After sitting through the unbearable Bonekickers (and writing its equally boring review), I went ahead and caught up on the first season of Mad Men, probably one of the best TV shows I’ve seen to date. Mad Men takes place in the 1960’s at the fictional Sterling Cooper ad agency and mostly follows Don Draper, a ruggedly handsome advertising executive with a mysterious past. Backing him is his pretty and dutiful wife, Betty Draper, a few of his (far more interesting) mistresses, and a few of the good-old boys who are in business with him.

There isn’t much to be said about Don Draper without spoilers, so I’ll make it quick: he’s good looking, smart, has a dubious past, and I’m totally in love with him even though he cheats on his wife all the time. Like, somehow they’ve worked some sort of voodoo magic where it’s fine if he does it and sleazy when everyone else does. The real star of the show is Christina Hendricks, who plays the ridiculously sexy Joan Holloway. She is Sterling Cooper’s office manager and I’d be perfectly happy watching her read a book if it meant she got more air time. After so many years of watching Hollywood’s most beautiful women nip and tuck their inviduality away, it’s refreshing to see a woman like this on my TV screen again. Also, I’m totally going to learn how to do my hair like this before I die.

The rest of the cast is mostly comprised of a bunch of pretty average-looking fellows who are really supposed to represent the typical 1960’s American man. Unlike most of the other period dramas that I’ve seen, Mad Men is very forthcoming with the misogyny of the time without pointing it out all the time. The women mostly do their best to behave like machines and the boys are genuinely surprised (and occasionally threatened) if one of them appears to be capable of any real original thought. Visually, it is stunning. I sincerely doubt there’s a single critic out there that could possibly have a bad thing to say about it on that front. Also, there’s more drinking, smoking, and sex in one episode of the show than in my typical night out at the bar, but the show manages to pull it off without making it feel like a late-night cinemax special or The Sopranos. If I had to make one complaint, it’d be that they light up every five seconds and, as any smoker knows, that means I had to light up every five seconds.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out as soon as possible. The next season starts back up tomorrow, July 27th on AMC. Click below for a few more pictures.