Over the weekend I watched season 1 of Mad Men, a highly acclaimed drama about the advertising executives of early 1960s Madison Avenue (New York City).

I was hooked after 3-4 episodes, but I was still a little disappointed. Hoping to learn more about how advertising was evolving at that time, I was instead fed a lot more of these two themes: (1) people were a lot more sexist and racist back then, and (2) people had complex sexual relationships, even in the early 1960s, even if it was never made public.

Shocking.

It’s actually quite interesting in its 1960s sexy way, but it has much less redeeming value than I was originally hoping for.