Mad Men: Season 2
Set in 1960s New York City, Mad Men explores the glamorous and ego-driven "Golden Age" of advertising, where everyone is selling something and nothing is ever what it seems. And no one plays the game better than Don Draper (Golden Globe-winner Jon Hamm), Madison Avenue's biggest ad man - and ladies' man - in the business. Returning for its second season, the Golden Globe-winning series for Best TV Drama and Actor continues to blur the lines between truth and lies, perception and reality. The world of Mad Men is moving in a new direction - can Sterling Cooper keep up? Meanwhile, the private life of Don Draper becomes complicated in a new way. What is the cost of his secret identity?
Member Reviews
A step down from the first season - eli_quincy
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of "Mad Men." It's too slow, too angst-ridden and too heavy on on-the-nose symbolism for my taste. But the second season didn't help matters. The first series of episodes had the advantage of freshness: say what you will about this show, but it has an atmosphere and feel all its own. By the second season, it's not nearly as novel and the show's lack of compelling plots and forward movement becomes more apparent.Madness in Focus - cinecynic
Season Two gets more deeply into the inner lives of the characters of Season One. We no longer just laugh at the surface differences between then and now, but we glimpse what life was like in 1962 in America and can see the motivations behind the people.
The women's lives are also more in focus. We see how the women's liberation movement would become so strong within just a few years just by glimpsing the growth of the main women in Mad Men: Peggy, Betty and Joan. We see some still clinging to the ideal of motherhood and others becoming more politically involved.
Politics are more prevalent in Season Two: office politics, marital politics and the politics of the country. The race riots in the south and the Cuban Missile Crisis affect our characters.
Don Draper's past comes a little more into the light, and we see he's not all bad. He has made some amends with people he's crossed paths with before.Up until the Final Episode - Myself
Terrific, challenging, hard-to-watch depiction of the 1960's (reminding us of the objectification of women...Stepford wives in real life...and the power imbalance between the sexes), that developed well in Season 2, except for the final Episode, which I found totally disappointing. Particularly, "but I love you and need you in my life, Betty" part; I know Don D was himself a shallow, empty man, but the whole course was in the direction of him "finding" himself and being "true" to his past, and then he returns to the Plastic, Unlikeable, Totally Repressed Betty who says nothing, thinks about nothing (but superficialities), is a damaging, unempathic parent... I don't get it. Further, I thought some of the central women would finally confront their oppression... Joannee, for example, after she was betrayed on the job (doing a competent job in the creative department, then being relegated back to handing the men their coats and hats) and "on the floor" by her image-conscious husband-to-be. Sigh.
Member Reviews
Read All...
A step down from the first season - eli_quincy
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of "Mad Men." It's too slow, too angst-ridden and too heavy on on-the-nose symbolism for my taste. But the second season didn't help matters. The first series of episodes had the advantage of freshness: say what you will ...Madness in Focus - cinecynic
Season Two gets more deeply into the inner lives of the characters of Season One. We no longer just laugh at the surface differences between then and now, but we glimpse what life was like in 1962 in America and can see the motivations behind the people.
The ...Up until the Final Episode - Myself
Terrific, challenging, hard-to-watch depiction of the 1960's (reminding us of the objectification of women...Stepford wives in real life...and the power imbalance between the sexes), that developed well in Season 2, except for the final Episode, which I found ...