Television is a pastime and passion for many of us. It’s something we do to let the day go by, a place we go to when dealing with classes and assignments are too much to bear. I watch shows like ‘The Office,’ ‘Californication,’ ‘Entourage’ and ‘House.’ Yet, television isn’t considered art in the same way certain movies and musical pieces are.

But I beg to differ with this mentality. I want us to sit in front of our televisions and seek aesthetic pleasure, because certain shows can be Shakespearean works of art.

In particular, I’m talking about the AMC show ‘Mad Men.’ This show is one in a group of shows in the last 10 years to have transcended television and achieved Olympian heights of artistry in the world of popular culture.

HBO’s ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Sopranos’ also qualify as shows that have revealed society in a way that is equal parts beautiful and horrifying. The shows reveal the beauty, strength and complexity of human existence in modern society. They grapple with social issues like class, race, family, love and violence.

They deal with these issues in a style that is visceral – at times disheartening, at times horrifying – while never taking us so far over the edge that we feel despair. It’s humanity revealed in a way that is honest and not clich’eacute;. The characters aren’t too glamorous to avoid being besieged by the average man’s problems, so they are easy to empathize with.

‘Mad Men’ is set in the 1960s and is a fictional account of the Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Square Avenue. It centers on Jon Hamm’s character, Don Draper, the creative director at Sterling Cooper.

Central to this show are its depictions of the evolving social mores of 1960s America. The show helps put a human spin to events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy assassination. It did something textbooks can’t – give a glimpse into the psyche of the masses that were there during these historic moments.

In no way am I saying these guys get it 100 percent right, but they provide an opportunity for people today to at least ask what it was like to actually walk down the street in the 1960s, or in this case, work in a swanky Madison Avenue office.

The fact that the story is an account of the lives of ad men is important. Commercials are a gateway into the psyche of the masses. Commercials are made to appeal to the values and mores of society. As such, these ad men and how they go about doing their jobs provides a pretty interesting view of what people held dear and what they despised in those times.

The show’s manic attention to detail is impressive for television. The set pieces are beautiful to look at. Subtle elements like curtains used in offices or the cutlery used in the homes adds weight to the level of attention to detail.

The 1960s were a very important time in world – not just American – history. ‘Mad Men’ gives an image of life just before the countercultural upheavals would be in full swing. The characters are still culturally in the 50s, but a lot of their behavior and mannerisms slowly evolve in front of you as societal pressures force people to reevaluate post-War values.

The Cold War was in full swing. The perceived need to arm initiated an unprecedented level of industrial productivity. When watching ‘Mad Men,’ it’s intriguing to see how the Cold War loomed like a dark cloud over everyone’s lives. Alternative lifestyles were viewed as pathological evils that needed to be exterminated.

The show reveals how simple relations with women were drastically different. In one episode, we follow as Don Draper’s wife Betty’s attempts to get a divorce prove difficult until she decides to leave for Reno, where divorce laws were more relaxed for women at the time. The black characters in this show are either elevator lobby men or honest, do-good maids.

Whether this is good or bad isn’t the issue, but it slightly plays into how life was then for people of color. Those were the opportunities offered to them by society. The characters of color are treated as invisible, but it is almost impossible to ignore members of society who were slowly getting their voices heard during the show’s timeframe.

The show reveals how attitudes toward things like cigarette smoking, drinking and homophobia differed greatly from today. The show’s participants are portrayed as oblivious to major changes taking place in the undercurrent of society that are about to completely change things for them in the future.

Yet, we also see glimpses of the future. Betty has constant anxiety at having to play the role of the housewife and bravely stands up to and divorces her husband. People at this time viewed jazz musicians in the same way rappers are viewed today – as fringe, immoral elements corrupting the youth. This was funny to me, considering how jazz today is viewed as high art in many circles. Rock and roll was creeping in, but it doesn’t predominate because at the time, rock was largely teen culture that would echo the coming of countercultural revolution.

At its core, this is entertainment and can at times fall victim to the artist’s need to exaggerate in order to elicit excitement from the audience. Yet, it’s this show that, in a way, makes me think of the many very radical changes we are facing today worldwide. Societies are being thrust further and further into modernism and we as regular boys, girls, students and citizens are also participating in the ever-flowing tide of history.

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