Mad Men Season Five in Canada?
March 23, 2012 6:29 AM Subscribe
Mad Men Canada: Will Mad Men Season 5 be available on iTunes Canada, Netflix, or something other? I will not be boosting my cable package for just the one show, even if it's this one.
In past years, you could buy a season pass on iTunes somewhat in advance. No such option appears yet, nor can I find out the least bit of information if a season pass will be available, or even if single episodes will be available the morning after.
There seems to be some suggestion that it will be available on Netflix, but as an outsider, I can't really find out.
Googling has been exceptionally useless, in that everything seems only to discuss previous seasons, and not season five, and every news items only says "Mad Men starts on AMC March 25th".
With spoilers everywhere after airing, 24 hrs is about the longest I can keep myself in the cone of silence. I'm not going to wait for DVDs to be released.
So tell me, hive, how is this desperate Canadian to (preferably legally) hook up with the new season of Mad Men over the net? Please and thank you.
In past years, you could buy a season pass on iTunes somewhat in advance. No such option appears yet, nor can I find out the least bit of information if a season pass will be available, or even if single episodes will be available the morning after.
There seems to be some suggestion that it will be available on Netflix, but as an outsider, I can't really find out.
Googling has been exceptionally useless, in that everything seems only to discuss previous seasons, and not season five, and every news items only says "Mad Men starts on AMC March 25th".
With spoilers everywhere after airing, 24 hrs is about the longest I can keep myself in the cone of silence. I'm not going to wait for DVDs to be released.
So tell me, hive, how is this desperate Canadian to (preferably legally) hook up with the new season of Mad Men over the net? Please and thank you.
So I know you said you don't want to boost your cable but I'll tell you what I did last month (but may not apply with cable companies in Canada). I really missed having HBO because thier series. I called cable and said I wanted HBO but didn't want to pay anymore. The representative looked around, found some promo, and I am paying 5 dollars less a month for a year and have HBO and cinemax now. It may be worth a try.
posted by beccaj at 6:56 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by beccaj at 6:56 AM on March 23, 2012
I don't know if Amazon Instant works in Canada, but season 5 is available there. You can sign up to subscribe to the whole season (I don't see prices listed yet, but it was 1.99/episode last year), and you can watch them the day after they air.
posted by donajo at 7:10 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by donajo at 7:10 AM on March 23, 2012
I have a friend with this crazy old contraption - a VCR! He records Mad Men and then passes over the tape for me to watch. It's old school, but it works.
I feel your pain. Mad Men is great but I am not going to a) buy a TV, b) buy cable, c) buy PREMIUM cable just to watch one show.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:13 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
I feel your pain. Mad Men is great but I am not going to a) buy a TV, b) buy cable, c) buy PREMIUM cable just to watch one show.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:13 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Durr, that should be "me and my friends to watch". friend with a tv and an ancient VCR.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:14 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:14 AM on March 23, 2012
If you're that interested there are, uh, "other" streaming options available online almost immediately after the show airs. See: SideReel
posted by hepta at 7:16 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by hepta at 7:16 AM on March 23, 2012
If Amazon instant doesn't work in Canada, there are specific proxies that cater to streaming services. Less shady than just torrenting the episodes, but more of a pain in the ass.
posted by supercres at 7:16 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by supercres at 7:16 AM on March 23, 2012
Best answer: I use a VPN service for this exact reason. (I have been very pleased with StrongVPN, prepay for 3 months). Using the VPN service, I'm able to access Amazon Instant.
posted by smitt at 7:29 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by smitt at 7:29 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'm in the same boat, and I've come to the same conclusion. There does not appear to be a legal way to do this in Canada at time of broadcast, aside from signing up for $100+/mo cable. Amazon prime hasn't come to Canada, Netflix will probably have it, but only well after it airs and Apple doesn't seem to know about it.
My plan is to rely on the kindness of strangers and the web ethereal, since no one will take my money.
posted by bonehead at 7:43 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
My plan is to rely on the kindness of strangers and the web ethereal, since no one will take my money.
posted by bonehead at 7:43 AM on March 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. The proxy route looks to be the best legal option, and thanks to bonehead for confirming my suspicions.
