Whether it's "some of the best reasons to have watched TV this year" or "pop culture's year of surprises" or the "ins and outs" of 2008, Mad Men is making the list.

New York Daily News called it "a beautifully subtle show" that's "every bit as much about today as it is about the 1960s." The publication also praised the acting and said, "This time the critics are right." The Boston Herald points out that the early sixties were actually a "repressed, girdle-wearing, racist, homophobic, sexist, nuclear-bomb-fearing time" but then goes on to add that "if you were a guy in advertising, you could smoke, drink and have sex with anyone you wanted." In conclusion, the papers says, "Don Draper, take us away."

The Courier-Journal of Louisville includes the show on its list of things that fell into favor in 2008. The Detroit News mentions AMC for being part of "basic cable's boom" in 2008. That latter publication went on to praised AMC for picking up Mad Men after HBO passed it over saying the decision gave "AMC the honor of being the first basic-cable network to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama." But you already knew that.