What is the fuss about Mad Men?

Quite simply, it's the most thematically complex TV show at the moment. Nothing else - or at least, nothing I've seen yet, please feel free to direct me - on right now has the same powerful storytelling Mad Men manages week after week. It's the way each of the subplots in each episode interplay with each other to illustrate differing sides of that week's theme. It's the way that when you question the show's direction you realise in hindsight that it all slotted in perfectly to the overall season vision. It's the way the characters have interacted and grown over four seasons. It's how awesome Peggy Olsen is. And, of course, the setting is so wonderfully realised, and not merely a backdrop: the 60s are an integral part to the show. With our contemporary knowledge of what things were like then compared to what they are now, it's fascinating to see how the writers continually wring insight out of the setting. The consistently strong female characters are fighting against inequality and rampant sexism. The males are battling alcoholism, health risks, and frequent disruptions to their comfortable lifestyles. And yet the show never rubs this stuff in, instead happy to take alternate takes on these well worn issues.

Mostly, though, it's the characters, and how engaging pretty much everyone of them is. Don is the vocal point but often not even the most interesting (although I loved the directions they took him in during the last series): it's the likes of Peggy, Roger, Jane, Sally (rarely has a child character been so endlessly complicated) and the others who inject this show with life. Without them, it wouldn't be so hypnotic. I just can't miss a week of Mad Men because it means missing the small character moments that stick with you in this show. The central narrative is sometimes flawed - the early seasons particularly tended to dip into soap opera territory to resolve some plots, which was occasionally disappointing - but everything else about this show is wonderful. It's fun just being spending time in Sterling Cooper. It's TV that that is of constantly high standard, with a relaxed pacing and willing to take its damn time. And it's what makes it so engaging. TBH I was pretty much hooked from the first episode, but I can see this pace frustrating some: it truly is worth sticking with because the most recent series is addictive television with a stupidly high standard from week to week. In the absence of the Wire, I'd have little reluctance saying it is the best thing on television at the moment.