Revolutionary Road vs. Mad Men

WARNING: SPOILER SPOILER BIG FAT SPOILER. If you have not seen "Revolutionary Road" yet, though I recommend against it, do not read this post, as I give away major plot points. This is not intended as a review of "Revolutionary Road," only a comparison of it to the stellar AMC drama "Mad Men."

While I was suffering through the overrated drama "Revolutionary Road" the other day, I was thinking about AMC's "Mad Men."
Now "Mad Men" gets more than its share of accolades, so this is not a question of "Mad Men" being underrated or anything. But I could not believe how "Revolutionary Road" botched a subject "Mad Men" tackles so well, and with such a great cast to boot.
I'll have to revisit "American Beauty" to be sure, but I think most of the blame must lie squarely at the feet of director Sam Mendes. Was "Beauty" this hamhanded, though? The major problem I found with "Road" is the need for it to scream its theme out to me to over and over, when "Men" has similar themes - marital discontent, midlife crisis - I mean don't most dramas have these themes without the need to broadcast them so obviously?
Take the character of the neighbor, played by Michael Shannon. There is no such character in "Mad Men," to show up at pivotal moments of the movie to tell us THIS MARRIAGE IS A FRAUD!!!, but we seem to get the point that Don (Jon Hamm) and Betty (January Jones) don't have it all together. "Road" would never have been content with the final scene of season two, which I will not give away, because I respect it too much. Suffice it to say it did not include a long voiceover to tell us what was going on in the character's heads, or a crazy man yelling it at us.
My colleague Josh Larsen of larsenonfilm.com noted when I finally got him to check out "Mad Men" that this was really a show about the women - and these were interesting, developed women. I can't even believe Kate Winslet took the part of April Wheeler, whose idea of true non-conformity is to move to Paris, where I can assure her, they have mortgages, boring neighbors and soccer games as well (only they call them football games). Maybe she was thinking once she got there Jack, er, Frank would just want to draw her naked all the time .... sorry, wrong movie.
If you thought "Revolutionary Road" was deep, check out "Mad Men" some time. It'll blow your mind.