AMC’s “Mad Men” Keeps Viewers Intrigued and Guessing

Fans of AMC's hit television series "Mad Men" were outraged at the time delay of the show's fifth season (it returns to AMC on March 25 after missing the 2011 season), but are quite satisfied with the series taking

home the 2011 Emmy for best series drama. "Mad Men" has become a nostalgic portrayal of the advertising world in the 1960s, and a must- watch series.

The plot revolves around the show's main character, Don Draper, played by actor Jon Hamm. Draper started as the lead creative director of the "Sterling Cooper" advertising agency, and then became a partner in the Sterling/ Cooper/Draper/Price advertising agency in season four.

Draper is a cigarette smoking scotch drinker who cheats on his wife, and strays away from his own happiness. Yet every woman who watches the show wants to be with him, and every man who watches the show wants to be him.

The show's creator, Matthew Weiner, created Draper with such charm that no viewer can watch the show and feel anything but empathy towards his character. Weiner tends to want viewers of his shows to root for the bad guy, just as he did with Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos." Weiner can make one of his characters shoot a man to death, and at the pull of the trigger viewers will look for reasons to forgive them.

Viewers watch Don Draper participate in adultery, then go home to his wife and children without feeling any kind of anger towards his character. Seeing the look on Draper's face when he walks through the doors of his home, and sits down at the kitchen table with his family, shows his character's innocence.

True fans of "Mad Men" understand his character and why he does what he does, and they hold nothing against him. Draper feels guilt about his past, and in turn shies away from any kind of stability in his life.

The plot twist to the series of Mad Men is that Don Draper isn't exactly who he says he is. Draper has a backstory that Weiner teases viewers about each season. "Don" isn't really Don; his real name is Dick Whitman, and he was a soldier during the Korean War. His general, Donald Draper, was killed right in front of him during combat.

Whitman switched dog tags with Don and came home from the war a different person, leaving behind a dismal life as Dick Whitman and beginning a new one of Don Draper. Season four left viewers at a cliffhanger when hints of Draper's past surface to other characters on the show.

Hamm is supported by an outstanding group of cast members. Matthew Weiner took actors who were unrecognizable and turned them into household names.

Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan, the head secretary at the original and spinoff ad agency, has turned into a pop-culture sex icon. Her voluptuous curves and full figure have turned her into a modern-day Marilyn Monroe for viewers.

Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy, starts out as a secretary who becomes the first female copywriter at Sterling Cooper. Weiner also uses Peggy as a symbol for women's rights at a time when women were looked at as little more than housewives or sex objects. January Jones, who plays Don's wife Betty, brings new light to the "perfect housewife" stereotype of the 1960s.

Betty is perfect on the outside, but inside she is a damaged person who hates herself. Her yearning for more from Don leads her to be aggressive towards her children, and drives her into the arms of another man. The characters couldn't be cast more perfectly. Each character in the show touches on social specifications of the 1960s such as male dominance, homophobia, racism, women's rights and adultery.

Although all of the topics are brash, the actors bring life and realism to each subject with a sensitivity I don't think could be shown by other actors.

Weiner stayed true to the time period in meticulous ways, from the clothes on Joan's back to the cigarettes that Don smokes to commuter train timetables. There is product placement in each episode with the accounts the ad agency works on. "Lucky Strike" cigarettes were the agency's biggest account, and also a famous cigarette brand during an era when everyone and their brother smoked.

The fashion on the show would also translate into the real world, with the launch of a "Mad Men" clothing line at Banana Republic. The show has given a positive spin on the aspects of the 1960s that might not have been looked at as positive at the time.

"Mad Men" led AMC to revamp its entire network. It brought new light to an obscure cable channel that few people tuned in too.

Networks tried to gain similar followers by creating "time period" shows such as the shortlived "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club," but none have had the same success as "Mad Men." The suspense element and depth of each character keeps viewers intrigued and wondering whom they can empathize with next.