10 TV Shows Like Mad Men You Should Watch Next
After The Sopranos ended in 2007, Mad Men picked up the torch for prestige television, distinguished by its multilayered plots, grippingly traumatized characters, and impeccable period style. Set in a 1960s advertising agency, the series explores America on the brink of sweeping social change from the perspective of those striving to maintain the status quo. Given our current cultural fascination with an imagined past in which women knew their place and white, heterosexual men always knew best, the charming, complex, hard-drinking, and deeply traumatized Don Draper seems far less of an artifact now than he did nearly 20 years ago—a reminder, I believe, that good TV never loses its power to speak to us. In that spirit, here are 10 other rich, novel-like series full of complex characters navigating moments of change.
Mrs. America (2020)
From Emmy Award-winning writer , producer, and actress Dahvi Waller (with her stunning period style) , Mrs. America dramatizes the 1970s struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment, which simultaneously represents both the peak and trough of the quest for justice and autonomy. Cate Blanchett plays activist Phyllis Schlafly, who led the fight against the (once) widely popular proposed amendment, weaponizing it, allying herself with radical feminists and abortion rights advocates, homosexuals, desegregationists, and other maligned groups. She was at the forefront of a broad conservative cultural shift in the world we still live in, and now is the time to take a closer look at the people who radicalized basic equality. The series also features an incredible supporting cast, including Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, and Elizabeth Banks. Watch Mrs. America on Hulu .
Halt and Catch Fire (2014–2017)
This series, which has largely flown under the radar for four seasons (and only gets better with each season), offers a heavily fictionalized portrait of the rise of personal computing in the 1980s and the early days of the internet in the 1990s. Lee Pace plays Joe MacMillan, an antihero who leaves IBM in 1983 to join the fictional Cardiff Electric Company. He’s charismatic, manipulative, and tech-savvy, yet he dreams of creating the next big technological innovation—starting with reverse-engineering the IBM PC. Frequently featured on critics’ best-of lists, the series boasts a stunning opening sequence. And did I mention Lee Pace ? The time frame is different, but the world of men and women going too far in business resonates. Watch Halt and Catch Fire on Prime Video .
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023)
Mrs. Maisel is one of Prime Video’s first and most talked-about original series, a comedy-drama from Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) about Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a New York housewife in the late 1950s who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Inspired by the real-life careers of comedians like Totie Fields and Joan Rivers, the series is warm and funny, with great performances and dialogue; it also manages that rare feat of being a genuinely funny show about comedy. The tone is slightly different from Mad Men , but the time frame and style of the era are similar, as are the lives of the main characters: like Midge, Mad Men ‘s Peggy strives for more than she thinks possible. Watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video .
Hour (2011–2012)
Featuring a stellar cast and impeccable period style , The Hour chronicles the development of a (fictional) BBC current affairs programme hosted by women and airing during the height of the 1956 Suez Crisis—a daunting task in itself, as the government is reluctant to have its mistakes reported (thankfully, such censorship would be impossible today). Producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) selects war correspondent Leakes Storm (a superb Anna Chancellor) as a foreign correspondent, along with less-successful anchor Hector Madden (Dominic West), while energetic reporter Freddie Lyon (Ben Wislaw) desperately tries to make the team. The series features spies, murders, and plenty of current events, but the most gripping moments take place in the office, where internal politics and rivalries collide with real-life drama. Watch The Hour on Tubi .
Masters of Sex (2013–2016)
Spanning nearly 15 years, from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, this series tells the (sometimes highly) fictional story of sexology pioneers William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), who takes a job as a secretary but quickly proves capable of much more than just taking notes and fetching coffee. Reminiscent of Mad Men , the series is impressive in that it’s far less frank than its title suggests, approaching sexuality with a profound seriousness that sometimes borders on sentimentality. No matter: there are plenty of shows with lots of sex, and far fewer that approach the subject with such compassion. Get Masters of Sex on Prime Video and Apple TV .
The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
A surprising cultural phenomenon at the start of the pandemic, The Queen’s Gambit deserves a place on this list primarily for its impeccable 1960s ambiance—but that’s not all. In this coming-of-age drama, Anna Taylor-Joy plays chess prodigy Elizabeth Harmon, who strives for the world championship in an era when her talents were often underestimated, while simultaneously struggling with her own emotional issues and addiction. Without going into too much detail, Elizabeth, like Don Draper, strives to reach the top of her field while making moral compromises and battling a severe alcohol addiction. How anyone survived the 1960s is beyond me—though they’d probably wonder the same about us.Watch The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix.
The Sopranos (1999–2007)
The Sopranos , the most obvious contender for Best TV Series after Mad Men , doesn’t share much in common with Mad Men in terms of setting, but there are tonality similarities, perhaps largely due to the shared involvement of writer and producer Matthew Weiner, who won Emmy Awards for both series. The Sopranos works so well because the mafia serves as a proxy for virtually any job in America—full of false promises and numerous dangers, requiring endless moral compromises to succeed. Tony, like Don Draper, exists in a world where his power as a boss, and as a man with very traditional notions of what that means, is increasingly under threat. Watch The Sopranos on HBO Max.
Succession (2018–2023)
The darkly comic story of the Roy family, owners of the media conglomerate Waystar RoyCo, and the chaos and gossip that erupts when patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) suffers a stroke, sparking a struggle within the clan for what remains after his inevitable death. A benchmark for modern prestige television, at least until its conclusion in 2023, Succession has picked up the baton of layered storytelling and complex characters, both elevated and broken by circumstance. Both series tell the story of broken people so deeply shaped by circumstance and environment that only rarely, and usually too late, does it occur to them that they are capable of becoming better . Watch Succession on HBO Max .
Good Girls Revolt (2015–2016)
Good Girls Revolt is an adaptation of Lynn Povich’s nonfiction book of the same name, set in the offices of a Newsweek -like publication in 1969. Clearly inspired by Mad Men in its exploration of the social, political, and cultural mores of middle-class America in the 1960s, the series stars Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, and Erin Darke as three “researchers”—women in low-paying positions that require at least the same education and talent as the male reporters who exploit their work and articles without attribution. And, of course, they are paid (at best) about a third of what the men earn. As the story unfolds (as you might have guessed from the title), the women grow weary of the situation and turn to the courts to protect their rights. Author Povich herself was one of the litigants in the historic lawsuit on which the series is based. Watch Good Girls Revolt on Prime Video.
Industry (2020 – )
Industry transports us to London, into the thick of modern life, and at the same time feels like a spiritual successor to Mad Men , where investment banking is to the modern world what advertising was to the 1960s. The juxtaposition of the two series offers a glimpse into the business worlds of the past and present: Industry is less white, heterosexual, and male than its predecessors, though much remains the same. At the beginning of the series , recent graduates working at the prestigious investment bank Pierpoint & Co. are given instructions: there are many of them, and only a few full-time positions, so they will need to prove their worth if they want to stay. Imagine a younger, more attractive British Glengarry Glen Ross . Watch Industry on HBO Max .