As you can see this is a whole different level of Mad Men. we're seeing Don transforming into something new which is dragging the whole show into different direction, bold, challenging and out of control, well done.
8 Reviews
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".... All Over Again
borowiecsminus22 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
No one ever expects season premiers to be good. That's because they rarely are. "Chapter 14" and "Blood Money" are rare exceptions. So is this episode of "Mad Men."
Now, this isn't on par with the other two examples I mentioned; not even close. But it is much better than your average season premiere. Even your average "Mad Men" season premiere. Of course it's a let- down from the previous episode, because, well, how could it not be? "Shut the Door" was very near a masterpiece. What this episode does is something that's very hard to do in television: begin a new plot, and at the same time, advance it.
And I think it's because of how big a deal this episode is. This is less of a season premiere, and more of a pilot episode. The show is completely different. We're no longer watching "Mad Men," we're watching a show about two recently-divorced people, one of whom is starting a new advertising agency. It feels like the first episode of a show, and that's why it's so good. Because while SEASON premieres are usually bad, SERIES premieres are almost always good. And that's what this feels like.
It's not "Mad Men" at the top of their game, but the writers can be proud of this episode.
Now, this isn't on par with the other two examples I mentioned; not even close. But it is much better than your average season premiere. Even your average "Mad Men" season premiere. Of course it's a let- down from the previous episode, because, well, how could it not be? "Shut the Door" was very near a masterpiece. What this episode does is something that's very hard to do in television: begin a new plot, and at the same time, advance it.
And I think it's because of how big a deal this episode is. This is less of a season premiere, and more of a pilot episode. The show is completely different. We're no longer watching "Mad Men," we're watching a show about two recently-divorced people, one of whom is starting a new advertising agency. It feels like the first episode of a show, and that's why it's so good. Because while SEASON premieres are usually bad, SERIES premieres are almost always good. And that's what this feels like.
It's not "Mad Men" at the top of their game, but the writers can be proud of this episode.
Season 4 The Best Season In The Series
Instant_Palmer20 January 2022
Season 4, Episode 1 'Public Relations' kicks off what is arguably the best Season of 'Mad Men'. Greater depth of character development, wider range of characters, darker shades explored, and some of the most interesting plot lines in the seven season run. After the dust settled on Season 4, 'Mad Men' earned the first of its four consecutive "Outstanding Drama Series" Emmys... it was long overdue but especially deserved for S4. Enjoy!
Who is Don Draper?
jotix10018 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Don is being interviewed by a journalist for an article about advertising. Ever so cagey, Don is evasive in most of the answers he gives. After Don gets up, he realizes the man is missing a leg, which makes him ask where did it happen. Don, having been in the same war, is sympathetic. Unfortunately, the article is not exactly what everyone has expected once it was published. The agency has completed a year and it is struggling to get recognized.
Lucky Strike is still the biggest client. Their business means most of the revenue for the new outfit. Glo-Coat is also a client, but they did not like the latest campaign. Jantzen, the bathing suit manufacturer is courted, but their people in charge of the advertising want to keep it as a family brand. When the representatives arrive for a presentation, they are horrified at the sexy ads Don Draper has created for them. After they refuse to sponsor such ads, Don throws a fit and gets them out of the conference room.
Don and Besty are divorces. She is now married to Henry Francis, the man she fell in love with, while still married to Don. The new agency is struggling to get on its own feet. Roger thinks Don should have a talk with a more sympathetic person and the Wall Street Journal is suggested. The second article is much better than the first one.
Thanksgiving is approaching. Preparations at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency include a sort of staged incident that will be carried in the Daily News about two housewives fighting over a ham, a Sugarberry ham, a brand is represented by the agency. Peggy is the one that came up with the idea, so she and Joey are responsible for its success, or failure of the human interest story in the paper. Peggy is right by going ahead with her idea.
Thanksgiving day dinner at Henry Francis' mother gathers the newly wed couple with his family. The mother is not too keen on Betty. Sitting the children at the same table with the grown-ups prove to be a disaster as Sally Draper becomes disruptive during dinner. Mrs. Francis is horrified, feeling her son has made a mistake by marrying Betty. Don, on the other hand, has to be contented with going out with Bethany, a striking woman that seems to care for him.
