Mad Men is a show largely about how our pasts define us, so it's fitting that it's set in the 1960s—a revolutionary decade that shaped America more than almost any 10-year span since. But don’t dismiss this period piece for a history lesson. The show is, at its best, one of the best television dramas ever created, and at its worst … maybe a little slow for some. (It is, after all, a series about a New York advertising agency in the '60s, not the US military or Civil Rights Movement.) But it still has plenty of action—it's just more of the philandering businessman variety.
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For the 10 years we follow Don Draper and his cohorts we learn what it meant to be a man in the '60s—or at least a WASPy ad man in Manhattan, a narrow yet powerful demographic. Their power was derived from an ability to keep it together in a culture where three-martini lunch meetings were often the norm and cheating on your wife was expected, but where that power felt more fleeting with each passing year (see: the falling suit-and-tie avatar in the opening credits). The show glamorizes alcoholism and adultery, but it doesn’t suggest that these behaviors are sustainable. There’s too much at stake.
The show follows Draper (Jon Hamm), the lady-killing and often ruthless creative director of Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Don's first wife, Betty (January Jones), is a homemaker plagued with the feminine mystique before it has a name. His second wife, Megan (Jessica Paré) doesn't let ennui get the best of her, which equally doesn't go well. His secretary, Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), is a naïve Catholic girl from Brooklyn who gets a big break at the firm. On the other hand, Don's male colleagues range from sarcastic-yet-tender Roger Sterling (John Slattery) to miserable, entitled son-of-a-bitch Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser). And those are just some of the main players. A series of multi-dimensional figures float in and out of Don's world, even as flashbacks scattered throughout the series reveal he may be the most many-faceted of them all.
Just as *Mad Men'*s characters are impressively fleshed out, so are its set, costume design, and soundtrack. From the constant jingling din of office phones to the ubiquity of cigarette smoke to oblique racism and sexism, creator Matthew Weiner doesn't skimp on a single authentic detail. He even has his actors tie their own ties. And pitch meetings at the ad firm are always a treat: Many household names convene in Sterling Cooper's conference rooms (from Kodak to Hershey), as well as those now defunct. (Burger Chef, anyone?)
So stock the liquor cabinet and unbutton your collar. Mad Men, which will air the second half of its final season this spring, will be over faster than you'll want it to be—even if does take you two months to binge your way through it.
Number of Seasons: 7 (83 episodes)
Time Requirements: If there were ever a time to binge Mad Men, it's now, a little more than two months away from the start of Season 7, Part 2, which premieres April 5 on AMC. Committed bingers could do it in less than seven weeks (a week per 13-episode season), but if you start now and watch eight episodes per week, you'll finish just in time for "The End of an Era."
Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix (Seasons 1-6), Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, Xbox Video
Best Character to Follow: Joan (Christina Hendricks). It should be clear from the first time she enters a room, but Joan is more than a pretty face and a curvaceous body. She rules the roost at Sterling Cooper (and later iterations of the company). She keeps the office and its trouble-making men and often-incompetent secretaries in line, she's always on call to provide damage control, and she's wise and sharp when dealing with often fragile Sterling Cooper egos. Moreover Hendricks, a five-time Emmy nominee for the role, has fully mastered playing "something between a mother and a waitress"—and everything in between. She also does it with grace, poise, and attitude. Well, usually poise, when she’s not throwing model airplanes at people—but that's also her at her best.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
A lot of people complain that Mad Men moves slowly, but its appeal is in its characters, not the speed and suspense of its plot. Still, it's hard to find an episode that's uneventful enough to not leave you hanging on, wondering who someone is or why a certain couple has called it quits. But if you think you can skip guilt-free, you might be better off without the following episodes.
Season 2: Episode 3, "The Benefactor" Jimmy and Bobbie Barrett are annoying characters who try too hard to be funny and charming. Mostly, they're just a couple of messes for Don to clean up. After a few episodes, they fade out of relevance (as does the young man who approaches Betty at her riding stables). Sure, Jimmy's the one who lets a big secret spill later—but generally, it’s something that wouldn't have stayed hidden for much longer anyway.
Season 3: Episode 2, "Love Among the Ruins" Don tells Peggy: "You're not an artist, Peggy. You solve problems. Leave some tools in your toolbox." But he gives her more memorable lectures in later episodes. Other than that, this episode has fewer momentous developments than others. Grandpa Gene (Ryan Cutrona), Betty's father, moves in with the Drapers so they can care for him. Also, Peggy dances uncomfortably in front of the mirror, but that's an unfortunate spectacle—not essential viewing.
Season 6: Episode 4, "To Have and to Hold" This one feels like filler. It's stuffed with melodrama, much of which is resolved or goes nowhere after the credits roll. A client fires the agency due to conflict of interest, Joan and some secretaries get in a fight, and Megan's boss and his wife have dinner with Don and Megan and heavily imply they'd like to have a foursome. Joan proves her authority (again—go Joan!) and the counterculture blindsides Don, which is surprising because Don seems pretty hip and willing to take risks.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 1. If you're re-watching or trying to chug along, the only episode in Season 1 that doesn’t have crucial plot points is the seventh episode, “Red in the Face,” but the title alone suggests that a couple of the characters are going to be humiliated in ways that just beg for GIFs. Pro tip: Don't skip the first or last episode of any season, given the time gaps between each, or you'll miss the full arc.
