AMC’s “Mad Men” wrapped up it’s first season last week and I finally had a chance to check it out via DVR last night. Thank the TV gods that there will be a second season, because this show is a masterpiece of the highest level, easily standing toe-to-toe with the best film, literature and the stage have to offer. The season ending episode, entitled “The Wheel,” managed to bring a number of plot lines to a head, but in a perfectly natural way, without any sense of forced conclusion. The episode, like many others, managed to weave together real period details pertaining to a big Kodak account, with character developments which have been building since episode one. In the episode’s penultimate scene, the Sterling/Cooper agency’s big pitch to Kodak, the production achieved a level of sublime…almost poetry, which was moving in a way I’ve rarely encountered. The way that this drama skates between true details of 1960′s America, the randomness of life and the pleasing symmetry of fiction, is awe inducing. I’m not big on synopsising, and I’d hate to spoil even a moment of what this truly brillant series has to offer, but trust me, this is one DVD box set you must own. I can not wait to watch it again. And probably again.