![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cb9f2eb7d00c3aa3bb919ba0555d1a2420-mad-men-4k-vomit-circle.rsquare.w330.jpg\")
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\n The show\u2019s new 4K release is riddled with errors.
\n Photo-Illustration: Vulture, HBO Max\n <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with new reporting.<\/p>\n
No show of the Peak TV era developed the reputation Mad Men did for attention to detail<\/a>. Every week, fans combed the show\u2019s production design for clues<\/a> that could illuminate the thinking of Don, Peggy, and the rest of the extended Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce family. So it\u2019s a shame that the show\u2019s splashy 4K rerelease on HBO Max was horribly botched yesterday.<\/p>\n The rewatchers who checked back in with the show as soon as it hit HBO Max on December 1 noticed problems immediately. In the famous season-one episode that ends with Roger Sterling drunkenly puking up oysters all over the office floor in front of prospective clients, HBO Max\u2019s 4K version clearly shows a set technician holding a hose<\/a> to simulate the vomit in the side of the frame \u2014 an error that wasn\u2019t in-frame in the television release, on the Mad Men DVD or Blu-ray, or the HD digital release that\u2019s been streaming for well over a decade. Some users theorize that postproduction edits seem to be messed up<\/a>. Before you run to your TV to check, don\u2019t worry \u2014 the lawn-mower\u2013foot episode<\/a> looks intact, attempted dismemberment aside.<\/p>\n But the screwups don\u2019t end there. That same oyster-vomit episode, \u201cRed in the Face,\u201d was also mislabeled on HBO Max. It\u2019s currently listed as another season-one episode, \u201cBabylon.\u201d And another episode from the first season, \u201c5G\u201d, which focuses on Don Draper\u2019s relationship with his brother, Adam Whitman, is the one labeled as \u201cRed in the Face.\u201d The show landed on HBO Max yesterday, and as of this morning, the platform has not corrected the errors or pulled the show.<\/p>\n How did this happen? Apparently, this wasn\u2019t actually HBO Max\u2019s fault \u2014 the streamer received incorrect files from <\/strong>Lionsgate Television, a source familiar with the exchange tells Vulture. Lionsgate is now in the process of getting HBO Max the correct files, and the episodes will be updated as soon as possible.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something ironic about Mad Men joining the ranks of classic shows like Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/a>, and The Wire \u2014 beloved titles made for one format and then rereleased in another only for the carefully removed vomit machines, boom mics, and other warts to show. For plenty of shows, this sort of thing is probably fine and maybe even a little funny. But Mad Men\u2019s whole deal was that it was, in our own words, \u201cbuilt to last<\/a>.\u201d In many ways, the details were the show, and interrupting its office-life fantasies<\/a> with a subpar presentation is a colossal self-own on the part of the entities distributing it. Mad Men\u2019s original HD presentation, the one we\u2019ve all been watching for 15 years, still looks amazing, and its relevant details, like the books on Don\u2019s shelf<\/a>, were always more than legible in the frame. The 4K version\u2019s errors and lack of care yank the viewer out of the story and yield nothing new in return.<\/p>\n The stinging news, until HBO Max and Lionsgate fix it, is that this 4K version is the only one that\u2019s on HBO Max across its subscription tiers; it\u2019s the one that plays even if you\u2019re not watching on a 4K TV. If you care about watching Mad Men, we advise you to stick to your DVDs, Blu-rays, AMC+, or Philo<\/a>, which is also carrying the show right now.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The show\u2019s new 4K release is riddled with errors. Photo-Illustration: Vulture, HBO Max This story has been updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[31319,18,117,7948,19,17,6085,115845,115858,826,13500,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-212276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-don-draper","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hbo-max","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-lionsgate","15":"tag-mad-men","16":"tag-matthew-weiner","17":"tag-streaming","18":"tag-streamliner","19":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115652828307450758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}