HBO Max Slammed for ‘Mad Men’ 4K Title Errors, Color Issues, and Crew Member Mistakes

Now streaming on HBO Max in all its 4K glory, Mad Men is considered one of HBO’s best ever shows, standing alongside the likes of The Sopranos as everything that the brand stands for in terms of quality television. The 4K upgrade was therefore something that fans were looking forward to, but things very quickly turned into a comedy of errors, as first viewers quickly slammed the work done on the upgrade following some blatant mistakes made in the new version of the series.

One BlueSky user shared a screenshot from the episode entitled “Red in the Face,” which features a moment affectionately known as Roger’s oyster vomit scene. However, in the new enhanced version, the scene also includes something that was not previously seen in the old version of the show. Off to the right of the screen, the crew member working the pump supplying the “vomit” is clearly in shot, as can be seen in the screengrab in the post below.

Another user has also claimed that episodes are not labeled correctly on the platform, with the aforementioned episode actually being labeled as “Babylon”, while clicking on “Red in the Face” plays the episode “5G”. This is also accompanied by plenty of people who have slammed the new color grading and lighting on the series, some of whom have claimed that the lack of quality control “suggests that AI helped” in the remaster.

Remastered Upgrades Don’t Always Work Out as Planned

The new upgrade of Mad Men is not alone in being ridiculed for some errors that should have been easily spotted, or for messing with the overall coloring and contrast settings. When Fox decided to give Buffy the Vampire Slayer the same treatment, they faced similar issues, with one scene featuring a lighting rig at the side of the picture and fans making the same comments about “terrible” changes to the overall appearance.

Another high-profile example of “enhancements” to older content not quite working out as planned was the addition of The Simpsons to Disney+ following the House of Mouse’s acquisition of Fox. Following the arrival of classic episodes on Disney+, the changes made to alter the aspect ratio of the animated series resulted in several gags and scenes being “ruined” for many fans after parts of the picture were cut off.

Perhaps there is a strong case for leaving well-enough alone, or at least ensuring that the content being revised is done so with a bit more attention to detail than just running it through a process and tossing it out into the world. While there is no doubt that HBO will correct the glaring issues being faced with Mad Men, it will not be before those errors, and probably more, have been shared many times over on social media.

Release Date

2007 – 2015-00-00

Network

AMC