Mad Men TV

Last week I added AMC's Mad Men to my summer TV diet (Big Love not being quite enough to fill the hot nights). The story of advertising guys and their wives/lovers, set in 1960, is unfolding with HBO-like slowness, but so far there's enough texture to keep things interesting. One gimmick is that characters are constantly doing things that are taboo today: smoking, drinking at all hours of the day, leering at women in the office, etc. Last week, a youngster was playing with a plastic dry-cleaner's bag (as in, putting it over her head and trying to breathe through it), and her mother simply warned her to hang up the clothes that were in it. Later, two children in a moving car not only went without seat belts, they stood and jumped up and down in the back seat. As my siblings and I always stood in the car, at least until our heads started to dig into the roof, this scene gave me a warm glow of nostalgia. (My gin and tonic also helped.) For a good summary of this new show, go to The House Next Door.