Mad Men hurtles toward the final episode of its fourth season, a former real life Mad Man reviews the show's pilot episode. That man? My father.
Columns
Tuesday, July 19 2011
Talking About My Generation, 'Mad Men' Style
Getting older during the '60s was a cruel fate: it was unfair; it was depressing. But, in some respects, it was a party compared to getting older these days.
Monday, April 4 2011
Richard Whitman Shrugged: The Merging of Identities in 'Mad Men: Season 4'
Military deserter, super-confident ad man, or attentive fiancé. Is there a real Don Draper or is he destined for instability?
Reviews
Tuesday, October 19 2010
'Mad Men' Fourth Season Finale
In a season that contemplated some particularly dark ideas, Don's deluded, love-drunk smile, which he offered repeatedly in the Season Four finale, "Tomorrowland," was the darkest of all.
Tuesday, March 30 2010
Mad Men: Season Three
It's not for nothing that the bleak, animated intro shows a man in a suit falling from an office tower into a heap of broken images, only to wind up sitting comfortably, smoking, staring away from us into a blank nothingness.
Friday, July 17 2009
Mad Men: Season 2
Our characters are noticing subtle changes in the air, but they don’t quite realize that the social conventions they’ve staked their lives on will be shattered by decade’s end.
Thursday, July 26 2007
Mad Men
Mad Men is stylish and clever, showing men who are simultaneously at the pinnacle of their corporate and personal worlds, and at risk of losing everything.
Blogs
Friday, February 4 2011
Misapprehending What's Popular
I don't recommend this essay about Mad Men by Daniel Mendelsohn; it seems like an extended exercise in shaming its "addicted" viewers, who are assumed…
Thursday, December 16 2010
Top 10 TV Shows of 2010
In 2010, television brought us cops in Hawaii, bikers in California, British investigators and a different kind of situation at the Jersey shore.
Friday, October 15 2010
The Mad Man and the Comedy Writer: Two Sides of the American Dream
If The Dick Van Dyke Show's Rob Petrie represents the ideals of American manhood, Mad Men's Don Draper represents a descent into the American nightmare.
Friday, August 13 2010
Patience, Young Jedi: Appreciating the Art of the (Slow) Moment on 'Mad Men'
Paraphrasing Chekov, that gun in the first act has to go off by the third. Your patience while watching the stories in Mad Men unfold will pay off.
Thursday, July 8 2010
'Mad Men' Flirting 101: A Quick Review
Mad Men's fourth season doesn't premiere until July 25, so until then, let the cast teach you a thing or two about flirting in what Peggy Olson appropriately calls, "the business of persuasion".
News
Monday, August 8 2011
A hefty raise for 'Mad Men' creator Matt Weiner is causing rivals to grumble
Hollywood is wondering if Don Draper and the rest of the "Mad Men" gang have drunk and smoked their way through cable channel AMC's programming…
Wednesday, April 6 2011
Netflix nabs 'Mad Men' rerun rights
LOS ANGELES — Netflix, in a sign of its growing importance in television, will become Don Draper's second home. The home entertainment company has bought…
Friday, April 1 2011
'Mad Men' creator Matt Weiner agrees to new deal
LOS ANGELES — "Mad Men" creator Matt Weiner has signed a new deal to remain with the cult cable show for at least two more…
Wednesday, March 30 2011
'Mad Men' delayed until 2012 due to ongoing contract negotiations
NEW YORK — Due to continuing contract negotiations between "Mad Men" creator Matt Weiner and AMC, the series will not return until early 2012, the…
Monday, September 20 2010
Jon Hamm talks about 'Mad Men' and 'The Town'
TORONTO — All "Mad Men" fans know that Don Draper has a double life. Jon Hamm, who plays him, has one too. "I've been tremendously…
