This show is so awesome for so many reasons. Like you mention, they are fully aware of gender and racial inequality of the time and represent them without it falling into lazy exploitation of minority and female characters as other lesser shows would have (lesser shows would've also merely ignored the sociological implications of the time period). Like the series Rome, even though it portrays a time steeped in patriarchy and sexism, it still manages to represent women as realistic and fully realized characters rather than flat cardboard cutouts. You believe these people could have actually existed.

And how awesome that it was created by a man, and one who has such a mind for detail that you probably don't even notice the efforts that have gone into making this show a realistic portrayal of the time. He even thought to make sure that the women were not wearing the newest fashions right out of Vogue from that year, for example. He noted that the secretaries would never be able to afford such luxuries, so they are wearing fashions that are a few years behind.

I could rave about this show for hours.

I have been in love with this show since the first time I saw it. And whenever I watch it, I have such a "Thank you second wave" moment. I can't imagine living and working where people can just be overtly sexist and have absolutely no shame about it. A recent episode featured the one ad man who is dating a black woman. He is in the elevator with her, and the black elevator man calls him Mr. last name. In front of his girlfriend he says, "oh call me by my "first name." Whereas if he wasn't in front of his black girlfriend, he wouldn't have bothered to say anything like that. I thought it was a really cool moment in the show.

And Peggy = kick ass.

I really loved last Sunday's episode. It is so interesting to see how topics like homosexuality and sexually liberated women are played out in their storyline. But one of the most profound moments for me was when the one family had a picnic, and when they got up to leave, they purposely left ALL their garbage on the grass (the wife even shook off the garbage from the blanket to get rid of it on the grass)> Having grown u in the early 80s where I was told to "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute"... it was amazing. You would think throwing away garbage in a garbage can just always happened, because these people give all appearances of being very clean!

Courtney, thanks for representing "Mad Men!" I hated the first episode I watched, but then when I started watching Peggy, I got hooked. Here's the woman becoming powerful - Peggy is coming into her own as the show progresses. I wouldn't watch if she wasn't on it.

I'm crazy about Mad Men for all the reasons you mentioned, but also for its compassion for the male characters. They're sexist assholes who benefit greatly from strict social and gender roles, but occasionally we see how they too are suffocating form those very same social roles.

One of my very favorite scenes was during the first episode when strong, smart, beautiful Rachel finally had that flash of understanding:

Rachel: I've never been in love

Don: She won't get married because she's never been in love. I think I wrote that. It was to sell nylons.

Rachel: For a lot of people, love isn't just a slogan.

Don: Oh you mean love. You mean a big lightning bolt to the heart where you can't eat and you can't work and you just run off and get married and make babies. The reason you haven't felt it is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.

Rachel: Is that right?

Don: Pretty sure about it. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to forget those facts but I never forget. I'm living like there is no tomorrow because there isn't one.

Rachel: I don't think I realized it until this moment, but it must be hard being a man too.

Don: Excuse me?

Rachel: Mr. Draper–

Don: Don

Rachel: Mr. Draper, I don't know what it is you really believe in, but I do know what it feels like to be out of place, to be disconnected, to see the whole world laid out in front of you the way other people live it. There's something about you that tells me you know it too.

I just started working through this series on iTunes, and one of my favorite things about it is that it does portray some "liberated" women (Rachel, Midge, to some extent Helen Bishop) but it also shows how much it costs them to have the little bit of freedom that it has. AND as someone else says it shows how much the men suffer because of the sexism of the time, too. Don is free to fool around and condescend to Betty, of course, but it also clearly kills him that he can't have any real connection to her because he has to see her as "below" him.

Also, good Lord, Salvatore breaks my heart. (I'm on the tenth episode of the first season right now, so maybe he's happier/less closeted in the episodes that are airing now. I hope so.)

I just started working through this series on iTunes, and one of my favorite things about it is that it does portray some "liberated" women (Rachel, Midge, to some extent Helen Bishop) but it also shows how much it costs them to have the little bit of freedom that it has. AND as someone else says it shows how much the men suffer because of the sexism of the time, too. Don is free to fool around and condescend to Betty, of course, but it also clearly kills him that he can't have any real connection to her because he has to see her as "below" him.

Also, good Lord, Salvatore breaks my heart. (I'm on the tenth episode of the first season right now, so maybe he's happier/less closeted in the episodes that are airing now. I hope so.)

