Mad Men (2007-2015)

It's a soap opera

I read rave review after rave review for this, so at last I gave it a try.

What is it?

A soap opera.

Almost all of the screen time in the episodes I watched was about love affairs and sexual relationships.

It was set in a faked version of the 1950s in an advertising agency.

If you want to watch a soap opera that's fine with me but why do people keep pretending that this is some sort of fabulous production rather than what it is, Neighbours set in the 1950s?

After writing the above, I wanted to check that I didn't just imagine this, so I went and read about five of the most helpful reviews on IMDB. It's astonishing to read the contrast between what I saw (at least 90% of the show's screen time is spent on sexual relationships) and the reviews, which barely mention the soap-opera aspects of it, but keep on about the great views of the 1960s, the people smoking cigarettes all the time, or the character development, or the plot development and the women overcoming sexism and so on.

I suppose this is a good choice if you want to watch a soap while pretending you're watching Shakespeare.

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