This morning, the first episode of the second season of Mad Men showed up in my TiVo’s To Do list. Finally!
With all of the great HBO series long gone, and Sci-Fi shows — even Lost and Battlestar Galactica — eternally (and wrongly!!) consigned to the weirdos ghetto, and/or losing audience as their plots get ever more complex, Mad Men stands as Quality Television’s Great White Hope.
And why not? As the first scripted series for the AMC channel, which had previously made its bones with movies movies movies, the story of the Don Draper and the rest of the crew at the Sterling Cooper Ad Agency was also an unflinching look back at the mores and lifestyles of the mid-20th century.
At its best, it straddled the line between deadly serious and darkly funny, and was easily the most fully-realized first season of any TV series since Deadwood.
It’s the type of show that TV critics are usually shouting from the rooftops about, trying to get the entire world to watch. Except in the case of Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe who now wants you to stay away.
Ladies and gentlemen, Indie Rock Snobbery has come to Cable Television.
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