The numbers may be small, but they are fervent. The AMC series "Mad Men" does not have a huge fan base -- its audience topped out at 2 million for the second-season premiere -- but that apparently includes every critic in the world. Not to mention fellow actors, writers, directors and producers.
In its first season, the show won Golden Globes for best television drama and lead actor Jon Hamm. Hamm also garnered a SAG nomination for lead actor, and the cast was nominated for drama series ensemble. In September, "Mad Men" won six out of its 16 Emmy nominations, including the big kahuna: outstanding drama series, a first for a basic cable show. It even landed a Peabody Award.
Now, after its second season in 2008, the Golden Globes repeated their earlier two nominations -- drama series and lead actor -- and have added a nod to January Jones for lead actress. The SAG Awards have experienced a similar deja vu, but instead added Elisabeth Moss for lead actress to their ensemble and lead actor nominations.
So what is it about this show that has the critics so enchanted?
From the retro opening credits, the audience is immersed in the world of Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency in early 1960s Manhattan, populated with men in suits and hats and women in girdles and inferior workplace positions. Hamm plays Don Draper, a brilliant adman with an identity crisis of monumental proportions. Jones is Betty, his beautiful wife, riddled with inchoate rage at her golden life in the suburbs. Moss plays Peggy, a secretary recently promoted to copywriter, an anomaly among the male staff.
The series is as great-looking as its stars, and collected Emmys last year for art direction, cinematography and hairstyling. Viewers feast on period detail as they cringe at the sight of sexist, racist -- even litterbugging -- behaviors. Homosexuality hides in plain sight, while minorities are present but invisible. There's an initial sense of superiority in the watching -- "just look how far we've come" -- but it soon mingles with an uneasy realization that society's journey in the last 45 years may be more twisted than linear. After all, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" was an ad campaign to lure women to smoking.
