For The Ultimate Mad Men Fan, Taschen’s New $850 Mega-Book
January 6, 2017
Are you a “Mad Men” fan, as in a really big fan? Then surely your life won’t be complete without Taschen publisher’s giant boxed set priced at $850.
Here’s the rundown:
This book is TASCHEN’s tribute to Mad Men’s television art. Volume 1 chronicles the show’s seven seasons with sequential stills alongside key script excerpts. From a sideways glance to a cavorting office Christmas party, each frame captivates in its masterful visual storytelling, its choreography of people, places, and situations down to the most discrete, dynamic detail.
Volume 2 brings a wealth of behind-the-scenes insights with on-set photographs, production ephemera, costume designs, notes from the writers’ room, as well as extensive and candid interviews with the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner; the “Writers’ Room” (Lisa Albert, Semi Chellas, Jonathan Igla, Andre & Maria Jacquemetton, Janet Leahy, Erin Levy, Tom Smuts, Carly Wray); Scott Hornbacher (executive producer and director); Phil Abraham (cinematographer and director); Chris Manley (director of photography); Dan Bishop (production and set designer); Janie Bryant (costume designer); and Jon Hamm (actor and director).
Style aside, Mad Men is another volley in the assault on the past. Despite the fact that our ancestors were far better at sustaining a civilization than we are, had better manners, and were better educated in Western civilization, we “enlightened” moderns just can’t resist the impulse to drag them down to our level, or below. According to this twisted worldview, all those eeevil white men of the past were racist, sexist smokers who delighted in oppressing minorities and abusing women. Why, it’s amazing that anyone survived to adulthood, what with all the danger children faced (no seat belts! Metal jungle gyms on cement playgrounds! Alcoholic pregnant women!). The reason people believe the gross caricatures spewed forth from the entertainment industry is that they’re too ignorant to know otherwise, and too self-absorbed to be bothered to learn.
@Henry
Coincidentally I started watching the show again via Netflix and was taken aback by how poor the acting is. I don’t know why I didn’t pick up on that the first time. Probably too mesmerized by set design and costuming. I also noticed, to your point, how caricatured and garish the personalities were. I understand it’s fiction but there’s hardly a redeemable character on the show. I racked my brain and couldn’t think of one person, save Betty’s second husband, who exuded noblesse oblige or weren’t given wholly over to Cyreniac hedonism. Its as if the writers had no desire to develop the characters beyond their more base instincts. It became almost a farce with so many gross out moments: the secretary running over the clients foot with a lawnmower and everyone splattered in blood, Roger puking in front of clients, Don puking at the funeral, Abe getting stabbed with a spear, lane hanging himself. At some point and I don’t recall win, they jumped the shark, and went for shocks.
I stopped watching simply because I found I didn’t care about any of the characters and their lives beyond a certain point. The only guy who held my interest was Don, simply because I wanted to learn his whole backstory and how he got where he is. I still don’t know as I kept one ear and eye closed about what happened with the story.
@Roycru in Sterling Cooper’s first location, there was an elevator operator. Roger later laments their disappearance. As for an “elevator starter,” don’t know what those were.
I enjoyed the show, but not that much.
Style aside, Mad Men is another volley in the assault on the past. Despite the fact that our ancestors were far better at sustaining a civilization than we are, had better manners, and were better educated in Western civilization, we “enlightened” moderns just can’t resist the impulse to drag them down to our level, or below. According to this twisted worldview, all those eeevil white men of the past were racist, sexist smokers who delighted in oppressing minorities and abusing women. Why, it’s amazing that anyone survived to adulthood, what with all the danger children faced (no seat belts! Metal jungle gyms on cement playgrounds! Alcoholic pregnant women!). The reason people believe the gross caricatures spewed forth from the entertainment industry is that they’re too ignorant to know otherwise, and too self-absorbed to be bothered to learn.
Hmm have you actually watched a season of Mad Men or just an episode ?? No judgment but the show has a bit more volume than you described . .
@Henry
Coincidentally I started watching the show again via Netflix and was taken aback by how poor the acting is. I don’t know why I didn’t pick up on that the first time. Probably too mesmerized by set design and costuming. I also noticed, to your point, how caricatured and garish the personalities were. I understand it’s fiction but there’s hardly a redeemable character on the show. I racked my brain and couldn’t think of one person, save Betty’s second husband, who exuded noblesse oblige or weren’t given wholly over to Cyreniac hedonism. Its as if the writers had no desire to develop the characters beyond their more base instincts. It became almost a farce with so many gross out moments: the secretary running over the clients foot with a lawnmower and everyone splattered in blood, Roger puking in front of clients, Don puking at the funeral, Abe getting stabbed with a spear, lane hanging himself. At some point and I don’t recall win, they jumped the shark, and went for shocks.
Poor acting?????
I stopped watching simply because I found I didn’t care about any of the characters and their lives beyond a certain point. The only guy who held my interest was Don, simply because I wanted to learn his whole backstory and how he got where he is. I still don’t know as I kept one ear and eye closed about what happened with the story.
Some of us who were alive during the period “Mad Men” was set in kept wondering where all the elevator operators and elevator starters were.
@Roycru in Sterling Cooper’s first location, there was an elevator operator. Roger later laments their disappearance. As for an “elevator starter,” don’t know what those were.