It's a very, very MAD world.

My latest (and greatest) television obsession is AMC's Mad Men, a show centered around the advertising industry in the early sixties. I know, unless you're already interested in the critical art form known as advertising, you wouldn't expect to take a liking to this show, but trust me, watch one episode and you'll be mesmerized.

The main theme of the show is really the role of women. At this time in our country's history, they were expected to make nothing more of themselves than housewives and mothers. They were taught to be curvy pieces of eye candy, told by their mothers and grandmothers to "tease, but never give it up until you have successfully reeled him in."

The show focuses on the character of Donald Draper (aka - Dick Whitman), creative director at ad agency Sterling-Cooper with a troubled past and a sugar-coated present/future alongside his bombshell wife, Betty, and their two small children.

Supporting characters include Peter Campbell, the brown-noser/potential blackmailer that everyone loves to hate, and Peggy Olson, the young, determined secretary turned copy writer.

Aside from the show being brilliantly written and elegantly shot, it manages to accurately portray the ideological snap-snot of what is arguably recognized as the most destructive decade America has ever experienced.