3 TV Shows That I Can’t Get Enough Of Watching

I am making a rare detour from talking about film to talk about the world of television. Also, I wanted to talk about something positive for a bit  becauseI have spent the last week or so ranting about actors that I don’t like and the week before that on various rants about the film industry.

I read an article about a year ago, which I wish I could share with you, that had some insight into tv’s future. There have been several shows in the last ten years that have brought about some positive changes for TV (i.e. Lost, The Wire, Arrested Development), bringing fully developed characters and smarter scripts to the small screen. Writers have become really attracted to TV because they may not be able to get an idea or character fully developed in the small time frame that a movie provides, so we are seeing higher quality television (besides most reality shows which are a lot of fun to make fun of). Granted, most of these higher quality television shows are being shown on premium channels, but watching them on DVD is just as enjoyable (in fact, I prefer it, because I can just watch one right after the other if I so desire).

Anyway, over the next couple of days I will be talking about 3 of my favorite TV Shows (currently airing).

#1 Mad Men

Mad Men is television at its finest. It may not be the most engaging show to a lot of people, but it is certainly the most intruiging and perhaps the most insightful show currently airing right now. The show revolves around a group of successful advertising agents on Madison Avenue (aka Mad Men) in the early 1960’s and their woes with the changing times and their personal lives. Jon Hamm plays the main character, Don Draper, who may be one of the best television characters ever. He is mysterious, cool, collected and the man every man wants to be. Even with his success in the industry his personal life is in shambles and he harbors a secret past which provides a great ongoing mystery within the show as more and more is revealed.

Hello, I am pretty much the man.

Surrounding Don Draper is an amazing ensemble of characters, particularly Christina Hendricks as Joan Hathaway and John Slattery as Roger Sterling. They way they interact and their stories intertwine works so well that it is no surprise that the show has won 3 Golden Globes and 2 Emmys for Best Drama.

The 1960’s themselves play a character of sorts as well, working to bring change to the characters’ world and showing a “simpler” time that was becoming progressively complex. The show pulls no punches about the 60’s with the chauvenism, smoking, drinking and social niceties, which make it an effective “historical drama”. Many shows are set in a decade in the past (it seems the 70’s and 80’s are popular), but never really use the timeframe to their advantage as much as “Mad Men” does. With all the smoking and drinking I have a hard time not having a glass of scotch in my hand while I watch it (in fact the DVD cover for Season Three was just a glass of scotch).

Drinking at Work: Aren't the 60's great?

“Mad Men” also takes an artistic direction that is rarely seen in television as well. The directors seem to take a lot of time getting the photography and the lighting just right to make it a very beautiful show. “Mad Men” has won 3 consecutive awards for Excellence in Production Design from the Art Directors Guild and while television usually has a low standard for artistic design, the show goes above and beyond.

Every time a season ends (unfortunately, I have been on deployment or underway with the Navy for almost every season), I am just left craving more. Not in the way that there is a cliffhanger like in most television shows, but because I am so involved in the different storylines of each character and what Don Draper will do next in a world that is changing around him.