Season 1: Episode 1, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" The pilot of Man Men is a microcosm of the show, but certainly not a reduction. We meet all of the major characters, and we see all sides of Don: the high-powered advertising executive, the family man, the womanizer. Famously, we also meet his mistress—bohemian Midge Daniels (Rosemarie Dewitt)—before we see him in his Ossining, New York home, kissing his wife and tucking his children into bed. We see men preying on women in the workplace and women struggling to assimilate into their expected sexualized roles. Also, it's 1960, and cigarette advertising is big business.
Season 1: Episode 13, "The Wheel" Remember to breathe as you watch this season finale. Don showcases his heartstring-tugging copywriting talents in a presentation to Kodak, causing one man to run crying from the room. Don keeps himself collected despite the fact that he's in the process of losing his family, in more ways than one. Meanwhile, Peggy welcomes a member to hers, to her complete dismay. The vulnerability of the nuclear family ideal is on full display.
Season 3: Episode 6, "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" Shock and wordplay make this episode especially satisfying. Lane Pryce's (Jared Harris) position at Sterling Cooper is saved due to a tragic (yet comedic) accident at the expense of his would-be replacement. Joan quits her job at the firm and immediately regrets it. Sally (Kiernan Shipka), Don's daughter, begins to emerge as a thinking, feeling young woman, capable of wreaking her own havoc on the Draper household.
Season 3: Episode 8, "Souvenir" Don gets flown to Rome by Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross), executive of Hilton Hotels. Betty, who has recently given birth to baby Gene, asks Don if she can come along for a much-needed vacation. This episode is worth watching just for Betty's fashion (hair and earrings in all their Sixties glory). But it's all a fantasy, it seems—an apparition that vanishes when the broken couple returns home. Meanwhile, Pete reminds us all just how much of a scuzzball he is.
Season 3: Episode 13, "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." When Don gets wind that the agency's parent company is up for a buyout, the partners come up with a scheme to save themselves from being usurped by a rival. Those who have left the company previously are persuaded to return. Don and Betty face legal troubles, and Don defers when Betty threatens him with blackmail. It's the unsettling start of a new era that only feels right once you keep charging forward into Season 4.
Season 4: Episode 7, "The Suitcase" This one is where the money is at, literally. Tension between work and play is at its peak, as Peggy is forced by Don to stay after hours on her 25th birthday. Meanwhile, her boyfriend keeps calling from the restaurant where he is waiting for her, ready to surprise her with her entire family at the table. The two break up over the phone and Don takes Peggy out for a dinner break. Things get weird back at the office—drunken Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) has somehow broken into the Time Life building. All the while, Don's been putting off an important phone call to confirm some terrible news. (We won't spoil this one, you have to see it.)
Season 5: Episode 11, "The Other Woman" Joan takes one for the team, which simultaneously objectifies her and reaffirms how integral she is to the firm. Elsewhere, girl power prevails all around: Megan and Peggy are also getting more serious about their careers, which promises to threaten the men who take having them around for granted.
Season 5: Episode 12, "Commissions and Fees" Lane, resident Brit of Sterling Cooper, feels defeated after months of struggling to support his family in America. Don is an expert at starting over and firmly tells Lane to do the same, but when his wife surprises him with a Jaguar (which was one of the agency's clients), it's another painful blow to the gut for him that ultimately leads to very bad things, but not without more struggle. This episode is also when Sally comes of age more than ever before, which feels surreal but right.
Season 6: Episode 11, "Favors" The agency continues to diverge. Don manipulates his latest mistress into rekindling their affair, but he's caught in the act. The mysterious Bob Benson (James Wolk) starts to become more involved with his coworkers. This episode is full of the best kind of cringe-worthy and jaw-dropping moments. Oh, and Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardellini) is outstanding.
Season 7: Episode 7, "Waterloo" The characters of Mad Men often gather around television sets to experience national events together, but nothing tops the July 1969 moon landing, which brings everyone together—even ex-spouses. In the same moment, a major character dies, further disturbing the equilibrium of the already unstable agency. Don sees a strange mirage that shakes things up a bit more. If you time your binge-ing right, you won't have to wait months to see what could possibly happen next.
Why You Should Binge:
The series is coming to a close, and you really don't want those spoilers creeping into your social media feeds before you're ready. But even if you wait until it's all over, this show is timeless. Despite being a period piece, the characters' existential crises, vices, and insatiable thirst for new sources of happiness resonate with a 2015 audience. The show's richness of detail makes it easy to escape into, and its realism—rooted in nostalgia from our parents' or grandparents' generation—makes it feel familiar.
Best Scene—"That's What the Money Is For!"
Don essentially tells Peggy to man up, so she does, at the expense of her closest relationships.
VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
The Takeaway:
You Only Live Twice.
If You Liked Mad Men You’ll Love:
For another drama with killer characterization and a male protagonist who blurs the lines between good and evil, try Breaking Bad. Similarly, you can't go wrong with The West Wing and The Sopranos.
