Mad Men Season 3

[badabellisima]

Originally Posted by Garth

If you are at all curious about what Sopranos fans on a comic book message board (the one I linked earlier) thought about the show. We had a somewhat official thread that someone started when he began watching the show (but after it had already concluded). There are some good conversations, and it is kind of neat to see what non-sopranos-crazies (and I say that with all love possible, my fellow members) thought of the show. Check it out if interested. http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...d.php?t=135119

Found You! And you're online with the little green light- but i couldn't log in . Craaaazy site- but cool. You're facebook wasn't linking.

[Garth]

Originally Posted by badabellisima

Found You! And you're online with the little green light- but i couldn't log in . Craaaazy site- but cool. You're facebook wasn't linking.

Yeah it is pretty out there. Just a warning for other Chase Lounge members. It is nowhere near as reserved or professional as this forum. Did you register there? I believe you need to register there, even though the forum style is the same as here, it does not allow you to log in with your info from here. Also, they don't let you use Yahoo or AOL email addresses, in an effort to cut down on spammers. As for my facebook...really? I just tried it and it worked fine. Weird!

[Garth]

For those interested here is a link for an article about the third season of Mad Men's release on dvd/blu-ray
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mad-Men-Season-3/13146

as well as a link to the box art here...
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mad...-Box-Art/13151

[badabellisima]

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

[AJColossal]

Perusing the "Best-of-the-2000s" TV lists online, this one stood out as the only list (to my knowledge) to have Mad Men ahead of Sopranos:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-...e-no-3-mad-men

I believe Sopranos was #5.

[conkom]

And once again "The Wire" gets no.1 of the decade (it's strange to think that 2009 instead of 2010 should be considered the "end of the decade").

And Time Magazine had "The Sopranos" as equal 7 to "Survivor".

However an Australian popular culture writer did put the Sopranos just ahead of the Wire on the grounds that at least the former could be funny.

I took adavantage of buying the DVD box sets when they were just under $20 each. I thought this would be the opportunity to finally watch this series which so many people were raving about.

And after 5 episodes I still can't fathom why these informed adjudicators choose to put the Wire above the Sopranos (let alone placing the Sopranos somewhere down the middle of the Top 10 pack).

Don't get me wrong. It is well acted and scripted. And it probably deserves the accolades. But...

It is not compelling television. And any program that makes one hour feel like a day can't be entertaining. Some say that watching the show and following and absorbing the storylines has its rewards. I actually find it punishing instead.

I hate to sound nasty but I wonder whether these fans and critics are trying to be a little bit too clever (pretentious perhaps?). The problem I have with what I have seen is that the "realism" is overdone and overwrought to the point where it is clearly a contrivance, the opposite to what the producers of the show intended.

No one seriously suggested that the Sopranos was "realistic" although it did feel "real". But there was a depth to the storylines and even in the incidental sub-plots, and to the characters and character interaction, that made it (to my subjective mind) not only the best series of the decade but ever!

Admitedly I have only seen 5 episodes of season 1 of the Wire. Perhaps it does get better. Maybe if I had watched it during its original run I might have thought differently. However I don't look forward to watching another episode and sometimes I watch half and episode and leave it for a week or two.

But from what I have seen so far I would rank the Wire as the most over-rated and (ironically) superficial show of the "noughties". But I hope when I get through a few more episodes I will prove myself wrong.

[AJColossal]

Well, if it's any consolation to you, metacritic.com compiles all of the critics' top-10s and best-of-decade lists, and by their metrics, Sopranos was the #1 show of the 00's, ahead of even The Wire.

The Wire gets better as you go on. It is a very well-plotted show; sometimes, I think, better than The Sopranos (probably due to Chase's sometimes indifference to plot). But I really believe that the Sopranos was the better artistic achievement.

You have to remember that The Sopranos was a critical and pop culture sensation. People's grandmothers' watched The Sopranos. By comparison, no one watched The Wire. I think it explains some of the overwhelming critical respons towards the show the show. After all, isn't it more fun to champion the great band that no one's heard of instead of the great band they play on the radio every five minutes?

And to bring the discussion back to Mad Men, I have no idea what the critic I referenced is doing by placing it ahead of Sopranos. How you can say three seasons of a show surpasses the complete work of another (that completely informed and guided it) is a real head scratcher.

[conkom]

Yes you are right about Mad Men. As good as it is, comparing it to the full series of the Sopranos is premature. And even if one compares both series' first 3 seasons. The Sopranos still is the show that sets the standard.

Thanks for the metacritic heads up. It does look like the Sopranos does shade The Wire in most people's estimation.

I will admit I have been churlish about the Wire. I guess listening to people raving about "it's even better than the Sopranos" made me more ready to look for its flaws.

I will take the trouble to watch the rest of it when I get a chance.

Like the rock band comparison analogy.

[FlyOnMelfisWall]

Originally Posted by AJColossal

You have to remember that The Sopranos was a critical and pop culture sensation. People's grandmothers' watched The Sopranos. By comparison, no one watched The Wire. I think it explains some of the overwhelming critical respons towards the show the show. After all, isn't it more fun to champion the great band that no one's heard of instead of the great band they play on the radio every five minutes?

This is exactly what I guage to be driving some of the "backlash" (if you can call it that) towards the Sopranos. The elitist snobbery that infects most areas of critique is also bound to discount a show with a healthy demographic of viewers that admitedly watched priimarily for the whackings and bare tits. "If those idiots love it, how good could it be," so they would argue.

All the more reason the Sopranos was so great in that it could appeal for all kinds of reasons to all kinds of people. Chase used the term "zeitgheist" in connection with the unique confluence of factors that made the show such a wide-raning critical and popular success, and I think that's exactly right.

In the end, all that really matters is that those who love it, like we do, know it's value. And it will be talked about in the film and literature departments of universities for decades, if not centuries, to come when shows like "The Wire" and "Lost" will be mentioned (if at all) only because they were contemporaries with it.

[conkom]

Originally Posted by conkom

I will take the trouble to watch the rest of it when I get a chance.

Mea Culpa.

Just finished the second season.

And it was very very good. Almost reminiscent of the Sopranos. I was being very churlish.

Sopranos still the best show ever.

But The Wire comes very close.

(And to keep it on-topic probably better than Mad Men so far. However it does deal with different themes.)