This summer will see the debut of the next addition to the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men. Originally airing in 2007, Mad Men is another masterpiece created by Matthew Weiner, the mind behind the already classic series The Sopranos. Now preparing to enter into its fourth season, it has been eagerly anticipated following the dramatic consequences that culminated in the finale of the third season.
Mad Men follows the frivolous, debauched, and dramatic lives of high-powered advertising executives working for Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency on Madison Avenue, NYC in the early 1960s. Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm stars as the enigmatic Donald Draper, a man of a secretive background with innate talents in both advertising and seducing women. His incredible performance is backed by Emmy nominee John Slattery as Roger Sterling, the hard drinking and woman-chasing founding partner of the agency, January Jones as Donald’s wife Betty, Vincent Kartheiser as the scheming young executive Pete Campbell, and Christina Hendricks as the femme fatale secretary Joan Holloway. No detail is spared in this series, from the perfectly tailored suits and appearance of the time, the excessive drinking and smoking, and the shameless philandering by married men.
The developments of the era help shape the plot, with such events as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the liberalisation of American society that followed the deep conservatism of the 1950s, a culture many of Sterling Cooper’s ‘ad men’ still hold strong to. While the plot is not always action filled, the dialogue is quick and sharp, and the story and characters are rich, engaging, and engrossing. With Draper’s marriage on the rocks as well as the fate of Sterling Cooper, it seems like Mad Men might just be hitting its stride now.
