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So I started watching this series since it's now on Netflix, and I've always heard good things about it. I'm almost through the first season and I've got a question. Does it get better or something? It's just 'meh' to me so far, I feel like I'm missing something. I keep watching it, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. It's really rather frustrating.

Anyway Mad Men fans, feel free to talk about why you love it. I'm curious to see peoples reasons, and maybe figure out if I want to keep watching come season 2.

I love Madmen but to be honest if you haven't been grabbed after watching the first season, it may not be for you.

I initially was into it for the representation of the early '60 that it does so well. The sets and costumes are spot on and they do a great job of of showing everybody drinking and smoking whenever and wherever they like that really highlights how that time is like another planet compared to how things are now.

I continue to watch because the story and characters sucked me in.

AMC is the network to watch what with Madmen, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead.

Pretty much what Gryfter said. If you don't like it yet (going by where you say you are), you're probably not going to enjoy it as it goes on. Speaking for myself, the characters and the setting just do it for me. It's almost like a play set in the 60s, except on TV and (by necessity) much longer.

I pretty much hated alot of the big cable shows:

Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Weeds, Entourage etc

I don't get the big draw. Dexter though, I loves me some Dexter. The note taking alone has been worth it.

Just blows my mind that shows like that got so many episodes/shows, yet Dollhouse and Firefly got canned. Beh.

Shegokigo said:

Just blows my mind that shows like that got so many episodes/shows, yet Dollhouse and Firefly got canned. Beh.

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Firefly/Dollhouse would have ran 7 seasons on USA or Starz or TNT. Sci-Fi really doesn't have much outside of the niche appeal. I can't remember the last network sci-fi show that thrived.

Jerk answer: the difference is that Breaking Bad and Mad Men are incredibly great shows with brilliant writing/directing and acting and Dollhouse/Firefly are made by Joss Whedon.

Bitch Response: Incredibly great shows with brilliant writing/directing/acting is opinion. I thought they were boring, predictable and drab.

If the last presentation of season 1 doesn't lock you in, you probably won't like the rest. I admit that it's kind of a soap opera for men and if you don't have a bit of a crush on don draper, a good amount of appeal will be lost.

That being said I can't wait for next season!

@Shego: How much did you watch of Breaking Bad? That show is so well-crafted, it is seriously making most other TV seem like shit to me.

I mean, opinions are opinions, sure, but it honestly flabbergasts me that anyone could consider Breaking Bad boring, predictable, and drab. So much crazy, dark shit goes on at such an accelerated rate (the seasons being short), and so much care goes into the production on all levels ... the acting, the cinematography, the characters, the dialogue ... Listening to episode commentaries, it's admirable how much thought they put into the color schemes alone.

Now Weeds, on the other hand ... I only saw one of the later episodes, but it really had a bizarre vibe to it. Not sure I'd want to see several seasons of that. I have been told it started out better, though ...

It's boring because it's a drug drama, plain and simple and those have never appealed to me on any level. It's drab because I can't point at any of the actors and say they "move" me in any way. It's predictable because at the end of the show, you're more than aware of what the big picture always is and what it's going to be about.

I got nearly halfway through Season 2 before I refused to go any further.

Warning! Personal opinion following: Breaking Bad is, if anything, one of the least predictable shows on television, in fact one of it's defining traits is the way in which a normal person reacts to the lack of predictability. One of the reasons the show does such a good job of creating tension is due to the fact that Walt (and several of the other folks on the show) are in way over their heads, so you never know if they will react to a situation that is clearly beyond their ability to deal with well.

In reality, both Breaking Bad and Mad Men are character drama's. They aren't shows about people working at "X" like 99% of TV and it's place "X" that the show actually revolves around. That means that their surroundings, be it drugs, zombies, the 60's or whathaveyou, are merely there to serve the characters and their stories and development. See, a show like Lost or 24 is about the thing, not the person. Law and Order is about following a narrative that never changes, not cops or crooks (the Wire was about cops and crooks, or more appropriately, people). Lost is about an island, not the people on the island. 24 is about crisis, not Jack Baeur (sp?). Jack B. is merely the vehicle through which we experience the crisis where on Breaking Bad, the drug game is the vehicle through which we delve into who and what Walt and Jesse and the rest are. If someone thinks Breaking Bad is "about" the drug game I might argue that they have missed what is actually going on in the show. Thats not an insult, so please, don't take it that way, it's just a what is. The show isn't about drugs. It's about people dealing with the tensions of life, tossed into circumstances of their own creation that causes them to deal with who they really are and what they perceive themselves to be. Lost pretended to be about that, but really it was about OMG CRAZY ISLAND! Which is fine. They are very different shows and do different things. Some shows use the stage as the setting and some use the stage as the show. Thats the major difference. Neither is "worse", they just do it differently and people will react to things that reach them.

Now, that being said, I'm not interested in arguing whether or not they are "good" or "bad" or "boring" or "not boring". It's 100% subjective to the viewer so disagree away.

And yeah, Covar, if it hasn't grabbed you yet, you probably won't like the rest of it. I would encourage you to finish the season but it doesn't sound like it's a good fit.

You know, I always thought that for 24, they should have had the cast change almost entirely every season, truly making the show about the crisis instead of "Jack Bauer has another Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

Just started watching Breaking Bad and it's a serious contender for best show on TV as far as I am concerned. I DVRd the whole run that they showed before the new season started. A little over half way through Season 3 now and we are trying to slow down and make the episodes last but it's just so damn good.

Yup. This current season has been just phenomenal in the way it's dealing with the fallout of the end of 3.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-amc-20110804,0,106600.story

I like Breaking Bad far more than Mad Men. This makes me sad. It also explains Darabont's sudden departure from Walking Dead.