TG4 -
Carmen Curlers
Smooth, low-budget
Mad Men style series based on Danish entrepreneur Arne Bybjerg Pedersen and his struggle to make a local inventor's product (the heated hair-curler) a commercial success. In doing so Pedersen effects great sociological change in a small Danish town, especially for rural women seeking economic independence from their husbands and opportunities to realise their talents.
There are great performances by many Danish actors in this series, perhaps most notably by
Maria Rossing, who plays a farmer's wife forced to seek off-farm income to pay for leukaemia treatment for her husband and rises from being an office assistant to become a director of the company.
Like
Mad Men, there are many sub-plots explored using the lives of main characters. Some of these are 1960s issues, some were relevant for much of the last century and some, e.g. abortion, marriage with a rich man to get out of poverty, divorce, child neglect by workaholic parents, alcoholism, etc are timeless.
Look at episode 1 on TG4 Player and judge for yourself.