** Perfection **
Portraying the late 1950s to the early 1960s through the lives of the men and women working at a Madison Avenue advertising agency - it doesn't seem like a hook that would immediately draw you in.
However, I highly recommend just dipping your toe in once and I guarantee you'll definitely be on the end of that hook.
Opening our eyes to an ENTIRELY different era, Mad Men is divisive, especially to those that think it glorifies misongeny, loose morals and commonplace bigotted attitudes towards homosexuality, racism, sexism, etc, etc.
Look a little closer though and the gorgeous fashions, outrageous behaviour and wonderful subtextual writing are the things that TV drama dreams are made of!!
This is definitely a great era to be a man - drinking and smoking at work is the norm, washing a worn shirt is unusual (just get a new one from your desk drawer!) and being able to fool around with any woman you want is thoroughly accepted behaviour.
The women tend to not have so much fun unfortunately, often suffering in silence it seems, whist there men philander on a grand scale.
Once again though, look a little closer and you'll find that it's the women who are strong of character, who have the last word and who generally get their way in the end.
I cannot fault any of the performances here, with John Hamm, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and Bryan Batts being particular standouts.
I asked santa for this for Christmas and bless him, he came through for me and hugely thankful I am - everybody else should give this try and seriously treat themselves.
The very least you'll get from it is why tractors and office parties simply dont mix.