So I have been thinking about rewatching Mad Men aka one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
The pilot episode titled Smoke Gets in your Eyes is actually incredible. It sets up all the major characters (Don, Roger, Pete, Peggy, Joan) and introduces the audience to the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. The only major character I'd argue does not get a whole lot of presence in the pilot is Betty but the episode's twist ending does introduce her. We learn how they operate, what challenges they have, and the dynamic the characters operate in. They set up a conflict (the reported health risks of cigarettes impacting sales of cigarettes) and find a way to deal with it (Its toasted).
The twist at the end of the episode that Don is actually married with children is so shocking and unexpected. We see Don spending time with his bohemian girlfriend and assume that this is the extent of his life outside work. By the end of the episode they establish one of the key parts of Don Draper, his duality. He is both a family man and he is in a relation ship with another woman. He is Don Draper but also Dick Whitman.
I am sooooooooooo fucking stoked to get back into this show. Are there any other shows that open as strongly as Mad Men?
Edit: I can't believe I might need to link this but...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_pilot
The pilot episode titled Smoke Gets in your Eyes is actually incredible. It sets up all the major characters (Don, Roger, Pete, Peggy, Joan) and introduces the audience to the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. The only major character I'd argue does not get a whole lot of presence in the pilot is Betty but the episode's twist ending does introduce her. We learn how they operate, what challenges they have, and the dynamic the characters operate in. They set up a conflict (the reported health risks of cigarettes impacting sales of cigarettes) and find a way to deal with it (Its toasted).
The twist at the end of the episode that Don is actually married with children is so shocking and unexpected. We see Don spending time with his bohemian girlfriend and assume that this is the extent of his life outside work. By the end of the episode they establish one of the key parts of Don Draper, his duality. He is both a family man and he is in a relation ship with another woman. He is Don Draper but also Dick Whitman.
I am sooooooooooo fucking stoked to get back into this show. Are there any other shows that open as strongly as Mad Men?
Edit: I can't believe I might need to link this but...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its creation, the pilot is meant to be the testing ground to gauge whether a series will be successful; it is therefore a test episode for the intended television series, an early step in the series development, much like pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity. In the case of a successful television series, the pilot is commonly the very first episode that is aired of the particular series under its own name; the episode that gets the series "off the ground".