For people who haven't read the books, Game of thrones season 2 was:

1. confusing
2. chaotic
3. boring

Too many things were too brief, to make more space for boobs scenes. And it looked quite cheap, even compared to The Borgias who had budget few times smaller and yet managed to show more open areas rather than grey indoors known from GoT.

Also, Robb spent entire war in his tent. King in the north my ass.

Mad Men is the better show, but Breaking Bad is far easier to get into. I'd compare the two to say The Wire and The Shield. Both great, but different flavors.

I'd probably say do Breaking Bad first simple because it's entering the final season, and plot related spoilers are more important to that show and likely will be all over the net in the coming year, and hard to avoid.

Mad Men. :)

Breaking Bad because it's got the guy that played Tim Watley in it and he has a memorable face.

Mad Men looks like it would piss me off with its "look how bad things were back then" nonsense.

Also, whoever said Game of Thrones was boring? You kidding? Freaking intense business for 20 hours.


Either way, the clear victor here is Arrested Development.
Because there is always money in a banana stand.

YES!!!!

And I do agree with the other things you said too.

I don't find myself absorbed in TV shows much, but I can't stop watching Breaking Bad. I only started watch maybe a month ago and I'm on the final 2 episodes of season 4 now. It's real, it's super tense at times, and plenty of memorable characters, even though there are very few really likeable ones - they all have their flaws.

I didn't find Mad Men to be as good, and kind of stopped watching it after a couple of seasons.

Both are fantastic, but Breaking Bad is more entertaining.

But isn't the entire point about how terrible sexism is? I mean, that's what I've heard about it. I really don't like anything with that clear and loud of a message. It's too 'in my face'.

lol I can't argue about that. Agree wholeheartedly. They did cut interesting things to make space to a sappy romance...

Sometimes I wonder if TV writers do it on purpose to fit in with the mediocrity of their colleagues and separate themselves from proper writers.

It does rub it on your face quite evidently.

Mad Men is not a message show. At least, if you watch it as one, you're kind of missing the point. It's not a show about how great or bad that period was. It's just about that period. There are sometimes when that period looks fucking awful, and sometimes when it looks pretty dandy. Some of the most likeable and charming characters are total shitheads.

But no, the show isn't about how bad sexism is. One of the characters deals with that a lot and so her storyline is often about it, but it's hardly the cornerstone of the series.

That's part of the environment that the show portrays, but it's just there, the show doesn't do anything to rub it in your face, and that's really the only decent way I can think of to handle a period piece. There's no dramatic music cues whenever anyone is sexist.

What is pretty heavy-handed is things like kids running into the room with plastic bags over their heads, but those things are more of a joke and don't happen often.

There's also a megaton of smoking and drinking, but again it's just a piece of the environment.

The actual point of the show is to explore the advertising world and study the characters within it, and how their lives are all affected. It's not about making a point about sexism, I promise.
It's there, but I would tend to disagree that it's being shoved down your throat. Again I would say that it's a natural part of the environment the show is portraying.

BB far and away. Mad Men you can see at any daytime hour with any one of a number of other Soaps. Granted the actings better, but they are two steps away from "who shot DD?"

You people must have some fucking fantastic soap operas airing in your towns.

Only so many who slept with who and who backstabbed who and why is everyone miserable you can see before they all look the same. Again, if youre super into acting and character portrayal, you could do worse on daytime. If you like that and unique story, its not even a contest.

Teenagers love boobs...