Mad Men is probably the most debatable choice on this list, and even one I debated about myself. It's definitely arguable that the show has improved each year upon the last, although I don't believe that this is the case. I do, however think that the show grew and became much more compelling from season 3 onwards, really hitting it's stride in the three seasons that followed, and that's good enough to have it appear on the list. Although I did enjoy Mad Men in seasons 1 and 2, it was never anything to write home about for me. It has always been brilliantly written and it looks gorgeous, bringing us as close to the 60's as we could ever want. But the most important part of any TV show for me is usually the characters, and in the earlier season I just didn't care about them enough. As the show progressed, Don's character started becoming more and more compelling as he became simultaneously easier to understand and harder to figure out. Jon Hamm's continued to outperform himself as he started to get to know the character and I think his divorce to Betty gave he and January Jones more freedom to work with, making both characters much more interesting from then on. The rest of the characters started developing more depth too as the years went on, and the result is a cast of vastly interesting people who you really feel like you know. Peggy, Joan, Pete and Roger are all as fascinating as Don in their own ways, and I found myself caring about them more and more as I got to know them better in the later seasons. Not to mention, seasons 4, 5 and 6 had the episodes "The Suitcase", "Far Away Places" and "The Crash" respectively. Each one a unique experiment and some of the best hours of television ever produced.
Joe is a television junkie. A film fanatic. A pop culture know-it-all. An interactive media masters student, and a bass player.
22 years old and Irish. Thinks Netflix is a Godsend.
