15 TV Seasons That Are Totally Flawless
8. Mad Men - Season One
The first season of AMC's immaculate drama Mad Men is also its best, which is saying a lot given the sheer excellence of the never-sloppy series.
Mad Men relies on shock revelations, increasingly dramatic character interactions and witty dialogue to make itself work, and never has any of the show's strengths worked as well together as they did in that first year.
Relying on its nostalgic and scarily accurate 60s setting, the season focusses on the enigmatic, flawed and elusive advertiser Don Draper. For thirteen episodes, we're treated to a series of shocking twists, from the first episode's reveal that Draper has a family to the sudden realisation that he's not even who he says he is.
The first season of Mad Men is all about the rise and fall of Don Draper - who's played to smarmy perfection by Jon Hamm - a plotline that leads to one of the best written seasons of dramatic television ever penned.