“Mad Men” (Season 1, Episode 3: “Marriage of Figaro” AMC)

It is the early 1960’s, and despite all that has happened since WWII, the rapid cultural changes of the decade have yet to occur. Pregnant woman drink and bad little boys get a firm slap. It is still a time of innocence in many regards; TV is a novelty, electric typewriters are the latest technology, and cigarettes continue to be consumed at an alarming rate. In AMC’s meticulous period piece, “Mad Men,” Matthew Weiner creates a world that is sexy, intriguing and at times disturbing.

This is the world of the Ad men of New York’s famed Madison Ave., and they have it all… or so it seems. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is a chief executive at Sterling Cooper, the WASPiest Agency in town, and by all outward appearances, he is a prince. Don is rich, handsome, and intelligent with a blonde bombshell of a wife, Betty, played by January Jones. She adores and obeys him, but still he is unhappy. Despite his nice house in the suburbs, his big car, his beautiful wife and kids, Don is seeking something, and hiding something.

In the very first scene of the episode, Don is riding the train to work, examining a famous VW Beetle advertisement, when an “old friend” confronts him. It’s a familiar scene, you bump into an old acquaintance, perhaps you can’t remember their name, and it’s a bit awkward. But Don, though he plays it pretty cool as per usual, is positively mortified. Here we are given our first glimpse into the history of our mysterious main character. Although the man obviously recognizes Don, he refers to him as “Dick Whitman.”

Not even his wife knows who he really is. Nor does she know about his frequent trysts; represented in this episode through an encounter with a beautiful client, a Jewish heiress running a large department store. Although the affair is nothing out of the ordinary for the show (all the men have them), Draper’s extramarital interactions are passionate and romantic. The romance is punctuated with great dialog, deep stares and knowing looks.

“Mad Men” does the early 60’s to a tee. The sex scenes usually fade out with a kiss, and fade back in to the lovers in bed, smoking away. The sets, costumes, and props are meticulously researched and reproduced, right down to the drinks and cigarettes that play such a large role in the characters lives. In one of the worst prop mistakes in the show’s history, Don is seen in this episode guzzling “Fielding” Beer while building his daughter’s playhouse, even though it had not been introduced to the US at the time.

Although it can be overly dramatic at times, “Mad Men” is great show. Looking past the overt themes of money, sex, and power, it explores a myriad of social issues without shoving them down your throat. It doesn’t rely on too much violence or action like so many other shows these days. Instead we are seduced by the scene, the sets, the feel, and the dialog.

“True Blood” (Season 1, Episodes 1-5, HBO)

Halloween was this past weekend, and at no other time was the current Vampire vogue more visible. While vampires are certainly not a new theme for the holiday so beloved by candy-crazed children and drunken frat boys, it seemed that there were greater numbers of fanged-ones than ever on this particular year. We all know who is to blame: Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series of vampire-inspired romance novels (and the films they have spawned) have captured the imagination of teenage girls and mothers alike with their tales of amorous chastity and forbidden affairs.

But Twilight alone is not responsible. With the scent of money in the air, the mainstream media quickly latched onto Ms. Meyer’s success and put out a series of trashy, blood-sucking, and soul-sucking, television programs with fresh and original titles like, “The Vampire Diaries.” As much as HBO would like to avoid comparison with such utterly derivative crap, its own “True Blood” does not do much better.

The show follows Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a lovely, young, southern waitress with telepathic abilities that render her unable to date any normal man. Sookie and her friends live in a world in which vampires are not only real, they are crusading for equal rights, with some even “mainstreaming,” or trying to join human society. One such vampire, the charming Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), has set his sights on young Sookie, and she is equally intrigued due to the fact that she cannot read his thoughts.

The show plays with all the familiar themes of love, sex, religion, and violence; leaning heavily (surprise, surprise) on the sex and violence. Within the first two episodes a girl is murdered after having some very rough, and frankly, gross, sex with both a vampire and Sookie’s brother Jason. The idiot, sex-obsessed, brother is a suspect but is let go despite much evidence against him. This, however, is only the beginning of the absurdity, and soon, another girlfriend of his is killed and he is released once again. No one seems to mind much, and there is no mention of any family for either of the overly sexualized, and now dead, women.

In an attempt to be smart, the HBO series also riffs on the subject of southern prejudice. Many a side character can be heard uttering racist, homophobic, chauvinist, or anti-vampire hate speech. However, there is always a gentleman available to beat up or intimidate the disgusting offender, thus robbing the effect of any realism or lasting meaning.

Of the many side-plots of the show, one has people drinking Vampire blood as a powerful drug/aphrodisiac, while mainstreaming vampires consume a Japanese-made synthetic blood. This kind of antithesis-to-the-usual vampire story is what makes “True Blood” tick, but is often such an obvious play on convention as to become a parody of itself.

Unfortunately, like O Negative to a vampire, “True Blood” is addictive. Most, if not all, plot devices are left unresolved, and each show ends with a climatic scene in which someone is murdered, brutally beaten, or left in otherwise mortal danger. Though it is only human nature to want to discover the outcome, like Sookie’s desire to find out if vampire-human relationships can work out, it is probably best not to find out.