Mad Men: Season Four

Mad Men: Season Four, 2010. A 1960s ad agency struggles to stay in business.

Created by Matthew Weiner. Directed by Phil Abraham (3 episodes), Michael Uppendahl (2), Jennifer Getzinger (2), John Slattery (2), Lesli Linka Glatter (1), Scott Hornbacher (1), Lynn Shelton (1), & Weiner (1). Written by Weiner (10 episodes), Jonathan Abrahams (2), Erin Levy (2), Tracy McMillan (1), Keith Huff (1), Brett Johnson (1), Lisa Albert (1), Janet Leahy (1), Dahvi Waller (1), Andre Jacquemetton (1), Maria Jacquemetton (1), & Jonathan Igla (1). Starring Jon Hamm, with Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Jared Harris, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Kiernan Shipka, Robert Morse, & Slattery.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: C
Enjoyment: Not as solid as season three. It takes a while to get going. But some of the mid-to-late season episodes are great. B

GPA: 2.9/4

Mad Men: Season Three

Mad Men: Season Three, 2009. A British company takes control of a 1960s ad agency.

Created by Matthew Weiner. Directed by Phil Abraham (3 episodes), Lesli Linka Glatter (2), Jennifer Getzinger (2), Michael Uppendahl (2), Daisy von Scherler Mayer (1), Scott Hornbacher (1), Barbet Schroeder (1) & Matthew Weiner (1). Written by Matthew Weiner (12 episodes), Cathryn Humphris (2), Dahvi Waller (2), Kater Gordon (2), Andrew Colville (1), Robin Veith (1), Andre Jacquemetton (1), Maria Jacquemetton (1), Lisa Albert (1), Marti Noxon (1), Brett Johnson (1) & Erin Levy (1). Starring Jon Hamm.

Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). It took three seasons for the show to get going, but boy howdy did it get going. Now I finally see what all the fuss is about.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.1/4 (Very good)

Mad Men: Season Two

Data
Title: Mad Men: Season Two
Year: 2008
Network: AMC
Episodes: 13, at about 47 minutes each
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Directors: Andrew Bernstein (3 episodes), Tim Hunter (2), Lesli Linka Glatter (2), Phil Abraham (2), Jennifer Getzinger (1), Alan Taylor (1), Michael Uppendahl (1), Matthew Weiner (1)
Writers: Matthew Weiner (11 episodes), André Jacquemetton (3), Maria Jacquemetton (3), Robin Veith (3), Lisa Albert (2), Rick Cleveland (1), Jane Anderson (1), Marti Noxon (1), Kater Gordon (1)
Starring: Jon Hamm
With: Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, John Slattery, Robert Morse, Mark Moses
Music: David Carbonara (and non-original music)
Cinematography: Chris Manley
Editing: Malcolm Jamieson, Cindy Mollo, Christopher Nelson, Tom Wilson
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past month
Synopsis: people in a 1960 advertising office drink a lot and have a lot of sex

My reaction
Concept: 1/4 (Bad)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). A sprawling, aimless mess.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). In the first season, I didn't care about the story, but at least there was a story to not care about. This feels more like an enormous epilogue to season one than a series of its own.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.5/4 (Okay)

Mad Men: Season One

Lynn’s Druthers Marathon, part 24

Data
Title: Mad Men: Season One
Year: 2007
Network: AMC
Episodes: 13, at c. 47 minutes each
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Directors: Tim Hunter (4 episodes), Alan Taylor (3), Ed Bianchi (1), Lesli Linka Glatter (1), Andrew Bernstein (1), Phil Abraham (1), Paul Feig (1), Matthew Weiner (1)
Writers: Matthew Weiner (7 episodes), André Jacquemetton (3), Maria Jacquemetton (3), Tom Palmer (2), Lisa Albert (2), Bridget Bedard (2), Chris Provenzano (2), Robin Veith (1)
Starring: Jon Hamm
With: Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Maggie Siff, Rosemarie DeWitt, Robert Morse, Anne Dudek, Darby Stanchfield, Alison Brie, Jay Paulson
Cinematography: Phil Abraham, Steve Mason, Frank G. DeMarco, Bill Roe
Music: David Carbonara (and non-original music)
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past week
Synopsis: people in a 1960 advertising office drink a lot and try to have sex

My reaction
Concept: It's like The Apartment without Jack Lemmon.
Story: Pure soap opera. I didn't give a crap about most of the story lines - especially the "mystery."
Characters:
Dialog:
Pacing:
Cinematography:
Special effects/design:
Acting:
Music: I was pretty disappointed by the music. It's good, but it could so easily have been great.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, ). It's pretty easy to get into while you're watching it, since so much is done well. But I'm not itching for more.
Objective Rating (Average):