Phil Abraham directed the first episode of the 4th season. Some of the people we saw last season are not back, notably Ken, Sal and Paul. The only ones that remain are Pete Campbell and Harry Crane. The principal players are still around, mainly Jon Hamm, who is the heart of the show. John Slattery, Christina Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss, Vincen Kartheiser, and January Jones. This chapter was written by the creator of the show, Matthew Weiner.
The basic premise still works, something that makes this series the hit it became because of the frankness of the situation and the recreation of that not too long era of the early 1960s in New York.
Lucky Strike is still the biggest client. Their business means most of the revenue for the new outfit. Glo-Coat is also a client, but they did not like the latest campaign. Jantzen, the bathing suit manufacturer is courted, but their people in charge of the advertising want to keep it as a family brand. When the representatives arrive for a presentation, they are horrified at the sexy ads Don Draper has created for them. After they refuse to sponsor such ads, Don throws a fit and gets them out of the conference room.
Don and Besty are divorces. She is now married to Henry Francis, the man she fell in love with, while still married to Don. The new agency is struggling to get on its own feet. Roger thinks Don should have a talk with a more sympathetic person and the Wall Street Journal is suggested. The second article is much better than the first one.
Thanksgiving is approaching. Preparations at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency include a sort of staged incident that will be carried in the Daily News about two housewives fighting over a ham, a Sugarberry ham, a brand is represented by the agency. Peggy is the one that came up with the idea, so she and Joey are responsible for its success, or failure of the human interest story in the paper. Peggy is right by going ahead with her idea.
Thanksgiving day dinner at Henry Francis' mother gathers the newly wed couple with his family. The mother is not too keen on Betty. Sitting the children at the same table with the grown-ups prove to be a disaster as Sally Draper becomes disruptive during dinner. Mrs. Francis is horrified, feeling her son has made a mistake by marrying Betty. Don, on the other hand, has to be contented with going out with Bethany, a striking woman that seems to care for him.
Phil Abraham directed the first episode of the 4th season. Some of the people we saw last season are not back, notably Ken, Sal and Paul. The only ones that remain are Pete Campbell and Harry Crane. The principal players are still around, mainly Jon Hamm, who is the heart of the show. John Slattery, Christina Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss, Vincen Kartheiser, and January Jones. This chapter was written by the creator of the show, Matthew Weiner.
The basic premise still works, something that makes this series the hit it became because of the frankness of the situation and the recreation of that not too long era of the early 1960s in New York.
The Door is Shut, Now What
DKosty1236 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Since I am viewing DVD's of this series, after watching the last episode of Season 3 and then watching this one, there is a let down quotient for me here. That is typical of a series of this type. When a series has continuing story lines, it always happens.
To me this episode is a little slow but it is doing the necessary set up work for the new season to come. So many story & plot lines finished at the close of season 3, this opener has to get started slowly and carefully as the changes mandated by the prior episode are now sinking in.
Still this episode is good as the results of the divorce show up here. I have to wonder how long Draper is going to keep paying for Betts new husband along with her and the 3 kids to live in their old house. I am sort of surprised that him being a rich and well connected political party hack doesn't look for another house in the same neighborhood unless the Republicans under Rockerfeller were tighter fisted with his aides in those days. I don't know that I'd be happy sleeping in the same bed Betts did on occasion with Don.
One interesting thing, the horse riding seems to have stopped for now by Betts. Not surprising is the slow start up of the new agency. Even though it still has the old names on the door, in the advertising field it takes a while and some good work to get new things in.
To me this episode is a little slow but it is doing the necessary set up work for the new season to come. So many story & plot lines finished at the close of season 3, this opener has to get started slowly and carefully as the changes mandated by the prior episode are now sinking in.
