Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Mad Men season 3 DVD: Great episodes, so-so bonus features

Short column today, reviewing the "Mad Men" season 3 DVD set, in which the abundance of great bonus features on the first couple of sets starts to catch up with the people responsible for putting this one together.

Still, great episodes, and nice (unlike some other recent sets like "Breaking Bad" and "Chuck") to come out so far in advance of the next season (presumably late summer again) to give new and old fans plenty of time to catch up.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any explanation as to why January Jones doesn't appear on any of the commentary tracks?

-Red Medicine

Anonymous said...

Is there a reason that the packaging is not as imaginative as the S1 and S2 sets? That's something that has always stood out to me and made me want to immediately buy them as collectors items (especially S1's lighter) and I was just wondering if Weiner had made a comment about this.

belinda said...

I'm ok with them not going all out with the packaging (since I buy the regular looking blurays anyway) this time around.

Good to know they'd still have multiple commentaries on all the episodes, which is the main reason why I get DVDs to begin with. Though, am really surprised that Conrad Hilton is not a feature! (but it's hardly a dealbreaker).

gdt5016 said...

I haven't seen of the bonus stuff (it'll be here from Amazon today), but it seems jam packed to me. Every episode has at least one commentary and most have two. That's insane.

princessapr said...

It seems like S1 was the unusual season. I don't feel like shows do bonus features anymore. I'm just happy to get Mad Men DVDs and especially happy that the sets come out so far in advance so I can start gathering new viewers for the upcoming season and refreshing my memory as well.

Dan said...

@Red Medicine

While she's been a pretty okay actress on-camera, anyone who saw her SNL hosting stint knows Jones isn't the quickest on her feet. I have a hard time thinking a former Abercrombie model, whose only good role is one where she's a subdued, taciturn 1960's mother, would have a lot to contribute.

Anonymous said...

I know, I've heard her on some of the past commentaries. But even Kiernan Shipka gets to contribute on this one, so Jones' absence is almost...jarring or something. They've usually got 3 or 4 people talking per track, so I don't know that her lack of insight would be that bad; she certainly didn't disrupt the flow of things on the prior two DVDs.

-Red Medicine

Hollywoodaholic said...

I gotta go Blu on this but the packaging is never as good as the standard sets (no hologram on BD package).

And speaking of the Kennedy assassination, and Oswald, this photoshop photo is so very very wrong ... but pretty damn funny.

http://www.myfirstband.com/FirstBandAboutBand.htm

Anonymous said...

This one's good too:

http://jeffrey-davis.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dreamsicle.jpg

-Red Medicine

ripvanruben said...

I heard Jon Hamm on podcast (probably the Nerdist) recently and he mentioned they had just recorded the commentaries in couple of marathon sessions at the end of Feb. So i'm guessing January had a conflict with a movie or something and couldn't make it. had they waited longer to release they might have been able to schedule time with her in the studio.

Henry said...

Just watched "Out of Town" when AMC re-aired it last Sunday. I LOVE this show.

Lookin' to get the DVDs once they go down in price.

Anonymous said...

According to imdb, January Jones has been filming a movie in Berlin since december. That would explain why she wasn't available for the recording session.

berkowit28 said...

Matt Weiner seems to read the blogs "directly and indirectly", as he says. Among other examples, his commentary on Episode 6 discusses the Dr. Pepper machine in New York.