"There's SOMETHING about that program I REALLY like. I can't quite put my finger on what that something is, but DAMN... I can't seem to get enough of it!"

There are two types of entertainment programs: those which simply entertain and those which feel like a pleasurable piece of art. The ones that feel like they deserve to be the Museum of Artistic Entertainment (I made that up - duh) seem that way because they're designed to impact you in a more emotional way than shows like - random television reference coming in 3, 2, 1... - The Adventures of Pete and Pete do (remember that one? Yeah ya do! ;-)

But what exactly is the approach of Hollywood/Web programs that are able to push you into believing that there's a mysterious element of its makeup that's able to get you love-drunk on its artistic design?

They know how to entertain your subconscious.

Sure, the plot lines of a program can trigger your interests, but it's the seemingly insignificant elements of an entertainment production that are often responsible for making you feel an intimate connection to its creation. It's moments like these, when an entertainment production can naturally merge itself into the design of your own life, without you even knowing it, that there's obviously some under-the-radar forces within your favorite programming that are hard at work massaging your subconscious.

Many would say - myself being one of them - that your subconscious is the mouth and mind of your Soul; so when a piece of art is able to aim itself upon this centerpiece of your inner-self, there stands a grand chance that a deeply emotional response will be set off - most of the time, without you consciously noticing its effects. But, no matter whether you directly recognize the impact it's having on you or not, it cannot be denied that there's still a tremendous force embedded within the production that's strengthening the degree to which you value it.

AMC's (American Movie Channel) Mad Men is a television program that many people consider to be a work of art. Sure, the story lines are brilliantly crafted, but there's also a tremendous amount Soul-candy that's sweetening the interests of the audience's subconscious. The level of cultural detail the director, Matthew Weiner, injects into his show is mesmerizing. And it's this discrete degree of detail that causes fans to subconsciously feel that the program is a work of art.

From Bruce Handy's Vanity Fair article about Mad Men:

"“Matt wants real,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC. For Weiner, Collier continued, “it’s not television; it’s a world.” Perhaps the only other producer as committed to the rules of his imagined universe is George Lucas. “Perfectionism” is a word the show’s writers tossed around when I asked a group of them about working with Weiner. “Fetishism” was another. Alan Taylor, who has directed four episodes of Mad Men, labeled Weiner’s attention to detail “maniacal.” Call it what they will, it is a charge that is largely embraced. “We’re all a little bit touched with the O.C.D.,” Robin Veith, one of the writers, told me, describing how she and her colleagues have researched actual street names and businesses in Ossining, the suburb where Don and Betty live; checked old commuter-train schedules, so that they know precisely which train Don would take to the city; pored over vintage maps to learn which highways he would drive on."

It's these "maniacal" details within the show that cause the subconcsious to perk up and take notice of the program's artistry.  People who lived during the Mad Men era, or even people who merely imagine living within it, unknowingly appreciate the show's accuracy towards old commuter-train schedules and immediately link their emotional attraction towards the decade's culture to their deep desire to actually live amongst it.  Obviously, at first glance, this degree of detail doesn't seem very important to our unevolved mind; but, to the subconscious, which is always able to value the simple things in life, these "frivolous" features of the program transform the production into something that's much more emotionally satisfying, thanks to it's natural talent of being able to transform simple entertainment into Soul-stimulating works of art.