If You Have to Watch 1 Drama Show This May, Stream This 1 Now
Jon Hamm’s new Apple TV+ series, Your Friends & Neighbors, is already a hit, with an 82 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In the new dramedy series, Hamm plays a hedge fund manager who resorts to stealing from the people in his wealthy community after being fired, and he’s being praised for his performance.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Hamm has proven himself as a television star. He became a household name by playing Don Draper on Mad Men.
If you’re loving Your Friends & Neighbors, now’s the perfect time to binge the AMC hit — whether you’re revisiting an old favorite or watching for the first time. Here’s why it’s one of the greatest television series of all time, and a drama show you should be watching in May or anytime throughout the year.
The Setting Is Captivating
In case you missed it the first time around, Mad Men is the story of Don Draper, a creative advertising executive at the Sterling Cooper advertising agency in early 1960s New York. Don presents a perfect image to the world — he’s always cool and collected, he excels at his job and he has a stunning wife and two perfect kids. But underneath the surface, he is hiding a dark past and a deep well of pain. Meanwhile, new girl Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) joins Sterling Cooper’s secretarial pool, where she quickly learns how tough and rewarding corporate life can be. Much to her own surprise, she finds she might be able to do more at the company than just find a husband like all the other secretaries.
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The 1960s ad world is simultaneously fascinating and glamorous while also appearing old-fashioned and even backward to our modern eyes.
Helping to paint that picture is Mad Men’s ability to capture the subtle changes in fashion as the show marches through the ‘60s and ‘70s. Every character has a unique look that still feels completely period accurate.
It’s a Treasure Trove of Social Commentary
From major plot points to tiny details, every frame of Mad Men seems to remind us how much the world has changed from the “good old days.” (In the famous scene above, the Draper family finishes an idyllic picnic in the park before simply dropping all of their trash on the ground — there was no anti-littering movement at the time.)
Of course, the ‘60s and ‘70s were full of social change, from the assassination of JFK to the rise of the women’s liberation and Civil Rights movement. Mad Men covers them all, and it does so with a deft hand that never lays it on too thick. Showrunner Matthew Weiner and his team of writers are observant and clever in the way they examine the social mores of the time while subtly foreshadowing the immense cultural change that’s just around the corner.
The Supporting Cast — Especially the Women — Steal the Show
Though Mad Men is ostensibly about Don, the women who surround him have some of the most fascinating character arcs of the show.
Throughout the series, Peggy transforms from a timid secretary who doesn’t even know she’s pregnant until she’s about to give birth to a talented copywriter who leads her own advertising campaigns. Don’s daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka) grows from a child to a jaded teenager, experiencing a loss of innocence, alienation from her family and subsequent understanding of her difficult mother. Betty’s (January Jones) “perfect housewife” facade crumbles during and after her marriage to Don and is rebuilt in her second marriage to Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley). And head secretary Joan (Christina Hendricks) goes from an oversexualized joke around the office to a formidable businesswoman.
All of these women’s journeys are fascinating, layered and nuanced. They stride forward, stumble and pick themselves back up in ways that are truly mesmerizing to see on screen.
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That’s not to ignore or diminish the male supporting cast — John Slattery’s performance as the jovial yet cynical Roger Sterling in particular stands out as one of the most memorable in TV history, while Vincent Kartheiser’s slimy accounts manager Pete Campbell is loathsome and entertaining while still feeling all-too-human. It’s a big ensemble, yet almost every character — there are several more that we haven’t even mentioned yet — is complex and memorable.
It Condemns and Honors Commercialism in Profound Ways
Don’s bids to land advertising contracts with legacy brands like Kodak, Hilton, Playtex and Coca-Cola allow the show to examine how Americans look at these products. The series both honors advertising as a true art form and mocks the money-minded, cynical business behind the art.
Much of the series revolves around Don and his colleagues’ quests to rise above their social class and achieve a more elite lifestyle. They often resort to underhanded and even amoral methods to achieve this, and they’re frequently rewarded for their bad behavior. But just as having a great ad doesn’t necessarily mean you have a great product, having the trappings of wealth never guarantees happiness for the characters. It leads the viewer to wonder if what they’re chasing after is worth the struggle.
It’s Just Great TV
The dialogue is brilliant, the performances are fantastic and the storylines will keep you glued to the screen. Nearly twenty years after its 2007 premiere, Mad Men absolutely lives up to its reputation as one of the greatest series of all time.
