With the brilliant period drama Mad Men returning this weekend almost a year after the close of its first season, its devoted fans are waiting in anticipation for a whole new batch of intriguing episodes. Just as enthralling as an Oscar-worthy film, but with many more hours of enjoyment to offer (and arguably more depth), Mad Men was created by Matthew Weiner, who was formerly a writer and producer of the mob drama The Sopranos. In fact, many of the top-notch creative people behind Mad Men worked on that much-loved HBO show. Critics have showered Mad Men with praise, it has already garnered numerous awards, and it recently received 16 Emmy nominations. As much as I’d love to tell prospective viewers to just tune in on Sunday, there’s too much to love and enjoy about those first 13 episodes for me to condone simply jumping in at this point — every episode deserves to be appreciated. It’s not too late for new viewers to join in, though, as that premiere season was just released on DVD earlier this month. Here’s an examination of what makes Mad Men such a captivating viewing experience, why you should be watching, and what to expect if you make the wise decision to purchase the DVD set.

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Hitting the Internet this week only is a new miniseries from Joss Whedon, the multi-talented creator of such beloved television series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and the criminally short-lived Firefly. If the combo of Neil Patrick Harris, musicals, superheroes vs. villains, Nathan Fillion, and Joss Whedon co-writing and directing sounds good to you, rejoice! Thanks to the writer’s strike, he and several of his compatriots got frustrated, bored, and inspired, and rather than let their creative juices fester under the burden of not being able to write for film or TV, they came up with a plan for an Internet-distributed production, the “supervillain musical” Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

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The year may have ended with a no-end-in-sight writers’ strike, but 2007 brought many exciting, entertaining hours — and half-hours — to viewers before the networks started to run out of new content. Here’s a rundown of my favorite series from the past year.

New Shows
In 2007, two new series knocked my socks off, while several others proved to be quite enjoyable additions to the TV schedule.

Mad Men: After first seeing ads for this show in the theater before movies over the summer, I would never have guessed that it would be one of my favorite new series, let alone one of the best I’ve ever seen. But something drew me to it by the time it actually aired, and I was captivated before the show even started by the awesome opening credit sequence. Both salacious and understated, Mad Men dwells in the excessive, smoke-filled world of 1960’s top-notch Madison Avenue admen while also evincing an admirable degree of subtlety and restraint in its storytelling. A sense of foreboding despair and emotional repression permeates most of the characters’ lives, contrasting the material luxuries they outwardly enjoy. Though the series boasts a talented ensemble, Jon Hamm brilliantly portrays the most enthralling character: the enigmatic, tragically flawed star adman Don Draper. Beyond the performances, I’d be remiss not to mention the set and costume design; the environment in which the characters live and work is brought to life with such an extreme degree of detail that it becomes more than just a character of its own. I’ve always been a great lover of period dramas, and Mad Men ranks up there with the best of them, including films.

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