'Mad Men' Will Be Streaming For Free On IMDb TV This Month

Mad Men, one of the best TV shows in the history of the medium, recently left Netflix, which was a huge disappointment. But there's light at the end of the tunnel: while the series will no longer be streaming on Netflix, it will be streaming on the Amazon-owned IMDb TV soon. And by soon I mean this month. There will also be a disclaimer added to the season 3 episode "My Old Kentucky Home", which features a scene where John Slattery's character Roger Sterling is seen in blackface.

I was saddened when Mad Men left Netflix, but I'm relieved to know it'll be streaming elsewhere in a few weeks. IMDb TV, a streaming service owned by Amazon, will be streaming the series in full on July 15. Amazon also snapped up the international rights, and will begin streaming Mad Men on Amazon Prime Video around the world.

This is good news overall, although it sounds like here in America we'll only be able to watch on IMDb TV, and I'd much rather have the series streaming on Prime Video. IMDb TV is a free service, which means it has ads. But I suppose this is a good way for Amazon to get people to start paying attention to the service instead of completely ignoring it, which is pretty much what everyone does now.

Variety reports that a disclaimer will be added to the episode "My Old Kentucky Home", which features a character in blackface. The disclaimer reads:

This episode contains disturbing images related to race in America. One of the characters is shown in blackface as part of an episode that shows how commonplace racism was in America in 1963. In its reliance on historical authenticity, the series producers are committed to exposing the injustices and inequities within our society that continue to this day so we can examine even the most painful parts of our history in order to reflect on who we are today and who we want to become. We are therefore presenting the original episode in its entirety.

Adding a disclaimer like this rather than pulling the episode entirely is the right move. It's also worth noting that virtually all the characters on Mad Men are meant to be less-than-great people (I'll stop short of calling them "bad" since the show is much more complex than that).