Mad Men, An Important Archetype...

Huzzahs to the this fabulous, sumptious and hyper-realistic production that runs on AMC every Sunday night. Of course, in irony to its mid-century vibe, you can watch this show anytime you want from its home on AMC. You can also, of course, "catch up" by putting the 2007 season in your Netflix queue or podcast it from iTunes.

Here is an inner look at a factory in the seminal years of contemporary television advertising.

The stereotypes and set design are dialed up just a hair. Or is that just the big color screens on which we now can now enjoy this piece? The production details and art direction are through the roof in their realism and we are taken to a gritty depth of human experience far exceeding anything produced for television during the period.

Mad Men explores in excruciating detail the angst that exists in a late-50's early 60's mid-level Madison Avenue agency. Our mother, who was an office worker of the generation, can't watch it, she says, because it is "too realistic". Indeed women are ripe for the ogling, sometimes fondling and more, virtual chattel (or so it would seem) of the male power brokers who run the shop.

But change is afoot and the de facto power of certain women begins to evolve into more formalized, if nascent, leveraged positions. Of course, the natural leverage of women is being buttressed by the change and awareness of their positioning during the late post war years of broad affluence.

Mad Men is as thought provoking as anything ever to emanate from boob tube.

Trust your AdMaster and get ye to a screen near you and, above all, watch this series from the beginning because the current dissemblage would spoil the beginning!!