The limited edition packaging is cool. I was afraid it would be cardboard. There’s an insert with a discount code for the Zippo lighter, and an insert giving a summary of what’s on each disc (but not which episode has which commentary).
Overall: My Gods, what a robust package!
Disc One opens with the 10 second JWT spot, and then an AMC commercial for Season 2. Then the menu has the famous silhouette with scenes from Smoke Gets in Your Eyes playing kinda translucent in the area that’s normally white and blank. The fade to the next menu item (such as special features or episode list) is cigarette smoke.
I expected to select an episode and then turn commentary on or off, but no! The episode starts right away. Instead, you have to go to special features to see a list of commentaries.
Details below the fold:
Disc One:
Scoring Mad Men
Mad Men Music Sampler
Season 2 Preview
Commentary 1 for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Matt Weiner
Commentary 2 for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Alan Taylor
Commentary 1 for Ladies Room: January Jones and Rosemarie DeWitt
Commentary 2 for Ladies Room: Michael Gladis and Elisabeth Moss
Commentary for Marriage of Figaro: Jon Hamm, Maggie Siff, and Darby Stanchfield
Disc Two
The clips shown over the menu are from Babylon this time.
Advertising the American Dream
Pictures of Elegance (an “interactive gallery”)
Commentary for New Amsterdam: Vincent Kartheiser, Alison Brie, and Lisa Albert
Commentary 1 for 5G: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, and Aaron Staton
Commentary 2 for 5G: Lesli Linka Glatter
Commentary 1 for Babylon: Christina Hendricks and Maria & André Jacquemetton
Commentary 2 for Babylon: Andrew Bernstein
Disc Three
Menu clips from Shoot
Establishing Mad Men
Commentary 1 for Red in the Face: January Jones, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, and Vincent Kartheiser
Commentary 2 for Red in the Face: Tim Hunter
Commentary 1 for The Hobo Code: Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss, and Bryan Batt
Commentary 2 for The Hobo Code: Phil Abraham
Commentary 1 for Shoot: Janie Bryant and Matt Weiner
Commentary 2 for Shoot: Dan Bishop
Disc Four
Menu clips from Nixon vs. Kennedy
Commentary 1 for Long Weekend: Christina Hendricks and Matt Weiner
Commentary 2 for Long Weekend: Tim Hunter and David Carbonara
Commentary for Indian Summer: Elisabeth Moss and Matt Weiner
Commentary 1 for Nixon vs. Kennedy: Jon Hamm, Vincent Kartheiser, and Rich Sommer
Commentary 2 for Nixon vs. Kennedy: Alan Taylor and Matt Weiner
Commentary 1 for The Wheel: Jon Hamm, January Jones, and Elisabeth Moss
Commentary 2 for The Wheel: Matt Weiner, Robin Veith, and Malcolm Jamieson
June 30, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Oh, wow! I’m at work — dare I hope that mine will be waiting for me?
It sounds terrific.
June 30, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Holy!
June 30, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Glass, I was one of the contest winners, my DVDs shipped around June 26. I assume the other two winners got theirs as well (you guys here?) but I don’t think any retailers shipped until the 29th or later.
June 30, 2008 at 8:41 pm
BTW – apropos of nothing, anyone notice that on ITunes they removed the cigarette from the silhouette’s hand (ITunes MM title page).
What, exactly, is that supposed to accomplish?
June 30, 2008 at 8:43 pm
It will keep our youth from smoking fake, silhouetted herbal cigarettes through their iPods. Now they’ll just have to make little iBongs.
June 30, 2008 at 9:04 pm
iBongs! Ha!
June 30, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Wow. I pre-orderded the DVD from barnes and noble, and this makes me want it even more. I hope it arrives before the 4th of July. I’m planning on doing a marthon. I think it’s so cool that there’s multiple commentary tracks for each episode. Thanks for the details. You do an awesome job on this blog. Your hard work is apperciated.
June 30, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I was pretty proud of iBongs; not gonna lie.
July 1, 2008 at 12:48 am
You’re right — no DVDS. I did get a package from Overstock with linens. It’s not the same!! Will trade.
July 1, 2008 at 9:10 am
Sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to get mine.
Maureen Ryan, over at The Watcher has a recap of season 1 and a review of the DVDs, as well as NEW PICTURES from season 2 here:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/06/looking-back-at.html
July 1, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The DVD’s are here! The DVD’s are here!
I’m so excited.
Haven’t watched any yet. Will watch tonight when my husband gets home, the kids are in bed, and the friends the kids have over have gone home!
July 1, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I went during my lunch break and picked up season 1 at Target, now im counting the minutes until I can rush home and watch some eps with commentary!
July 1, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Love your blog, ladies! I’ve been reading it extensively for the past couple of weeks. Just wanted to say that even though I pre-ordered my DVD set from Amazon ages ago and got a notice last weekend that the order was shipped, I still went and bought a second copy today at Target because I couldn’t wait any longer. I figure the additional copy will make a nice gift for somebody that needs a dose of something special.
July 1, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Just FYI, I pre-ordered mine (on 4/12) from Amazon and got it today in the mail.
I also pre-ordered one (on 4/27) for my sister who lives in NYC.
I got mine today, but she didn’t. Funny I got mine in my small Texas town before she did in Manhattan!
