Great Job, Internet!: HBO Max's remastered Mad Men reveals too much

As Bluesky user Paul Haine pointed out this morning, the remastered Mad Men has at least once left a props coordinator in the background of a shot. The scene comes in the series’ seventh episode, “Red In The Face” (though it’s incorrectly listed on the streamer as the series’ sixth episode, “Babylon.”) Don Draper takes Roger Sterling out for a boozy lunch of oysters and then leaves him to climb the stairs back to the Sterling Cooper office, where Roger promptly vomits in front of some clients. In the version that currently sits on HBO Max, two men controlling the vomit hose are clearly visible in the background of the shot. As fellow Bluesky users Cooper Lund and Todd Vaziri point out, it doesn’t seem to be an issue of cropping but of post-production; the frame seems pretty identical to the original, which is still in the 16:9 aspect ratio but doesn’t include the vomit hose guy. 

When HBO announced the news that Mad Men was coming to streaming, a spokesperson shared that the company was thrilled to “provide fans the opportunity to enjoy the series in a fresh way with an enhanced 4K viewing experience.” There’s no doubt about that. As of this writing, it’s unclear what other surprises may lie in wait for these mad men; those fans embarking on a rewatch probably haven’t made it much further than the series seventh episode on its first day of availability. We’ve reached out to HBO for more details, and in the meantime, we hope vomit hose guy enjoys his newfound glory.