TV Watch: Mad Men

Embed from Getty Images
AMC brings first-class drama to television with "Mad Men"


The Showtime and HBO networks have become masters over this decade in developing and producing great television series, the best that TV has to offer.

HBO has led the way with the granddaddy of them all, "The Sopranos", and they have also given us "Entourage", "Sex & the City", "The Wire", "Big Love", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Rome", "Deadwood", "Carnivale" and more.

Showtime has given us programs like "Dexter", "Brotherhood", "The Tudors", "Sleeper Cell", "Weeds", "Californication", and "The L Word" among others.

AMC has now gotten into the action, and their new drama "Mad Men" takes a back seat to none of the HBO/Showtime offerings. The first season is set in 1960, and follows the lives of the office staff at the mid-level 'Sterling Cooper' Madison Avenue advertising agency. Jon Hamm stars as Donald Draper, an emerging superstar in the ad industry and the firm's star employee.

The plot line largely revolves around Draper in his work and home lives, with January Jones as his wife Betty. Hamm and Jones do an outstanding job portraying a married couple with children at a crossroads in their own lives and in American history.