Having spent much of the summer catching up on the first two seasons of Parks and Recreation and Community, I decided (since the third season sets won't be out for a while) to rewatch the run of Mad Men. It's been years since I've watched most of these episodes, so it's interesting to revisit the details.
Having watched the first thirteen episodes, I find that, over the last two seasons (which, due to the extended hiatus, lasted nearly three years), it became rather easy to forget how much the show's setting had changed. The entire Ossining setup of the first three years feels like a distant memory, coming with a whole cast of supporting characters now largely gone (same with a lot of the minor characters at Sterling Cooper). These days there's no longer much sense of separation between Don's work and his home life, which has moved into Manhattan.
There are the expected evolutions in the way characters are portrayed (Ken, even while a fairly minor character in the initial few episodes, seems very different from how he would come to be depicted; also, this was back when Harry was the nicest guy in the office, instead of increasingly immoral and pompous). Probably the biggest difference is seeing a time when Betty was still written as mostly sympathetic.
Having watched the first thirteen episodes, I find that, over the last two seasons (which, due to the extended hiatus, lasted nearly three years), it became rather easy to forget how much the show's setting had changed. The entire Ossining setup of the first three years feels like a distant memory, coming with a whole cast of supporting characters now largely gone (same with a lot of the minor characters at Sterling Cooper). These days there's no longer much sense of separation between Don's work and his home life, which has moved into Manhattan.
There are the expected evolutions in the way characters are portrayed (Ken, even while a fairly minor character in the initial few episodes, seems very different from how he would come to be depicted; also, this was back when Harry was the nicest guy in the office, instead of increasingly immoral and pompous). Probably the biggest difference is seeing a time when Betty was still written as mostly sympathetic.
