Just to show that the cheaters, the uncaring, the vapid, the immoral, and the insane are the types of people who rule the world?
God, that show gets on my nerves!
I can’t stand that I’ve purchased the first three seasons on DVD.
Aaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
Yep, that’s about it. It’s because the cheaters, the uncaring, the vapid, the immoral, and the insane are interesting. Normal, straight-laced people are boring.
You’re just now figuring this out?
Now I know why I keep going back for more.
I’m pretty sure the point is to entertain you. And since you’re going back for more, it’s doing its job.
I didn’t realize drama had to have a point.
A related question: does it ever get interesting (e.g., does it ever quit focusing so goddamn much on Don Draper’s boring-as-all-get-out cipher of a wife) again in the first and subsequent seasons? I had high hopes after a) hearing the premise/setting of the show; b) learning of its pedigree (created by Matthew Weiner, one of the writers on my beloved Sopranos); and c) getting drawn in by the excellent pilot. So, I checked the first season out of my local library, proceeded to watch the first three or four episodes of season one, and found myself bored and disappointed when the focus started to shift from Don Draper and his travails/adventures at the office (plenty interesting) to the troubled but (intentionally? unintentionally?) poorly played Betty Draper (about as interesting as watching paint dry).
So I once again ask: does it get better?
The OP went out and BOUGHT three seasons of this show, just like that? Must be NICE to have that kind of disposable income lying around!
It is. 
You don’t work in… advertising, perchance?
I think I keep watching it hoping it’ll get better. I’m almost through season three and it hasn’t gotten better. It has it’s moments, but I seem to forget what I’ve watched as soon as I turn off the TV.
I thought it would center more around the advertising world, but there’s a lot that goes on with their home lives and too many petty personal things.
No. 
Season three was horrible this way and even the biggest fans were complaining by the end.
Every indication is that season four will be far more focused on the ad and business side than Don’s home life. We’ll all hoping.
Clearly, the point is to relieve you of your money, occupy inordinate amounts of your time, and annoy you.
Perhaps you consider having children instead. 
The lawn mower incident was unexpected.
That’s cute. 
I’m halfway through season 3 (Netflix) and still enjoying it, even though it is bleak.
When I first heard about the show, I stayed away from it because I was about Sally Draper’s age. I had a happy childhood, but did not especially feel the need to revisit that time.
But I have a love/hate relationship with advertising and could not resist Mad Men’s production design, which is so good it is almost eerie. I’ve bombed through all the episodes in the past few weeks.
What’s the point? I suppose it is show us when America lost its innocence (if we ever had it to begin with).
I find this OP kind of funny, because just the other day, when I was watching one of my shows, my wife said to me, “What’s the point of watching all those dramas with the crime and the cheating and all that? Isn’t there enough trouble around in real life?”
She watches almost nothing but the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and HGTV.
Oh well, I love her anyway.
I liked the show, because it illustrated the late 1950’s-early 60’s “ethos” of NYC advertising-shallow, vain, and willing to do anything to “get ahead”.
I particularly remember the episode where the guy HAS to have that Cadillac-complete with 2000 pounds of chrome and tailfins. He was probably the type to ride around with the sales sticker on the window-so his neighbors would know how much he paid for the thing.
I also liked it, because it reminds me that successful people aren’t happy !
It’s a disaster movie, only spread out like a tv show. The audience knows there’s an iceberg out there that’s going to sink the lives and assumptions of all the main characters. The first three season was spent establishing their pre-iceberg personas. This was demonstrated in a small way by the wedding that was scheduled for Saturday, November 23, 1963.
Joan’s response to the lawnmower incident really summed up the whole jist of the show: “I bet he felt great when he woke up this morning. . . . But that’s life. One minute you’re on top of the world and the next minute some secretary is running you over with a lawn mower.”
Make money for AMC?