Jon Hamm stars as a hotshot creative director at a New York advertising agency that is equally eager, in 1960, to sell cigarettes and Richard Nixon. John Slattery is the silvery boss who looks over his shoulder; Vincent Kartheiser, a lean and hungry account executive who would stab him in the back; Elisabeth Moss, the new girl from the steno pool; and there are many more, all waiting around for Marshall McLuhan to forgive them for their many crimes against intelligence and decency. They look a lot like the television journalists in George Clooney’s Edward R. Murrow movie—without, of course, the scruples. Odd how ridiculous they seem in their dark narrow suits with their dark narrow ties, like Murrow, Ed Sullivan, Lenny Bruce, Rod Serling, and Sinatra’s Rat Pack. So, too, does this series feel like a fifties leftover, chock-full of unimportant secrets.

AMC
Premieres Thursday, July 19, 10 p.m.

Related:

• Archive: “Television”
• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: July 23, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!