Word: mad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Speaking of silence, Mad Men's makers, and some fans, are sensitive about details leaking, including what year the new season is set in. So if you want to be unspoiled, stop here.) Read more about spoiler alerts on TIME's TV blog...
While the first episode focuses on Don's conflicts, the next two show off Mad Men's deep bench of supporting characters: Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), a copywriter trying to find fulfillment in a business still largely about selling male fantasy; comely secretary Joan (Christina Hendricks) - a male fantasy incarnate - talking herself into happiness as the wife of a doctor who date-raped her last season; Roger (John Slattery), engineering a self-reinvention of his own with a second wife barely older than his scotch. The spectacular third episode weaves their stories together in a funny and touching fugue of character...
...Mad Men is about the gulf between image and reality, in advertising, in its characters' lives and in 1963 America. But Weiner steers clear of more obvious period cues, opting for obscure markers like Pepsi's introduction of Patio Diet Cola. The episodes are filled with the ghosts of a dirtier, more raw America, from Don's Depression childhood to a bartender who remembers New Mexico when it was a territory. Even the sets have memory; the prop masters take care to mix in furnishings from the '40s and '50s because no one lives in a home with...
...Mad Men's history is more real for being less obvious. It isn't so much a story about 1963 as it is a palimpsest of the years of history that preceded it, all of which shape the future and private lives. (The JFK assassination is deftly foreshadowed by the date on a wedding invitation...
Read an interview with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner...