Alright, probably not the best time to get this puppy rolling as the season 2 finale is actually airing on Sunday, but I'm a bit disappointed that we don't have a thread to discuss one of the best shows in recent memory.
For those of you in America, the previous episodes are available on AMC On Demand. I'm sure virmicious or someone could provide links to the entire first season so people could jump in from the very beginning, and I have those DVDs that I could probably upload myself if no one else has, but what are the odds of that, really?
I know that most of you have heard of this show by now, but many of you probably haven't watched it, so I'll take a crack at a brief series outline:
The series is set in early 1960's New York, and revolves around the lives of the employees of the Sterling - Cooper advertising agency and their families, and theirs is a completely different world than we live in today. Political correctness has not yet been born, racial tensions in this country are still extremely high, hard drinking and basically degrading women on the job are commonplace, and this was very much a man's world. The series was created and developed by Matthew Weiner, and to fill most of the more important technical and writing positions, he looked no further than his old cronies from "The Sopranos", and as a result, there are many similarities with the cinematography and the effective usage of music to it. Current events of the day are tied directly into the storylines effectively, and they create prominent ad campaigns from that era in entertaining and elaborate detail.
Your main character is Don Draper, who I can't really say too much about without busting out some fairly major spoilers. Jon Hamm's portrayal of Draper at times reminds me a lot of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, and I'm certain that's where he picked up some of the mannerisms and body language. Furthermore, there are some actual similarities between the two characters, but Don Draper being a mass murderer is not one of them...it's basic cable, gang.
The rest of the ensemble cast is fairly fantastic (some of the others get more ink, but January Jones in particular has actually shocked me, as she's emerged as a much better actress than I'd expected, and Betty Draper isn't a character that just any pretty face could play), and for the most part they've all been pretty elaboratly developed over the course of the first two seasons - those who haven't might never need to be, but you've even got a bit of information on them.
I strongly encourage you guys to try and check this show out. It's arguably the best show currently airing on American television, and now that "The Wire" is done, it's probably at the very least worthy of that show's old "The Show You Should Be Watching...But Aren't" label.
Discuss.