July 1, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’ll buy them when they get here, for sure! I don’t know how long that actually will take (probably a year, being optimistic), but I am buying it! Hope they don’t cut any special feature off…
July 1, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I’m in north Jersey, just outside Manhattan, and mine came!!!!!!!!!
Shh! Gotta watch something. K’Bye!
July 2, 2008 at 6:12 am
Got my pre-ordered dvd set from Amazon.co.uk on Monday and have only just realised from this post that the UK version is missing most of the commentaries. All we get is the Matt Weiner commentary for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, the Jon Hamm etc commentary for 5G, and I would guess only one of the commentaries for one of the later episodes. Only 3 discs, and no Season 2 preview. This, and no chance of seeing Season 2 til next year. Now I’m depressed!
July 2, 2008 at 7:31 am
Oh, Helen, that hurts my heart. I just watched my first commentary last night. Any chance you can get the American version?
July 2, 2008 at 8:20 am
I’m wondering whether I can do that. I guess I could get hold of it, but I’m not sure whether my dvd player will play region 1 discs. I’d thought the other evening how nice it was to have a couple of commentaries – that was until I saw what is available with the American version. I’m still trying to work out whether there’s any way of getting access to season 2 before it airs here. I know you guys have had to wait for the new season since last autumn, and that’s a long time, but it’s tough knowing that new episodes will be showing (very soon now) and people will be talking about them but no chance of me seeing them is tough. Anyway, enough self-pity. It’s so good that at least the American dvd has such great special features – enjoy!
July 2, 2008 at 8:21 am
sorry for rambling nature of last post – didn’t edit it before I submitted. I’m not usually so illiterate…
July 2, 2008 at 8:26 am
There is never a need to apologize for rambling here at the Basket. It’s sort of our unmentioned mission statemtent.
July 2, 2008 at 8:30 am
You’re very kind.
July 2, 2008 at 8:40 am
Apologies to Helen in advance … but I just received the DVD’s yesterday and so far it’s amazing. I only watched NvK and Wheel with MW commentaries and found it so illuminating … like “this is how DVD’s are supposed to work – making the characters, story and series more interesting with great insight and inside stories.” I loved hearing what made the writers laugh, how they staged scenes, etc. Most commentaries are dry and you’re like “why am I bothering.” But that’s not the case with the 2 I wateched.
Only drawback is the editor of Wheel (name escaping me) provided commentary and he just sucks all the energy out of it when he talks … like they crowbarred him in for some reason. Otherwise, it’s MW and his co-writer on Wheel and their observations kill.
Flying to Phoenix next week and will be bringing all the discs with me. Too cool.
July 2, 2008 at 8:56 am
Helen, you should look into “Region Free” DVD players. I don’t know a lot about the hardware, but sometimes the UK or Australia get better extras, and in this case obviously worse, and it would be great if you had the choice, for all DVD purchases, of which version to buy.
So, Monday night I watched Marriage of Figaro without commentary, and then 2 of the extras, and looked at the music sampler. Last night I watched 2 episodes with commentary. And there’s still SO MUCH MORE to watch.
July 2, 2008 at 9:03 am
No need to apologise dan. I thought MW’s commentary on Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was really interesting, so can imagine how illuminating they are for other episodes. Anything new/striking you especially noted from the NvK or Wheel commentaries?
You’ll hear this anyway when you watch it, but I was struck when I watched the 5G commentary last night by how many injuries Jon Hamm seems to have picked up while making season 1; aside from the broken hand and disclocated shoulder from the Korea sequence he also had panels from the conference room fall on his head while they were shooting the meeting scene in that episode and had to have 7 stitches. He really suffered for the show!
This is something else you guys have probably seen somewhere, but amazon.co.uk has an hour long video called Mad Men: the series unravelled on the page to buy the sub-standard UK version of the dvd. I’m sure you’ll have seen it already, but thought I would post the link in case you haven’t.
Mad Men – Complete Season 1 [DVD]
July 2, 2008 at 9:10 am
I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and even selected free shipping, and I got it on Monday. So far, my favorite commentary is Jon Hamm, Maggie Siff, and Darby Stanchfield for Marriage of Figaro. He’s hilarious.
July 2, 2008 at 9:20 am
For starters (and I mean really just scratching the surface) …
- In the first Korea sequence when Dick is dropped of f by the black driver (who’s last line is “You’re whining to the wrong guy …”), is an indication that the military in 1950 is more integrated than the corporate world in 1960. Never picked up on that.
- The doctor in the emergency room that tells Peggy she’s pregnant is the only doctor portrayed sympathetically.
- Lots of good insight on the Betty/Dr. Wayne scenes.
- It was over 100-degrees outside when they shot the parking lot scene with Betty and Glen
- The guy on the train urging Don to go out and meet the Whitmans when they dropped off the coffin was James Gandolfini’s stand-in on The Sopranos.
- MW talking about Pete and Trudy trying to get pregnant … at on point seems to correct himself, saying “… or try to.” Unintentional spoiler?
So much more, but I’d just be ruining the enjoyment of the episodes for everyone.
July 3, 2008 at 9:07 am
[...] a British site, gives a short, favorable (or favourable) review to the DVD set, but UK Basketcase Helen tells us that the R2 DVDs are skimpy compared to the US [...]