Mad Men Carousel is an episode-by-episode guide to all seven seasons of AMC's Mad Men. This book collects TV and movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz’s celebrated Mad Men recaps—as featured on New York magazine's Vulture blog—for the first time, including never-before-published essays on the show’s first three seasons. Seitz’s writing digs deep into the show’s themes, performances, and filmmaking, examining complex and sometimes confounding aspects of the series. The complete series—all seven seasons and ninety-two episodes—is covered.
Each episode review also includes brief explanations of locations, events, consumer products, and scientific advancements that are important to the characters, such as P.J. Clarke’s restaurant and the old Penn Station; the inventions of the birth control pill, the Xerox machine, and the Apollo Lunar Module; the release of the Beatles’ Revolver and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds; and all the wars, protests, assassinations, and murders that cast a bloody pall over a chaotic decade.
Mad Men Carousel is named after an iconic moment from the show’s first-season finale, “The Wheel,” wherein Don delivers an unforgettable pitch for a new slide projector that’s centered on the idea of nostalgia: “the pain from an old wound.” This book will soothe the most ardent Mad Men fan’s nostalgia for the show. New viewers, who will want to binge-watch their way through one of the most popular TV shows in recent memory, will discover a spoiler-friendly companion to one of the most multilayered and mercurial TV shows of all time.
It's the perfect gift for Mad Men fans and obsessives.
Also available from Matt Zoller Seitz: The Oliver Stone Experience, The Wes Anderson Collection: Bad Dads, The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Wes Anderson Collection.
Praise
"Took me back to the days when you’d actually look forward to your favorite TV hour, the immersive pleasure bath of now what are they going to do?"David Chase, creator of The Sopranos
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"Matt Zoller Seitz’s recaps are in service to Mad Men’s excellence and complexity. First-rate work."David Milch, creator of Deadwood and writer-producer for NYPD Blue
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"In this gorgeous collection of recaps, Matt Zoller Seitz seeks the wisdom within Matthew Weiner’s visionary television show, examining it from every angle, shaking it like a snow globe. A treat for anyone who cares about television."Emily Nussbaum, TV critic for The New Yorker
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"Pithy, witty, smart, and from the heart: That’s what we expect from a classic Don Draper pitch, and Matt Zoller Seitz captures all of these qualities in his must-read Mad Men recaps."Maureen Ryan, TV critic for The Huffington Post
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"Matt Zoller Seitz writes about television more passionately and compellingly than any other critic writing today. With Mad Men, he’s found his Shangri-La. Mad Men Carousel is essential reading for fans like me, who eagerly awaited his trenchant and witty analyses almost as much as the groundbreaking show itself. Thought-provoking and wildly entertaining, this brilliant collection of essays makes me want to revisit all seven seasons of the greatest American television show ever produced."Robert Falls, artistic director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre
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"Matt Zoller Seitz's brilliantly elaborate dissection and exploration of this equally complex series makes this collection absolutely essential for Mad Men obsessives like myself."Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Aimee Mann
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"I envy anyone who has never watched Mad Men and gets to experience it for the first time with the invaluably perceptive Matt Zoller Seitz close at hand. For the rest of us, this addictive and rewarding deep-dive into every episode is an irresistible reason to revisit a great series."Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of New Hollywood and Five
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