HBO Max’s Mad Men Vomit Scene Proves ‘Remastered’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Better’

Last month, HBO Max announced a major new addition to its library. Not only would the streamer be adding Mad Men—a show that HBO execs infamously passed on back when Matthew Weiner was a writer on The Sopranos—but it would be presenting the period drama’s episodes in a new 4K remastering. This would, according to the press release, “[give] audiences and longtime Mad Men fans the opportunity to enjoy the series’ authentically-crafted elements with crisp detail and enhanced visual clarity.”

As it turned out, there was perhaps too much clarity. Not long after the series went live on HBO Max, a screencap began floating around social media, from a scene in the Season One episode “Red in the Face,” where Roger Sterling is vomiting in front of a group of horrified Sterling Cooper clients. When it aired—and in the version still available on AMC+—seven men ...