The Mad Men Streaming Debacle Is a Strange Cautionary Tale
The arrival of *Mad Men* on HBO Max has been heralded as a significant milestone for both the series and the streaming platform, which is now under the Warner Bros. umbrella. After years of being confined to the less popular AMC+ service, the critically acclaimed show is now available in stunning 4K resolution, providing fans with the opportunity to experience the series in a new light. However, this much-anticipated release has not been without its hiccups. Viewers have noticed unusual elements in the upgraded visuals, such as behind-the-scenes technicians and modern store signage appearing in scenes, a result of incorrect files being delivered to HBO. These errors, although set to be corrected, have sparked discussions about the challenges of revamping older shows for contemporary viewing, emphasizing that sometimes, newer formats can detract from the original intent of the series.
*Mad Men*, which originally aired from 2007 to 2015, played a pivotal role in the evolution of television, marking the tail end of the “golden age” of TV. The series helped establish AMC as a network known for groundbreaking dramas, alongside hits like *Breaking Bad* and *The Walking Dead*. During its premiere, Netflix was just beginning its streaming journey, and by the time it concluded, the binge-watching phenomenon had taken off, with viewers often catching up on previous seasons via streaming. Transitioning *Mad Men* to HBO Max highlights the complexities of bringing classic television into the modern era. Unlike other shows that faced issues with aspect ratios when adapting to widescreen formats, *Mad Men* was originally shot in a wider format, making the technical errors in its upload particularly frustrating. The rollout has even led to episodes being mislabeled and incomplete visual effects, raising concerns about the quality of content that viewers now receive through streaming services.
This situation underscores a larger trend in the streaming landscape, where viewers increasingly rely on platforms for access to a vast library of content, often unaware of the potential pitfalls associated with digital releases. While owning physical media remains a reliable option for purists who want to avoid these issues, the convenience of streaming continues to dominate viewer preferences. As shows like *Mad Men* navigate the complexities of modern distribution, the conversation around the preservation of television history and the integrity of classic series becomes ever more pertinent. Ultimately, *Mad Men*’s debut on HBO Max serves as a reminder that while technology can enhance our viewing experiences, it can also introduce new challenges that may compromise the essence of beloved shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JmBcW8dbkg
When
Mad Men
arrived on HBO Max earlier this week, after years languishing on the less-subscribed-to AMC+ service, the streamer’s parent company, Warner Bros., heralded it as a triumph. Finally, the much-acclaimed Emmy magnet would be available to watch in glorious 4K resolution; viewers would now have “the opportunity to enjoy the series in a fresh way,” as the WB executive Royce Battleman trumpeted. And the results certainly were fresh: For the first time ever,
Mad Men
fans could enjoy
such sights
as behind-the-scenes technicians operating Roger Sterling’s “vomit hose” as he unleashed a three-martini lunch on the carpets of Sterling Cooper.
The visually upgraded version presents
Mad Men
in the now-standard widescreen format, something all modern TVs, laptops, tablets, and phones are geared toward, as opposed to the boxy televisions of old. But the team behind the image conversion seemingly used footage without a bunch of the usual postproduction edits—hence the appearance of inessential elements like those dutiful barf wranglers and, in the background of a different shot,
contemporary store signage
. I was largely bemused to hear of the mistakes, which
reportedly
stemmed from incorrect files being delivered to HBO and will be corrected. But the incident did serve as a reminder that, in the case of finessing nostalgic TV’s shift into the current streaming era, newer is not always better.
Mad Men
ran during a transitory era of TV. The series was one of the last entries in the medium’s “golden age,” which kicked off with HBO hits such as
The Sopranos
. These were the kinds of provocative water-cooler sensations that had cable subscribers tuning in weekly at an appointed hour (10 p.m. on Sunday, in
Mad Men
’s case)—an experience that
has mostly vanished
in the streaming era. It also helped make a name for its network, AMC, as a home of challenging dramas;
Breaking Bad
and
The Walking Dead
were also on the schedule. When
Mad Men
premiered, in 2007, Netflix had just launched its streaming service, an add-on to its disc-by-mail business; when the finale aired, in 2015, the show had grown its audience partly by gaining traction on that streaming service, where people would binge previous seasons to get ready for the new one.
[
Read: Your TV is too good for you
]
Bringing an older program onto a newer streaming service is rarely a seamless process. But the issue
Mad Men
’s HBO Max debut ran into is different from the growing pains many TV classics have experienced with their modern-day streaming upgrades. Take the notable examples of
The Simpsons
and
Seinfeld
: Each was filmed in a square-looking aspect ratio (4:3, for the audio-visual nerds out there), which was typical of all TV before the mid-2000s; the dimensions suited the televisions everyone had at home. When the image was stretched to fit today’s common flatscreens (designed for a 16:9 ratio, which more closely matches the scale of a movie-theater screen), the top and bottom of the frames were cut off. For
The Simpsons
and
Seinfeld
, that sometimes meant sacrificing visual jokes; the changed picture also had a weird surrealism.
Some streaming services have adjusted to this technological quirk. On Disney+,
The Simpsons
can be toggled
into its original ratio. And some hits from the pre-widescreen era, such as
The X-Files
, were made by cinematically oriented people who
anticipated the future
that was coming for TV; they geared the visuals toward a bigger screen. But that was not
Mad Men
’s problem. The series had been mastered for the wider aspect ratio from the beginning; the problem here is an oddly lazy upload process. The HBO Max rollout’s shoddiness even means some episodes bear the wrong titles, alongside the proliferation of incomplete visual-effects work.
The release is an argument for owning physical media—go buy
Mad Men
on disc, and it’ll have none of these issues—but that’s becoming more and more of a niche market. People now desire the easy click of a button that any streamer provides; I love that I can cue up any of
Bluey
’s 150-plus episodes within seconds for my demanding daughter. Access to the deep archives of any big service, especially those filled with excellent dramas, is another reason to keep paying the
ever-rising monthly bills
. But as shows shuffle among Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and other platforms, viewers will be at the mercy of tweaks and potential problems like this one. Many of them will be perhaps unaware of how bowdlerized the product they’re watching has become.
Mad Men
was an instant classic in 2007, yes, but on the internet, not even TV history’s most celebrated episodes can be entirely set in stone.
