Mad Men

Peggy Olson starts the series as a secretary on her first day, and this is the thread that follows what she does about it - the cleanest arc in the show, and the only one with a real beginning, middle and end. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.

Roger Sterling is the name on the door and the one man in the building who has never had to try. This is what the next seven seasons do about that. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.

Joan Holloway runs the office and everyone in it knows the building would stop without her; the question the series asks is what that is actually worth in a room where the titles belong to men. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.

The other half of the show, in the suburbs, where almost nothing happens on purpose. Betty Draper's thread is the hardest one to like and the one the series is most quietly serious about. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.

Pete Campbell wants in - to the partnership, the clients, the family name's worth, the life next door - and this is every episode where he gets nearer or further from it. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.