I'm about to be cynical and dismissive, but since the producers of this show have been lurking in those same waters then I feel no compunctions about returning the favor.

The main character is a total Don Draper analog, and many of the social issues woven into the fabric of the ongoing serial plot are identical to the social issues exploited on "Mad Men": women's lib, race integration, closeting of homosexuals, commoditization of sex, and on and on. And that was just on the first episode!

Yes, this is all, daring, cutting edge stuff for a network drama...or at least it would have been if this show came out before "Mad Men." Let's leave out the cynically gross amount of product placement inherent by Playboy Enterprises, up to and including the very title of the show itself. (Gee, I hope "Pan Am", another show picking through the "Mad Men" gold mine this season, is a little better.)

I have to place most of the blame on the producers and the network for greelighting this. The actors are just trying to do a job, same with the writers. This thing is just flawed from the ground up. I appreciate the try, but it just comes across as a pale shadow of a successful TV drama. Hey, I know that's how the entertainment industry works: success breeds copycatism. That doesn't mean I have to like it.