Oh, and I suppose it is already obvious, but Rachel is my favorite female character on the show. Peggy is my favorite of the regulars because of her her decency, her quiet, persistent challenging of social norms, and her respect for everyone in the office.

But Joan seems to be the fan favorite and I honestly don't get it. Is it because of her beautiful, distinctly curvy body? Is it her lack of sentimentality? Her smart, sensible mother hen status in the office? Her red hair?

I struggle to come up with those points because, honestly, Joan strikes me as the most conventional and least challenging of the female leads.

rumble: Joan is showing a bit more dimension in the second season. She starts helping the TV guy (I feel bad that I've watched the whole show and I can't remember half the characters names. :)) reading scripts. You can tell she is really happy about it and enjoying it, and there's a great scene between her and her fiance where they are both sitting at the dinner table and have sat down, and he's like "didn't you say you were going to get me a water," and she's like "Of course.." The look on her face. Then Roger lets the TV guy hire a man to help him, so Joan can go back to her normal duties, which she "must not have been able to put her whole attentions on." Then the guy that comes in to do what would likely have been a higher paying job than her own is going to have to be trained how to do it by her. I don't know, I'm starting to like her more, but I felt about the same way as you in the beginning.

I think Joan is equally hated and loved. The actress was interviewed once saying that fans come up to her and they either loathe her character or they love her, and nowhere in between.

I think she is a good representation of how women without real power wield whatever influence they have at their disposal within a very restricted sphere. Her power is limited to bossing the other women around but only at a superficial level, and it is very much tied to her attractiveness to men.

She reminds me of the Atia character in the HBO series Rome. Atia was part of the nobility but as a woman the only power she wielded was within the female sphere, and her most important duty was to make sure her daughter married well and improved the family's lot. Otherwise she fully depended on her son's status, because her own husband was dead.

As Agnes pointed out, in season two Joan is learning that there's more to life than being a secretary and getting married when she's given more responsibility at work only to have it taken away again and given to men. When she goes home to her fiance she talks in this little girl voice; it's fascinating to watch. But I'm waiting for her to have her "click" moment. It's coming.

Agnes, I love that episode you are talking about, especially at the very end when she's alone on her bed wearing a slip and she pulls back her bra strap and you see how red and raw it is because of the weight of her breasts. It was breathtaking.

Blitzgal, that's exactly how I feel. Somewhere between love and hate for exactly the reasons you said. She's still operating exclusively within the one sphere of influence made available to her and her racism, homophobia and harsh treatment of other women a byproduct of that. I'm hoping for her click moment too, but the waiting can be terrible.

Hmm. So, I guess what really bothers me are Joan's fans. I spoke to a woman this weekend who is very intelligent and well read on feminist theory, but she still unabashedly loved Joan for, get this, her power within the office. She said she was indispensable. I'm bothered by their failure to see how limited she is despite the appearance of power.

Joan reminds me of the blog Jezebel, while Feministing is totally a Peggy.

Agh! Mad Men = AMAZING. My friends won't believe me that this is actual a worthwhile show, from a sociological/feminist perspective. But wait, can we hear more about Elaine Tyler May?! When/how/why did you speak to her?! I am using her book "Homeward Bound" as a major secondary source for my senior thesis on women and sexuality in the 1950s, and it's just so, so good.

Outside of the US, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe, "Mad Men" is still very much a reality. In my travels, the most sickening aspect was expatriated American men who marry local women and then insist on living the early 1960's fantasy.

I've loved Mad Men since season one. Though I'm disappointed in the most recent episode(makeover by the gay man? REALLY?), it is consistently heartbreaking, real, and challenging.

Mad Men is awesome! The brilliance of the show is how everyone walks around deeply unhappy with their lives, but never realizing how it's because they are being forced into roles that no one wants to really play out.

Little bit of trivia: The show is created by a writer of the Sopranos and the show had originally been pitched to HBO. My only regret for it going to AMC is that the writers can't show a really cool dichotomy that would be wild to witness.

Picture how wild it would be to watch all the men sitting around an office, sipping scotch, and swearing like sailors. Secretary knocks, enters and suddenly everyone is speaking much differently - perhaps even an example of one of the drunker office guys getting chastised for using some four letter word in the presence of a lady. All this juxtaposed against them calling her "sweetheart" and patting her on the ass on the way out of the room.

Brilliant show.

i felt working girl has some interesting insights if you erase the hero male character, and happy ending.