Part of the problem is that I need to hook up my extreme technophobe mother, who is afraid of her MacBook. Looks like I'll have to get a copy for myself, burn it, and schlepp it on down the road so she can just pop it in and play. This is going to be much more complimicated than it needed to be, if the show's people could simply serve the (considerable) market which wants it, rather than try to push it somewhere it doesn't want to go.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:28 AM on March 23, 2012
Part of the problem is that I need to hook up my extreme technophobe mother, who is afraid of her MacBook. Looks like I'll have to get a copy for myself, burn it, and schlepp it on down the road so she can just pop it in and play. This is going to be much more complimicated than it needed to be, if the show's people could simply serve the (considerable) market which wants it, rather than try to push it somewhere it doesn't want to go.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:28 AM on March 23, 2012
Best answer: The block for Canadians appear to be that Rogers has the rights to MM in Canukistan. They've just rolled out a Brand! New! PVR! that's sure to swing back all those customers who bought a Tivo in 2002. Nevermind that the two-year contract term (only available as an internet+box+tv service bundle) total seems to exceed $5000---more than the lease payments on a new Honda, as one review site points out.
Anyway, as long as Rogers continues to have full rights to the show, and would prefer we pay $100-$250/mo to watch it, you can bet that we're going to be blocked from all of the services south of the boarder. Their Rogers-on-demand thing has older versions of Mad Men, but doesn't work on anything but Rogers hardware or a couple selected partners, as far as I can tell. It's a me-too, second best knock-off of Netflix, it appears, except with limitations on use so severe as to be totally useless unless you are already a Rogers subscriber.
posted by bonehead at 9:00 AM on March 23, 2012
Anyway, as long as Rogers continues to have full rights to the show, and would prefer we pay $100-$250/mo to watch it, you can bet that we're going to be blocked from all of the services south of the boarder. Their Rogers-on-demand thing has older versions of Mad Men, but doesn't work on anything but Rogers hardware or a couple selected partners, as far as I can tell. It's a me-too, second best knock-off of Netflix, it appears, except with limitations on use so severe as to be totally useless unless you are already a Rogers subscriber.
posted by bonehead at 9:00 AM on March 23, 2012
Response by poster: Aah. Thanks for that. Knowing that Rogers is behind the blockage, well, that would ease my conscience considerably, were I to use a more circuitous method to access the show. Which I'm totally not going to do.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:09 AM on March 23, 2012
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:09 AM on March 23, 2012
Best answer: If it's available in the US, then Unblock-us should do the trick. It's a pretty simple set-up and they offer a one week free trial. (about $5 a month after that) I've been using them for a while to get US Netflix content and Pandora.
posted by rocket88 at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2012
posted by rocket88 at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2012
Response by poster: Turns out that Mad Men Season 5 is available on iTunes, as I found out this morning.
I held off on setting up a proxy system after seeing a mention in the Spectator (hard copy only, not online) that it would be on iTunes -- information I could confirm nowhere else, and it being the Spec, who knows?
In any event, the first ep is downloading now. Still, it would have been nice to have any mention of it being on iTunes prior to the morning after. A little "coming soon!" on the iTunes Mad Men homepage or something. Just sayin'.
Regardless, I thank everyone for their suggestions and helpful information. I was going cra-zee.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:13 AM on March 26, 2012
I held off on setting up a proxy system after seeing a mention in the Spectator (hard copy only, not online) that it would be on iTunes -- information I could confirm nowhere else, and it being the Spec, who knows?
In any event, the first ep is downloading now. Still, it would have been nice to have any mention of it being on iTunes prior to the morning after. A little "coming soon!" on the iTunes Mad Men homepage or something. Just sayin'.
Regardless, I thank everyone for their suggestions and helpful information. I was going cra-zee.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:13 AM on March 26, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by amarynth at 6:50 AM on March 23, 2012