The smoke that builds up in Sterling Cooper, a fabricated advertising agency, is almost as much a character as the rest of the cast of AMC's critical darling Mad Men.
The secretaries puff away on their typewriters, wearing short, form-fitting dresses and pencil skirts that accentuate all the right curves. The men with hair slicked back under fedoras suck away at their Lucky Strikes, pausing in between sips of their second martini of the afternoon.
Turn on the channel, and it's as if you've time warped back to the 1960s, complete with the Jackie Kennedy bob and the Cadillac Coupe deVille sitting in the Draper's driveway.
Although the show's main focus is the inner workings of the fabricated advertising agency on Madison Avenue, the beauty of Mad Men is its brutally honest commentary on the 1950s culture, a focus that starkly contrasts with the light and frothy image preferred by other shows.
From Don and Betty Draper, the couple with the Ken-and-Barbie looks and the perfect suburban life, to Joan Holloway, the Marliyn Monroe-like bombshell who knows how to work her hourglass shape, every character is more than just a one-dimensional pretty face. Betty discovers Don hasn't been faithful to her for months and doesn't let him come home. Joan is still single in her 30s and facing the hard reality of life as a spinster. Behind every perfectly coifed hairstyle lies a secret, from hidden pregnancies to denied homosexuality. These characters are as far from the Leave It To Beaver bunch as you can get.
Now in its second season, Mad Men is up for 16 Emmys, including best drama and best dramatic lead actor for Jon Hamm, and has already racked up four awards at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys.
With only four episodes until the conclusion of the season, viewers still have a chance to join the small but devout audience. Unless of course, you can't take the smoke.
Madeline Perez
The appeal of Entourage used to be its portrayal of rich guys partying with beautiful women and dropping ridiculous amounts of cash, all while totally baked. And I guess the film industry is a little interesting, too.
But even with such promising material, this season of Entourage may fall short.
It's hard to tell whose acting is worse: Vincent Chase as Pablo Escobar, or Adrian Grenier as Vincent Chase. We all love watching Vinny get the hottest girl in the club, but a bad actor playing a bad actor proves more difficult than one would expect. And to top it off, Vince is now settling down with the broken (but still bangin') Justine Chapin? When is Vince going to find time for his tropical threesomes when he's out shopping for tampons?
Also, the show seems to be wasting time on developing Eric's talent agency, despite the fact that nobody cares. Admittedly, the indie writers E is trying to sign may be good additions to the show. I mean, they discuss business with E over dip at a strip club; that's awesome.
The good news is that Turtle and Drama are finally getting the same facetime as their more successful cronies. Johnny Drama has just been dumped by his overseas girlfriend and is rekindling his career as a star on the hit TV show, Five Towns. But it's Drama, so he is bound to turn a promising opportunity into another wasted shot at fame.
Astonishingly, Turtle has finally found some game. With one of the best pickup lines ever uttered (which unfortunately can't be reproduced in recess), Turtle convinces a beautiful, not-so-single woman to leave a party with him. It should be interesting to see how Turtle screws this one up.
Now, I love Entourage, but the bottom line is that the show is turning into Anchorman. There may be a lot of funny moments, but the storyline really does need some work. Oh, and Ari's still kind of a big deal.
Alex Reinstein
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