In the spirit of summer, I’ve been trying to catch up on television shows that I’ve ignored for the past year (or two?).  By far the most pleasant surprise has been Mad Men.

For the uninitiated, Mad Men is about the advertising executives of Madison Avenue.   It’s about their jobs, their secretaries, their wives, their “other” wives, their addictions, the end of the 1950s, the changing of the guard, capitalism, and arguably most importantly, feminism.  Of course I’d be remiss to not mention the star of the show:

I’m serious.  Scotch should get an Emmy in this show.

But more importantly, the women of Mad Men really make this show interesting.  You’ve got Don Draper’s wife Betty (played by January Jones), who we get to watch play out the dilemma of the 1950s housewife entering into the 1960s: She has two beautiful children, a huge home outside New York, and a wealth and successful husband.  But of course everything isn’t perfect - she’s lonely, bored, and her husband is clearly not perfect and not supportive of her desire to step out of her classic role.

Similarly, the women at the office, Joan and Peggy, both struggle to assert themselves in the male-dominated office.  Joan is a particularly enjoyable character to watch through two seasons - she’s the curvy redhead, played wonderfully by Christina Hendricks, who begins the series as the sex-pot who seems bent on finding the wealthy husband.  But her slow, and completely believable development to something more, to a gradual awakening of her self-worth and intellectual ability, makes me excited to see how Season 3 treats her.

And lastly Peggy, played by Elisabeth Moss (you probably know her as Zoey Bartlet from West Wing) quickly becomes the poster-child of feminism, as she struggles to get accepted as an equal in an office where women get the coffee, hang up coats, and graciously accept the leers of the men at the office.  Without giving spoilers, for those who have yet to catch the series, the dynamic between Peggy and Don is particularly intriguing, as they both entrust the other (willingly or not) with secrets.

Season 1 took place in 1960, Season 2 jumped to 1962, so it will be interesting to see where the writers situate Season 3.  As the world changes around them, Mad Men keeps getting more and more interesting.