Starring: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery
Created By: Matthew Weiner
Network: AMC
Original Air Date: 07/28/2008 – 10/26/2008

Taking full advantage of the void left by the conclusion of The Wire, Matthew Weiner’s riveting picket fence tragedy has quietly and without fuss taken ownership of that show’s thrown and now wears the crown of the best show on television. A sharpened skewer aimed at the dark heart of our nation’s romanticized past, Mad Men follows the exploits of Manhattan advertising Sterling Cooper, and it’s employees as they busily work to promote the American dream while simultaneously coming to terms with it as a fallacy in their own private lives.

While it might sound as dry as a mouthful of prairie dust, Mad Men, just like the real business of advertising, is all about the disconnect between perception and reality. Key to the show is that absolutely everybody is hiding something. Whether it’s mousey copywriter Peggy with an illegitimate child, secretly gay Salvador from the art department, or buxom office queen Joan and her abusive fiancée, life at Sterling Cooper is a careful balance of rotating indiscretions. In an era defined by stifling conformity, rigid gender roles, and the dedication to a single, solitary way of life – The American way – Mad Men casts the viewer adrift in a sea of intrigue. The wall of grey-flannel suited gents indicating happy cogs in busy machines, while at home perfectly feminine women wait, quietly going mad in prisons of domestic dissatisfaction.

Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.

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