Mad Men is the best thing on TV

I've tried a lot of the summer cable shows (since network primetime is a wasteland). I wanted to like them. I watched Holly Hunter in Saving Grace on TNT and I watched Glenn Close in Damages on FX and I watched Lili Taylor in State of Mind on Lifetime. But none kept my interest. Then there's Mad Men - a show about the advertising industry, and life in general, in 1960 New York city on, wait for it, AMC (their first-ever series). All I can say is "wow!" For starters, there's no one famous in the cast, which I consider a plus, not a minus - the performances are uniformly superb. And the production values are incredible - the evocation of the time period is flawless, from the clothes and cars to the ubiquitous cigarettes and scotch. The true testimony to how great this show is - I watched the first 5 episodes out of order (not on purpose, I just screwed up), and I still found every moment riveting. All these tortured people, living their lives of quiet desperation - great stuff. Watching Don Draper (and the fine actor who plays him) self-destruct before our eyes is compelling, but it's the women that really make it worthwhile. At first they're all just props - The Wife, The Secretary, The Mistress, The Token Businesswoman - but as the series progresses, their layers are revealed and they're all so textured. I just can't say enough about how great it is.

And a bonus to the series is that each episode (so far) is followed by some comments by the creator, Matthew Weiner, and/or, director, Alan Taylor, which really clarifies the intention of the episode and helps (me at least) develop a better understanding of the time period (I was born in 1962, so this is my parents' era). The accurate portrayal of the prevelant sexism, racism, classism and anti-semitism of the period is almost mind-blowing, when you realize how far we've come in a relatively short time. And the casual way they present the societal mores of the time - pregnant women smoking, children climbing around in the car without seat belts, the shock at a divorcee moving into the neighborhood - is fascinating. It really is more thought-provoking, more substantial, and more entertaining then anything I've seen on TV in a long time. The kiss of death ordinarily - a TV show actually trying to be about something, but maybe on an obscure cable channel, a show like this has a chance. I only hope they continue the show past the summer - it's such a breath of fresh air.