Television series

Mad Men

Name: Mad Men
Genre: Drama
Released: 2007
Cast: John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Kiernan Shipka, Vincent Kartheiser

Mad Men is a slow, gorgeous dissection of a man who sells identity for a living while having none of his own. Set in a 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency, it's less about plot than atmosphere — cigarette smoke, tailored suits, quiet devastation. Patient, literary, gorgeously designed television for people who like their drama simmering rather than boiling.

TVMaze rating

8.1

If you liked this

The Sopranos1999

The other great American study of a charismatic, compromised man performing masculinity while rot spreads underneath. Same patience, same refusal to moralize, same faith that silence and mood can carry a scene as well as dialogue.

But Therapy scenes and mob violence are a very different texture from boardrooms and highballs — it can feel rougher, louder.

Breaking Bad2008

A meticulous character study of a man reinventing himself through lies, built with the same obsessive visual control and slow-burn tension. Where Don hides his true self, Walter White grows a worse one in plain sight.

But Far more plot-driven and violent — this is momentum and dread, not the drifting, novelistic pace Mad Men rewards.

Halt and Catch Fire2014

From a Mad Men writer, it borrows the same DNA — ambitious, self-destructive people chasing the next big cultural wave, this time computing instead of advertising, with the same aching interiority.

But Slow, uneven first season puts a lot of viewers off before the show finds its real emotional gear.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Apartment1960

It's the primary source rather than the homage: a contemporaneous film about the same compromised office culture Mad Men spends seven seasons reconstructing.

Billy Wilder's bittersweet office comedy was made in the actual year Mad Men is set — same adultery, ambition, and quiet corporate cruelty, but filmed with the real texture of the era instead of recreated from memory.

But Black-and-white, studio-era pacing and a comic register that turns serious fast — some find the shift jarring.

Succession2018

Swap Madison Avenue for a media empire and you get the same rot dressed in beautiful clothes: powerful, damaged people performing confidence they don't feel, destroying everyone who loves them along the way.

But Faster, meaner, and funnier in a much sharper, more cynical register — less melancholy, more knife-fight.

Deadwood2004

Another show obsessed with how commerce, language, and ambition build civilization out of chaos, with dialogue so dense and deliberate it rewards the same close, patient attention Mad Men demands.

But Shakespearean, profanity-laced dialogue and a Western setting are a big tonal leap from Sterling Cooper's hushed offices.

Boardwalk Empire2010

Same producer's eye for period detail and moral compromise, just a few decades earlier and considerably bloodier — Atlantic City glamour built on corruption, with a similarly hollow man at its center.

But More plot-heavy and violent, with a sprawling cast that never quite achieves Mad Men's intimacy.

The Crown2016

Immaculate period craft in service of characters trapped by the roles they're expected to play — duty versus self, just swap the ad agency for a palace and the era shifts forward.

But Cooler and more restrained emotionally — royal decorum leaves less room for Mad Men's messy, private ache.

Six Feet Under2001

From the creator of American Beauty, this is another beautifully sad show about people performing normalcy over deep unhappiness, with the same eye for the quiet tragedy inside ordinary American life.

But Death is literally the family business here — it's a heavier, more explicitly grief-soaked watch.

Masters of Sex2013no page yet

Same era, same interest in the gap between public propriety and private desire, following real-life sex researchers whose work quietly cracked open 1960s convention from the inside.

But More clinical and issue-driven than character-driven — it explains its themes more than Mad Men ever bothers to.

Physical2021

Where Mad Men hides its protagonist's self-loathing behind charm, this show puts it on the soundtrack — same mask, opposite volume.

A woman performing a cheerful public self while a vicious internal monologue tears her apart underneath — same theme as Don Draper's double life, but pitched as dark comedy with an aerobics leotard on top.

But Deliberately abrasive and unlikeable protagonist, plus a much trashier 1980s surface than Mad Men's cool restraint.

The Persuaders2004no page yet

It strips away the drama's seduction to show the real machinery of persuasion the show only ever lets you watch from the outside.

A Frontline documentary that goes inside real advertising and marketing minds, showing how brands manufacture identity and desire — essentially Don Draper's actual toolkit, explained by the people who really use it.

But No plot, no characters to fall for — it's journalism, dry in places, and decades removed from Mad Men's glamour.