Still this episode is good as the results of the divorce show up here. I have to wonder how long Draper is going to keep paying for Betts new husband along with her and the 3 kids to live in their old house. I am sort of surprised that him being a rich and well connected political party hack doesn't look for another house in the same neighborhood unless the Republicans under Rockerfeller were tighter fisted with his aides in those days. I don't know that I'd be happy sleeping in the same bed Betts did on occasion with Don.
One interesting thing, the horse riding seems to have stopped for now by Betts. Not surprising is the slow start up of the new agency. Even though it still has the old names on the door, in the advertising field it takes a while and some good work to get new things in.
Started off awful - redemded itself halfway through
ChristopherDrews1 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The start of the 4th season was the worst of Mad Men I've seen. Every scene was awkward and misplaced. With terrible dialog and bad setups. Then, once Don accepted the date, things started to fall into place. This is why we watch the show.
"We are all here for you. To please you" Something Peggy said to Don near the end of this episode. That is gist. Don is the heart of this show and when he's not the central character on screen the show suffers. The other cast simply can't carry the burden. For whatever reason Hamm is as compelling as they get and when other scenes flood the early portion of the show, I can't help but wonder - what is Don doing right now?
All and all, bad start - solid finish- Don is king.
"We are all here for you. To please you" Something Peggy said to Don near the end of this episode. That is gist. Don is the heart of this show and when he's not the central character on screen the show suffers. The other cast simply can't carry the burden. For whatever reason Hamm is as compelling as they get and when other scenes flood the early portion of the show, I can't help but wonder - what is Don doing right now?
All and all, bad start - solid finish- Don is king.
First time watching ... mixture of well-crafted and unsettling
DrSivana4 January 2011
When I decided to watch Mad Men for the first time, this episode (season 4, #1) was the only one I had access to.
While I am not quite old enough to remember 1965, I have a pretty good memory of the period directly after, and I lived in a town that trailed in these sorts of things. Moreover, our family had plenty of stuff from the era.
I was looking to determine how faithful the historical rendering would be.
Some of the artifacts (Don's television, the Jai-Alai promotional literature) looked old, probably because they were authentic originals. The Griffin shoe shine kit was the same type we had, and a fixture in many homes at the time, an excellent touch.
The older execs, and the folks from Jantzen swimwear, looked and responded to Don's behaviour exactly as they should have.
I am suspicious of the IBM Selectric, it looks like a later model, but I could be wrong.
Costuming is fine, but I think Don was wearing his tie a little longer than was done at the time. The Dick Van Dyke show would be an excellent frame of reference for that kind of stuff.
I am a bit surprised that Don would be drinking Canadian Club ... that's pretty cheap stuff for someone like Draper. Of course, not everyone was a snob about booze, especially then.
There was one phrase that the writers got VERY wrong. At one point, Peggy tells Don "It was going well, until it didn't" or something like that. That turn of phrase only came in common usage recently. At that time she would have said, "Well it started out fine, but (fill in bad event)" I saw a similar blunder in a trailer where the female speaker states "That is SOOOO 1964," a common way of saying things now, but unlikely then.
I am doubtful that even a hard-drinking and smoking street smart room of male execs would use some of the coarse language, similes and metaphors employed in the show (e.g. "stuff her like a turkey"), I am SURE that it would not have happened with a lady in the room.
I appreciate the fact that the characters have varying degrees of awareness of where the advertising world, and the world at large is going, without preaching particularly in one direction of another.
I did NOT appreciate the bedroom scenes that were too explicit for a DSLV14 rating, and add nothing to the show. I know that the writers and directors are trying to present a juxtaposition of the tidy, well-coiffed office world, and the untidyness of the personal lives of the characters. However, the way it is done is so jarring that it ruins the presentation.
I found John Hamm's Don Draper to be charismatic, though sometimes wooden (that could be by design, as he is always thinking about how he comes across to other people, even when he is trying to come across as someone who doesn't care how he comes across.) I didn't see enough of Betty to get a read on her. The two ladies hired by Peggy were pitch perfect. I used to deliver the morning paper to them on my paper route.
A show like this requires the same kind of commitment that a soap opera requires. I wanted Mad Men to be the chronicling of the end of an old era, and in some ways it succeeds. The show is too unsettling, and not in a profound way but merely unsettling, for me to make that kind of commitment.
