DVD: Mad Men Season 1

When a programme is billed as ‘the next Sopranos’ then it’s setting itself up for a fall, and although Mad Men doesn’t reach the heady heights of David Chase’s epic series, it’s still one of the best dramas of the decade. Other critics have given it some stick for not comparing to the mobster drama, but it’s like criticising Amelie for not being The Shawshank Redemption – they’re both great, but completely different.

This remarkable and multi-layered show is set in a late-50s/early-60s New York advertising agency, and deals with the lives of the ad men, their wives, mistresses and their secretaries.

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner was a producer and writer on The Sopranos, and as you’d expect he has populated his new project with authentic characters who deliver smart dialogue and the plotlines that thread their way through the series are entirely believable. Even a normally inconceivable stolen identity angle rings true, thanks to the brilliant scripting and top-notch performances.

As the series progresses, we see more and more of the main players, and dig underneath the phoniness and surface pretensions. Not only does this give everything more depth, but the people we’re exposed to open up a whole realm of possibilities for the show if the writers choose to move away from the current leading role. Don Draper (Jon Hamm), is a war veteran with a shadowy past – one that even his wife (the luminescent January Jones) doesn’t have access to.

A conflicted, complicated man, with one foot in the past and one in the fast-approaching, Don is an advertising genius shaping the way Americans think and act. Yes, he messes about with other women and keeps secrets from his nearest and dearest, but in Don Draper, Mad Men has introduced another love-hate leading man in the mould of Tony Soprano or Vic Mackey. The guy’s a first class shit, but he’s just so damn cool with it.

Something else which is almost unassailably cool is the intro and theme music. Seriously, check it out:

The research and detail that has gone into recreating mid-20th century New York is astonishing, and it all contributes to making the end result so very slick and gripping.

Funny, without needing obvious jokes, Mad Men exists in a world before political correctness. Sexual banter isn’t harrassment yet. Jews do their thing. Gays keep their heads down. Racial divides are something that just are. You might not like it, but it is commendable that Mad Men doesn’t downplay this side of life.

Commendably subtle, utterly gripping, gorgeous to look at, insanely well scripted and impeccably acted – Mad Men is a must-see for anyone who takes their TV drama seriously.

Buy it here.