HBO Max’s Mad Men 4K release is the opposite of a remaster
Though HBO Max was very proud to announce that it would be the first platform to stream Mad Men in 4K, the show’s new rollout has been an absolute mess.
When HBO Max subscribers fired up the app yesterday hoping to see Don Draper and company in glorious 4K, many were dismayed to see that some of the steamer’s new 4K Mad Men episodes are filled with unusual errors. A number of episodes, including “5G” and “Red in the Face,” are listed on HBO Max with incorrect titles. But the more glaring issue is the way that the infamous vomiting scene from “Red in the Face” now includes a clear shot of a production crewmember who is not supposed to be visible.
None of these mistakes really change the show beyond breaking the fantasy. But they do make it seem like something went very wrong in the process of updating Mad Men for its 4K streaming debut. This situation also makes HBO Max appear to have dropped the ball in a major way because of how obvious all of these errors are. But according to Vulture, the errors are a result of HBO Max “receiving the incorrect files from Lionsgate Television.”
One would still think that someone was tasked with rewatching all of the episodes before they were uploaded onto HBO Max’s servers. In this instance, though, it appears as if nobody thought to make sure that everything was squared away. Regardless of how this all happened, it’s a bad look for a streamer that has recently raised its prices for the third year in a row and whose parent company is in the process of trying to secure a major acquisition deal. Hopefully, HBO Max gets around to fixing the episodes sooner than later.
