Product Description
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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 it seems. “Mad
Men": Where the Truth Lies.
.com
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Everything about Mad Men is stylish, even when it's all falling
apart. And in season 3 of this Emmy-winning drama, many things
fall apart--marriages, childhood, even the ad agency itself--but
the unspoolings play out delicately and tragically, making for
utterly compelling television. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) appears to
dedicate himself to being a devoted family man, with the
impending birth of his third child with Betty (January Jones),
but the premiere episode, "Out of Town," has him right back to
his philandering ways. While the Drapers do enjoy a romantic
interlude during a business trip to Italy that makes you wish
those darn kids could just work it out, the writing's on the wall
that this marriage is sputtering out. Adding to the complication
is Betty's discovery of Don's identity-sw past, her own
dalliance with a politician, and their oldest child Sally's
growing petulance as she observes her world crumbling around her
(9-year-old Kiernan Shipka is a revelation). Meanwhile, the Brits
infiltrate Sterling Cooper after a merger, leaving Pete (Vincent
Kartheiser) and Ken (Aaron Staton) competing for the same job;
Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross) brings in his business and his
idiosyncrasies; the closeted Sal (Bryan Batt) nearly gets pushed
out of the closet by some compromising situations; Peggy
(Elisabeth Moss) asserts herself in the workplace and experiments
with loosening her collar (this includes a surprising fling); and
Joan (Christina Hendricks, arguably the sexiest woman on
television) finally leaves the agency to be a housewife, only to
find herself looking for work when her doctor husband comes up
short in the promotion department. As usual, the comic
lies in the reliable hands of the razor-sharp John Slattery as
agency partner Roger Sterling, whose marriage to the much-younger
former secretary of Don's drives tension between the once-chummy
colleagues. At the end of the season, JFK's assassination
provides a tragic backdrop for people preoccupied with their own
troubles. The top-drawer writing and staging feels very much like
a play, especially in the way it merges Don Draper's past with
his present. Each episode also includes commentary by creator
Matthew Weiner, various writers and directors, and pretty much
all cast members (some are entertaining, some pretty
superfluous). Also included are featurettes on the history of
advertising and civil-rights documentaries on Medgar
Evers and the "I Have a Dream" speech. The latter features, while
substantial and well made, feel curiously out of place next to
the materialistic and ethically challenged characters on Madison
Avenue. Although not as consistent as the first two seasons, Mad
Men's third season has enough power to keep it the best series of
2009. --Ellen A. Kim
Stills from Mad Men: Season 3 (Click for larger image)
( https://images-na.ssl-images-.com/images/G/01/dvd/Disney/upF8.gif )