While I am not quite old enough to remember 1965, I have a pretty good memory of the period directly after, and I lived in a town that trailed in these sorts of things. Moreover, our family had plenty of stuff from the era.
I was looking to determine how faithful the historical rendering would be.
Some of the artifacts (Don's television, the Jai-Alai promotional literature) looked old, probably because they were authentic originals. The Griffin shoe shine kit was the same type we had, and a fixture in many homes at the time, an excellent touch.
The older execs, and the folks from Jantzen swimwear, looked and responded to Don's behaviour exactly as they should have.
I am suspicious of the IBM Selectric, it looks like a later model, but I could be wrong.
Costuming is fine, but I think Don was wearing his tie a little longer than was done at the time. The Dick Van Dyke show would be an excellent frame of reference for that kind of stuff.
I am a bit surprised that Don would be drinking Canadian Club ... that's pretty cheap stuff for someone like Draper. Of course, not everyone was a snob about booze, especially then.
There was one phrase that the writers got VERY wrong. At one point, Peggy tells Don "It was going well, until it didn't" or something like that. That turn of phrase only came in common usage recently. At that time she would have said, "Well it started out fine, but (fill in bad event)" I saw a similar blunder in a trailer where the female speaker states "That is SOOOO 1964," a common way of saying things now, but unlikely then.
I am doubtful that even a hard-drinking and smoking street smart room of male execs would use some of the coarse language, similes and metaphors employed in the show (e.g. "stuff her like a turkey"), I am SURE that it would not have happened with a lady in the room.
I appreciate the fact that the characters have varying degrees of awareness of where the advertising world, and the world at large is going, without preaching particularly in one direction of another.
I did NOT appreciate the bedroom scenes that were too explicit for a DSLV14 rating, and add nothing to the show. I know that the writers and directors are trying to present a juxtaposition of the tidy, well-coiffed office world, and the untidyness of the personal lives of the characters. However, the way it is done is so jarring that it ruins the presentation.
I found John Hamm's Don Draper to be charismatic, though sometimes wooden (that could be by design, as he is always thinking about how he comes across to other people, even when he is trying to come across as someone who doesn't care how he comes across.) I didn't see enough of Betty to get a read on her. The two ladies hired by Peggy were pitch perfect. I used to deliver the morning paper to them on my paper route.
A show like this requires the same kind of commitment that a soap opera requires. I wanted Mad Men to be the chronicling of the end of an old era, and in some ways it succeeds. The show is too unsettling, and not in a profound way but merely unsettling, for me to make that kind of commitment.
Joey Baird: Lame, Forced New Guy
TheFearmakers7 September 2023
Good episode as we're in a back to basics phase, kind of, I mean the show never was basic to begin with, and the whole underdog "scrappy" little company thing is intriguing, but what on earth is with the Joey Baird character... most new people are introduced on this show and we slowly get to know them...
But this guy is just there like we've known him forever, like he's Kinsey... who was far better and got unfairly dumped for no reason... the whole "John" "Marsha" thing with Peggy... who is more unsufferably pretentious than usual... isn't funny and... I don't know... This character is just too forced for words but... again... Good episode... Back to the basics that is brand new to a show that's anything but... but... anyhow...
Seeing Don on an actual date as a single guy, after all the tail he's gotten while married, is like a world-class marine sniper shooting crows with a BB gun... And as usual Roger's the best thing going with a great one-liner about a smug reporter, with one leg... he always makes things happen.
But this guy is just there like we've known him forever, like he's Kinsey... who was far better and got unfairly dumped for no reason... the whole "John" "Marsha" thing with Peggy... who is more unsufferably pretentious than usual... isn't funny and... I don't know... This character is just too forced for words but... again... Good episode... Back to the basics that is brand new to a show that's anything but... but... anyhow...
Seeing Don on an actual date as a single guy, after all the tail he's gotten while married, is like a world-class marine sniper shooting crows with a BB gun... And as usual Roger's the best thing going with a great one-liner about a smug reporter, with one leg... he always makes things happen.
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