Mad Men of the Summer

I thought the show of the summer was going to be re-runs of The Office or 30 Rock, a pair of shows I discovered and started loving after Christmas. Instead, the show to watch is Mad Men, the tale of an ad exec in the late 50s. After four episodes -- some good, some stale -- it clearly has potential. It feels like they are laing the groundwork for some great stories down the road and it occasionally has that Sopranos vibe, where the Mad Men creator wrote and directed a few episodes. What is normal life like for a gangster or a highly successful and secretive mid-level executive? Both drink too much and sleep around and they must kep an eye on their crew for any ambitious back-stabbers. Of course, Don Draper can't whack any rivals and his family is always safe from retribution, but it doesn't mean that the stakes are not high.

The best thing about the show are the production values -- the women clean the dishes while they re dressed for cocktail party. who look like they ar ready for a cocktail party. Don stands out in his sharp suits while his co-horts are in sad black garb like anonymous company men. And I'm not the first one to mention the smoking or the afternoon ofice drinking -- it's the highpoint of the cocktail culture. Instead of mid-afternoon Starbucks, it's amber liquids and steely martinis.

The creator of the show has definitely read his John Cheever. Draper lives in the leafy suburb that the New Yorker short story writer moved to when he wrote his tales of love and lost romantics. This is out 10th summer in Ossining and I keep straining to see of any of the outdoor shots were indeed done here. The only movie or TV crew here was the Bill Murray yawner Broken Flowers a few years back. Hard going watching that flick but the opening scene of a house not far from here did highlight one point of Ossining: a millionaire can live quite close to a family that looks like it has a tough time paying the bills.

I wonder what's going to be revealed with Don and his past. He doesn't talk about the Army, his Purple Heart or his childhood. Even his wife -- an airhead who is destined for a mid-life of Valiums -- doesn't know anything about the man she married. We did have one clue though: a commuter said hello to Don and called him Whitcomb. Why the name change for Brooding Don. Can't wait to find out.