SPOILER WARNING: The following post will be discussing what occurs during the 60’s advert fun filled world of Mad Men during the opening couple of series.

If you’ve not watched the programme yet and wish to remain in the dark until as such time as the final part of Series 7 has aired later this year so you can gorge yourself silly in one weekend as is the custom these days, then please feel free to browse the KFC web site instead and wonder whose fingers need to be licked good.

For those who willing to brave the writings of a semi-drunken lier who cheats on his taxes whenever possible, please continue the reading below the lovely picture of a well dressed Don Draper who seems to have forgotten to turn the taps off here….

Why yes, I am this sexy, you silly little thing.

Mad Men is again one of those “you have to watch it and love it” shows which has caused conversations up and down the M3, and fever pitch will no doubt reach some levels when the final episodes air later this year.

Much like Game of Thrones only recently watched which managed to hook from the first episode, it was one of those shows where the hype had just passed me by and given the general consensus remains very much in favour of it, let’s see what the fuss was about and whether or not it deserves the firstborn of every family in payment for it existing in the first place.

The show takes place during the early 60s at at advertising agency in New York (at least in the opening two series where I’ve got up to do) where various attitudes which were rampant at the time are shown in their slightly toned down yet still disturbing glory, and we will soon see a cast of characters filling out their roles in the drama, all fitting into the setting at times, worryingly well.

I have an idea, let’s smoke and drink. Tally-ho chaps!

We witness an example of the times in the opening episode of the first series, where in the opening scene, we first see Mr. Don Draper (or is he for some reason?) at a club asking a black waiter called Sam about why he smokes a particular brand of cigarettes, at that point presumably for work reasons.

But only moments before the informative conversation took place, we saw an older white waiter treat Sam in a less than glowing light in front of us by asking if he was bothering Don, as the white guy was above him in just about every way. Pretty much that told you all you needed to know about what was socially acceptable at the time.

Don himself is presented with slicked back hair, an impeccable suit and at least 12 cigarettes in each hand at a time, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect view of what the expectation of the time was for people to be dressed like. The perfect alpha male. Who just happens to have various flings with women at different times while then also going back to an unhappy wife and two children of their own. He’s not the only one.

Pretty much everyone in Sterling Cooper are dressed in the same way, and the way they act too is almost exactly the same with the men laughing and joking at each other before leering at any woman with a pulse, to the ladies who basically don’t seem to care about anything apart from make-up and securing themselves a provider, at least in the beginning.

Joan, the fierce red-headed lady pretty much personifies how women wanted to be back in those days, again judging from her behaviour and the new girl Peggy, wants to work in the big city and fit in with everyone else, even to the point of having naughty times with a nasty piece of work known as Pete Campbell, who like Joffrey in Game of Thrones, you just hate on sight after only 30 seconds.

Women….who are probably mad about something just like the men.

You would easily be forgiven that everyone was shallow, self-obessed with appearances and there was not a lot more to them at all.

But as time progresses and the story develops, we start seeing a common pattern. That no-one actually is happy with how things are, even when they have what for the time, people would describe as a perfect life, with the great job, doting spouse and kids they cared about in between drinking and smoking.

Hell even in Don’s case, we see a completely different side where clearly he wasn’t happy at all with who he was and instead completely changed everything including his name. It was a what the hell moment, and you may be left wondering if you had a stroke and missed something before.

Over time, the world appears to always be on the brink of unravelling with one set of lies or behaviour just demonstrating how much of a lie the 60’s American Dream may have been for these people involved with each other.

Here, you’ve not smoked in 12 seconds, have another. Oh and sleep with me please. Nice.

The amount of smoking and drinking going on, you actually want to join in with Roger, the older womaniser of the group, after he vomits from walking up the stairs to the office when the lift fails.

The causal naughty going on in addition just makes you wonder if what was supposed to be considered morality, was just complete b*llocks, and in many ways, it has not changed at all over the years, just we tweet about it now while your iCloud storage account gets hacked.

But as a show, would it be something you would get hooked into and keep watching to the end?

That is a far more difficult thing to say than the slam dunk of Game of Thrones which pretty much anything goes. While of course this is entirely subjective, I cannot say it held my interest in the same way and not just because there are no dragons. Though if Don had dragons….no, no, bad Paul….

The production values are again very high, really to be commended as to the level of detail they went to for adverts and products of that era, revolving around the people of Sterling Cooper and it seems to really shine a light on a section of history which you would have only briefly seen otherwise in something such as X-Men First Class.

Which lets be fair, we weren’t likely to see Professor X giving a talk about Kodak Cameras any time soon while battling Kevin Bacon. But perhaps because it cast a shadow over so many ideas it makes you think about what has really changed since that time. The performances of all are very well portrayed and what happens to Peggy at the end of the first series was just truly sad. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who wasn’t stunned.

But for all it is, it’s at times a wee bit too much like a soap opera which can be very off putting, considering the amount of lies, treachery and deceit those wonderful pieces of misery contain in 3 seconds of footage and that can be the difference of whether or not you decide to continue with it.

For myself, I will continue to see what happens to the end of the third series (especially given I have it anyway to hand thanks to cheap dealings online) and decide then, but certainly not with the same level of drive that Game of Thrones inspired to see what happens next. At the moment, it’s very much something I could stop watching and not return to.