I received Mad Men seasons 1 and 2 for Christmas this year. I enjoyed both season 2 and 3 of this marvelous show previously, but after watching season one this weekend, I have to say this.
Mad Men may be the best drama that I have ever seen.
All the characters are perfectly developed, from the lowly secretaries getting sexually harassed in order to land a husband all the way up to the main characters. Every glance, every word has meaning. For those who idealize the 60s as some sort of utopia before the hippies came along, Mad Men tears a huge hole in that theory.
Don Draper, the big swinging head of the Sterling Cooper ad agency, drinks, smokes and cheats his way to the top of Madison Avenue. He's a strange sort of anti-hero, but while watching, you can't help but love him. Actually, all the characters are sort of reprehensible, but that is what makes the show go. They are real people, or at least as real as people on TV can be.
Draper also has a good run of mistresses. His wife is a sexy robot type, but he seems to pick women with substance. The Jewish department store owner. The beatnik chick. The teacher. All are compensating for the shallowness of a supposedly perfect life. Just another layer of complexity in this brilliant show.
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