Mad Men

Mad Men is the most beautifully crafted drama in television history. Matthew Weiner built a show about the advertising industry of the 1960s that is really about the way America lies to itself — about identity, happiness, progress, and the cost of reinvention. Jon Hamm's Don Draper is an enigma wrapped in a gray flannel suit: a man who literally invented himself and spends seven seasons discovering that the invention is hollow. The show moves at a deliberate pace that rewards attention. Every costume, every set detail, every musical cue is chosen with museum-curator precision. The final scene — Draper meditating at a retreat before conceiving the 'I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke' ad — is the most elegant ending in television.