Watch Mad Men Online

Mad Men truly was an instant classic when it first premiered several years ago on AMC. The first original drama for the cable company, Mad Men now has become part of popular culture and has put AMC on the map for drama. The show cleaned up at the Emmy's and has amassed more fans each season in its three year run.

Mad Men takes place in the early 1960's and centers on main character Don Draper (played by John Emmy Winner John Hamm). Don is the creative force behind hundreds of brilliant advertising campaigns, but he is not what he really seems to be. He is a man with a dark past, as Mad Men viewers see in Don's infrequent flashbacks to his former life. He is not quite happily married to his long-suffering wife, Betty (played by January Jones), who in some ways lives in a dream world of her own. As a result, Don has numerous affairs with women, which sometimes lead him to troublesome consequences.

One of the things that makes Mad Men so interesting is the meticulous period detail. Every piece of furniture, every suit that an executive wears, every car, and every hairstyle is matched perfectly to the time and place of Manhattan in the 1960s. The term Mad Men is derived from a combination of Madison Avenue, the boulevard in New York where the ad agencies flourished and still do to this day, and the term "ad men."

The characters in Mad Men have some of the best dialog on TV. The show is expertly written by a writing staff mostly comprised of women. It is an hour long drama that many people said was "slow" when it first premiered. It is more like it takes its time to make subtle points about human nature and about the changing tides in the 1960s. The feeling that things are going to change in some crazy ways is palpable.

Peggy Olsen is a young female character who starts to move up in the company as a copywriter with a lot of talent, promise, and ambition. However, the concept of a "glass ceiling" that exists for female workers is becoming quite clear to her. She is as good as or better than some of the males who do the same job, but gets paid less and still receives a lot of sexist remarks. She's tough, though, and it will be interesting to see where her character goes as season 3 progresses.

Mad Men is characterized by bryl-creamed hair, starched white collar dress shirts, sexism, and corporate ambition. It's a pretty interesting mix, but you get the feeling that a spark is set to ignite the whole thing. It's an interesting show and if you like "thoughtful" dramas, it's for you. Mad Men is now in its third season, so it's not too late to get caught up.

You can watch full length episodes of Mad Men as well as Mad Men clips at the official AMC Mad Men website.