To a generation beaten down by skyrocketing unemployment, plunging retirement savings, and mounting home foreclosures, 'Mad Men' offers the schadenfreude-filled message that their predecessors were equally unhappy - and that the bleakness meter in American life has always been set on high.

For people worried about the Great Recession and the uncertainty of what is coming next, the characters of 'Mad Men' are good company.

Escapism makes a lot of intuitive sense - whisk people away from their cares with stories of a better life.

Adam Cohen Quotes