Mad Men - Matthew Weiner

Mad Men preview

In The New York Times, Jacques Steinberg talks to former Sopranos writer-producer, Matthew Weiner, about his new series, Mad Men which premiered on American cable station AMC last night.

Though nobody is killed, at least early on, Mr. Weiner’s lead character, an archetypal advertising man named Don Draper, is surrounded by a supporting staff of misogynistic executives who engage in enough lying, backbiting, drinking and sexual shenanigans during the industry’s golden age to rival the bad behavior of the crew at the Bada Bing club.

There is also a disproportionate amount of spirited conversation in office hallways in the series’s initial episodes — as if “The West Wing” had been restaged in a haze of cigarette smoke, among neat rows of desks topped with typewriters — though not necessarily a lot of action, beyond a low-speed car crash and some overt flirting.

“Talking can be heroic,” Mr. Weiner said in an interview here on the studio set serving as Mr. Draper’s living room, arrayed with linen drapes, needlepoint pillows and copies of Flair, the popular ’50s magazine. “I loved ‘The Sopranos.’ But not every problem can be solved by killing someone. When you take that out of the mix, talking is kind of what you have left, although a lot of problems on this show are solved by sleeping with people.”

Some reviews: from L.A. Weekly and Variety.