The AMC cable drama Mad Men ends its first season tonight as one of the most dramatically dazzling debuts since the freshman year of HBO's The Sopranos in 1999.

Talk about worthy successors arriving right on time: This period piece about life in a Madison Avenue advertising agency circa 1960 premiered in July just weeks after HBO's mob drama left the airwaves for good. The similarity in richness, texture and even themes is no accident -- the series is created and written by Emmy winner Matthew Weiner, a writer and producer for The Sopranos.

On TV The finale of Mad Men airs at 10 tonight on AMC.