Mild spoilers within.

Mad Men season two premieres tonight on AMC.  All of season one is available via On Demand so the other night I watched the first few.  After that, I was inclined to agree with Bill.  I guess the summarized version of Bill’s opinion is that while it was fun to watch how well they’d nailed the period (1960) in terms of details, it grew old quickly.

But my pal Aaron Barnhart loves Mad Men.  And since it was initially because of Aaron that I started watching The Wire, which turned out being one of my favorites – if not my single favorite show of all time, I wanted to give it a few more episodes.

I’m glad that I did.

From the opening theme/credits to the ending Mad Men really is a fabulously well produced show.  Well written and well acted and visually mesmerizing. But after a few episodes I wasn’t yet hooked into the story.

I loved the level of detail they’d put into the show.  Everything about it was vintage 1960.  And although I wasn’t born until 1962, it still rings true with some of my memories of the period. And paints a very hedonistic view of life almost 50 years ago now.

Lots of drinking and smoking.  Your friends could slap your kids.  Sexually harassing women in the workplace (and elsewhere) was common place, if not encouraged and men cheating on their spouses.  And Divorcees were gossiped about by the neighbors (in 1960, the divorce rate was much smaller than 50%!).   The show nails all of that quite well.

I’ve seen several places on the Internet where people have commented there aren’t really any likable characters in the show.  And that might be exactly what the show really has going for it.  For many people, there really is a lot of harshness within the “human condition” and this show gives you just as much of a voyeuristic view into that as The Sopranos did (who are the Sopranos characters you “like” well enough that you’d want to be friends with them?).  It’s just set in the advertising world of Manhattan in 1960, instead of mobbed up New Jersey in more modern times.

Once I’d watched five episodes,  I watched the next five in marathon fashion.  I just couldn’t stop.  It was that way with The Wire as well.   I don’t think it’s a show for everyone (obviously it isn’t for Bill).  But if you do like a voyeuristic view into how and who we are, I’d recommend watching five episodes before bailing.  Especially if they are currently available for you on your cable’s on-demand service. 

I still have three episodes from season one plus tonight’s season two premiere, so I reserve the right to change my mind.  But for now I’m pretty sure I’m 100% sucked in.