Mad Men

[Otis Westinghouse]

I don't know if there was any talk of this show last year when it aired in the US, but it's on the BBC now, and it's utterly fabulous. Head writer is Matthew Weiner, who worked on series 5 and 6 of Sopranos. I've never got into that, but would say straight off that I find the world of Mad Men immediately more fascinating and original as a choice for a TV series. For those not in the know, it's about the world of a Madison Avenue advertising company in 1960, and it just seems to encapsulate so much about those times. The period detail is amazing (see link below for notes on the research involved), and the scriptwriting and actors all top notch. Never heard of lead male Jon Hamm, but he is fantastic. It's rare to find a TV show where you spend the next day thinking about the themes and characters the way you might with a really good film. Four episodes in, each one a delight. There's a sadness and a depth to much of it you just don't find that often. I hope it's going to run and run.

It mixes reality in with the fiction in some cases, e.g. episode one fictionalising how the Lucky Strike 'It's toasted' line came about, to a backdrop of an emerging awareness of the health risks of smoking. This link explains what I'd imagined: the cigarettes on set were all herbal. Just as well given that there is more smoking in the series than anything you've ever seen before, almost every scene involves it.

Brilliant TV. Can't get enough of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men

[Who Shot Sam?]

I have it recorded, but haven't watched any of it yet.

[Otis Westinghouse]

You must!

The good thing about it being on BBC (which is pretty unusual these days for premium US drama) is that with the ads removed it airs as 40 mins, which is just perfect.

[martinfoyle]

John had me download this last autumn and loved it. Must give it a watch now. I'm working my way through Damien Lewis excellent Life and the first season of James Woods awesome Shark at the moment.

[PlaythingOrPet]

Sounds interesting. People in the UK can catch it on BBC iPlayer. Speaking of iPlayer, it's crap. I've never been able to watch a whole episode of something through it constantly loading every two minutes even though I have 20mb broadband. But I have no problem at all streaming from 4oD.

Otis, did you catch Dirty Sexy Money on C4 recently? Not sure if it's your kind of thang but it was good.

[ice nine]

Seen a few of the episodes. They really got the fifties down to a tee. It is just funny that everybody is smoking all the time

[Otis Westinghouse]

Except that it's set in 1960! But yeah, they got it down to a tee.

I watched much of Masterchef on iPlayer, and it was fine, and I have much slower broadband than you. Strange. It occasionally jumps, and the image is a little bit-mappy, but I can happily watch stuff on it.

I saw the first Dirty Sexy Money and thought it was fun enough, but wouldn't make a point of watching it. Dallas for the noughties and all that. Lots of commentators seemed to be saying 'Brothers and Sisters' with good storylines, but I rather enjoyed the latter and thought its stories were often good and will watch the next series, probably, though then again there's the latest Desperate Housewives and there are only so many American series to be watching. Bree at the barbecue with the fork sticking out of her pretend pregnant tum was hysterical.