Summer of '62

I haven't watched a episodic TV series in a long time, probably not since college. In a practical sense, there's no way I can commit to be available at a particular time every week to watch something. And much to the horror of most everyone I know, I refuse to get TiVo. It seems pretty pointless since the Discovery Health Channel reruns episodes of Untold Stories of the ER often enough to ensure that I catch every adorable second of Dr. Dorian's screen time (call me, Armand!) Plus given that almost every series goes immediately to DVD upon the completion of each season, I can always Netflix anything that really warrants my attention.

On the other hand, I don't take commitement to a series at all lightly - when I'm a fan, I'm a fan all the way. I keep scrapbooks, I go to conventions, I made a small shrine in my closet and pray to it. And I can hardly bear the disappointment of getting all emotionally invested in a show, only to have it go to complete shit or get cancelled before its prime for lack of viewership. Which seems to happen more and more frequently these days than in the tender, golden years of my youth.

So while I was intially intrigued by the concept when Mad Men premiered last year, I kept my distance. After all, could I really trust that AMC would see this thing through? Plus I had no great love for The Sopranos, and Matthew Weiner's pedigree was the show's biggest selling point at that time. Oh, what a difference a year makes. Your marketing dollars were well-spent, AMC, because I am 110% on board for the 2nd season. Although now I have to be somewhere every Sunday at 10PM. Dammit.

Reasons I have fully embraced Mad Men

• According to the production team, everything involved with the set design is authentic pieces from the early 60s - the costumes, the cars, the furniture are all genuine, as opposed to reproductions meant to look period. Bravo, set designer - many awards may you win, and Chris may you someday hire.

• The behavior of the characters is also firmly rooted in the social mores of the early 60s, including the not-so-PC bits that might have otherwise been glossed over in favor of not offending the masses. There is constant drinking ("Shall we drink before or after the meeting? Why not both?") and smoking, openly rampant sexism and slightly more subtle racism. It's bold, sure, but it's also refreshing to see the time period portrayed for what it actually was - good and bad - as opposed to some watered-down interpretation to make the everyone who was there feel better about themselves.

• Jon Hamm is my ideal male specimen made flesh - he is big and dark and often depicted making the sex. And I can see this on a regular weekly basis? Excellent.

• Much like The X-Files, my previous long-standing TV obsession, it's the sort of show that rewards you for hanging in there from the beginning (or, in my case, watching the entire 1st season on my iPod before picking up the 2nd) since the backstory is revealed in layers. I remember getting seriously irritated with Alias when, in an attempt to attract a bigger audience, the writers decided to close the 1st season by burning down the entire original premise of the show and starting over. I call bullshit on you, J.J. Abrams. Chris Carter was having none of that - if you started watching The X-Files in the middle of the 4th season, then you sir were just fucked and that's how it was. Man, I miss the good old days when we all had 60-minute attention spans.

• It makes me yearn for a time when I could get away with wearing fabulous tailored dresses and roundtoe heels on a regular basis. Something about the strict social code of dressing up is very appealing. One does tire of one's fashionably distressed jeans being suitable for almost every occasion, after all.

• I did mention Jon Hamm is sexing a lot of laydeez, yeah?