If you want to see Mad Men truly like never before, go to HBO Max. But, like, hurry up before they fix it.
The 4K stream of the classic Lionsgate Television series for AMC Network came to HBO Max on Monday, and the big acquisition is…not going as planned.
For starters, Mad Men episodes (in 4K) on HBO Max are out of order and mislabeled. But that’s nothing compared to an actual edit oopsie in the seventh episode of season one. In “The Hobo Code” (what the episode is supposed to be titled but is not in HBO Max), a drunk (they were always drunk) Roger Sterling (John Slattery) vomits up oysters in the office in front of prospective clients. In the 4K stream currently on HBO Max, a crew member is very visibly operating a barf hose behind Sterling and in full view of the camera. There’s even a second dude seemingly just supporting the puke-hose tech in frame.
It appears that Lionsgate Television delivered the wrong 4K file of the series to HBO Max — rut-roh.
HBO Max is awaiting the redelivery of the 4K files from Lionsgate, The Hollywood Reporter is told; the non-4K files were fine as delivered.
Lionsgate did not immediately comment for this story.
HBO Max heavily promoted its acquisition of Mad Men reruns, and especially touted it would be the series’ first time ever in 4K. This is probably not quite how they pictured it — literally.
“Mad Men is a great addition to the HBO Max library of iconic content,” Royce Battleman, executive vice president of global content acquisitions at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in last month’s announcement. “We are thrilled that HBO Max will provide fans the opportunity to enjoy the series in a fresh way with an enhanced 4K viewing experience.”
“Mad Men continues to show truly remarkable staying power with audiences a full decade after concluding its network run, and we couldn’t imagine a better home for it than HBO Max,” Jim Packer, the president of worldwide television distribution at Lionsgate, said at the time. “HBO sets the bar for premium entertainment, making it the perfect place to celebrate one of television’s defining series while introducing Mad Men to new viewers and reintroducing it to longtime fans in 4K.”
Mad Men has been streaming on AMC+ since 2020; the non-4K version remains there as well.
