I ostensibly had the tv on when season 5 of Prison Break and Heroes aired and yet I cannot tell you a single thing about them.

Yeah, I mean you can already see by the end of season 1 that Peggy is moved to the copywriting team, so her journey is sort of the spine of the series. I also feel like the more you see of the business side of things, the more interesting it seems to get, or at least seeing how characters react to the ads reveals things about them that is interesting.

Also, "Don Draper is cool but troubled" slowly starts to drift into "Don Draper is getting uncool but very troubled" and that's kinda fun as well.

The overt sexual harassment is probably at its most prominent in the first season or two. As the years progress, the men in the show start to mellow out in regards to objectifying the women in the office, and the women also begin taking an active role in their own careers and show more agency. Sexism certainly does remain a part of the show but (at least in my memory) it's more like a thing that pops up once in a while and becomes a thing that characters within the series are showing disgust with, rather than a day-to-day thing that no one pays any mind to.

I love the advertisement/business side of things, so I don't really know if I can say it gets BETTER for you in that regard (season 5 is my favorite, with 4 and 6 right behind it, so I do think it peaks much later). As the 60s begin to really take form, the counterculture slowly gets integrated and people are less buttoned-up than they are in 1960. Also starting sometime in season 3 I feel like the writers have a lot more fun with it and integrate more humor and weird situations.

I don't. I sigh and move on. If I watch the show again, I enjoy the enjoyable parts all the same.

Mad Men

I agree.

But there are millions of people who are perfectly fine watching these things over and over, and they bring in the business. That's what drives it.

The expanded cable/streaming world is not lacking for unique and interesting ideas. Just stick to those.

Netflix's top tier are usually great. But they also churn out nonsense.

Hulu has a great track record even if it is smaller. Their comedy/dramedies (Rez Dogs, Pen15, Ramy) are fantastic. And Mrs. America and Devs were two of my biggest highlights of 2020.

Have you tried Loving One Another?