"Mad Men is probably one of the best 10 television shows ever made. It's certainly one of the most important. It came to define a late aughts "golden age" of TV when the internet was full of show recaps and essays and aspiring networks were racing to land prestige TV hits that would win awards and convince critics that movies were no longer the most important medium for visual storytelling."
"The ultra-HD makeover of AMC's period drama about an advertising agency straddling the cultural revolution of 60s became available on HBO Max on December 1 and it includes some unique artistic choices. The most viral of those is leaving in the barf machine for one of the series' most memorable moments. In season 1, episode 7, "Red in the Face," Don Draper suckers his boss, Roger Sterling, into a late lunch break filled with booze and oysters and then races him up the Manhattan high-rise"
"Sterling gets back to the office just in time to puke in front of the entire agency, including important clients. It's an important moment that underlines a bunch of conflicting fault lines within their relationship. It's also very gross. In the new 4K version, viewers are treated to the actual puke machine that hurls clam chowder out a pipe next to Sterling's face, as well as the stage hands deploying it. It's beautifully absurd and also kind of undercuts the entire scene."
The ultra-HD Mad Men re-release on HBO Max presents visible production elements and missing post-production edits. The 4K transfer became available on December 1 and includes artistic choices that expose practical effects and crew. A notable example shows the barf machine and a crew member operating it during Roger Sterling's on-screen vomiting, which makes the sequence visibly staged. The unedited elements undercut the scene's intended impact and change audience perception. Viewers reacted online to the oversight, sharing screenshots and commentary. The release highlights quality-control lapses in streaming-era restorations and raises questions about archival transfer practices.
Read at Kotaku
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