It was sloppy, and it was very distressing. While Don's alcoholism was tough to behold, it often resulted in some genius pitches. Part of what makes Mad Men so unique and lovable is that it works as a character piece, a period drama, and a lesson in marketing.
Don's pitches were always a sight to behold, and they were enough to leave viewers and even other characters in tears.
It was always interesting to watch Don's thought and creative process, and the results were always mesmerizing. The show truly did feature some fantastic ads. There's no denying that Don's parenting is questionable at best.
He is absent throughout large chunks of their upbringing - often working late or neglecting family time to pursue another sexual exploit. Even when he's physically present, he's often not there - instead, he's thinking about work or deep into the newspaper, the TV, or a drink. As Sally later tells Betty, "My father has never given me anything. There were times when Don was a good father, and those moments were often heartfelt and beautiful.
Whenever Don actually put in an effort, he was quite a good father. Sometimes he spoiled the kids, like taking them to Beatles concerts, the movies, and even Disneyland. He let them into his personal life, like when he took them to see his rotten childhood home. The next morning Betty is heading back to the club looking every bit the gorgeous woman she is in a yellow, two-piece bikini but jealous Don comments nastily that her outfit is "desperate.
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is so desperate for a car account that its partners are willing to serve up Joan to one of the key clients. The redheaded bombshell is so desperate to move ahead in her career that she's willing to sleep with the man Megan's mother once referred to as "the apple in the pig's mouth.
Upon hearing of the caper, Don heads to Joan's apartment to tell her she does not have to go along with Pete Campbell's scheme --not realizing the deed has already been done.
He is visibly disappointed the next day when all the partners, of which now Joan is one, convene in Roger's office to celebrate the Jaguar acquisition. Don the fur salesman had some success with writing ads for the company he was working at and wanted to parlay his talent into a higher-paying gig at an ad agency. After Roger comes in to buy a stole for his mistress Joan, Don starts sending the ad scion his work, which is ignored.
Don appears at Sterling Cooper, talks Roger into having lunch where he plies the silver fox with liquor. The next day Don shows up and tells the agency owner in earnest that he'd hired him. Remember how cool Midge Rosemarie DeWitt was? Their encounters came to an end when he saw with his own eyes that she was in love with another bohemian. Despite his chronic womanizing, rampant alcohol abuse, and social prejudices, viewers have no problem sweeping Don's imperfections under the rug.
Of course he cheats on his wife. Everybody was cheating on his wife. Drinking to the point of oblivion on noon on a Monday? Sounds like a typical day at the office in s America. And how about overt sexism, anti-Semitism and a general selfishness? Well, that's just how things were back then. It was a different era. Why doesn't this excuse also apply to Betty? Like Don, she also embodies a postwar archetype—the quintessential white, upper-middle-class suburban housewife, who is polite and poised on the surface but carries looming anxiety and frustration underneath.
Shouldn't viewers cut her some slack, too? Let's say we do just that—evaluate Betty through the same historical lens as we do Don. How do the two stack up? For a show that uses the social transformation of the s as a backdrop, very few of Mad Men's characters truly push conventional boundaries—Betty being the most obvious example. As part of a generation of woman who traded a career for a life at home, Betty is a staunch believer in the nuclear family supported by a male breadwinner to the point where any alternative lifestyle that deviates from this norm is instantly suspect - or worse, pitied ironic, given her own divorce at the end of season 3.
Betty also carries many of the social prejudices of the time, such as a homophobia , elitism, and apathy borderline hostility towards African-Americans.
Don isn't much better. While he is more forward-thinking than most men of his era cough, Roger , he is still carries many of the social prejudices of the time. It's a literary journey, because it dives deep into these characters. Every episode feels like a new chapter, and every scene a new page. Every episode and season of "Mad Men" has a theme, and the writers leave a lot up for the viewers to interpret, but show enough that we understand what's happening.
Matthew Weiner and his team of writers definitely took advantage of their captivating characters and incredible actors. They made some episodes that focused on secondary characters, and some that only focused on the main cast, so each episode feels like a short story in a book collection that all tied together in the end. Standout episodes that emulate the short story include "Three Sundays" season two, episode four , "The Suitcase" season four, episode seven , and "Signal 30" season five, episode five.
The costumes, the makeup, the hair, the sets. Set in the s, it would have been easy for "Mad Men" to go cheesy. But it didn't. With a great team that did a lot of research, the show felt all the more real because the world looked just as real as the characters felt. In the earlier seasons, Peggy isn't hip and doesn't quite know how to dress or style her hair.
But instead of the typical just throwing a pair of glasses on the actress, and revealing how beautiful she is when she finally takes them off, it took some time for Peggy to grow her personal style and confidence. And to get rid of those awful bangs. Everyone on this show is excellent. But it is amazing that "Mad Men" was what made Jon Hamm famous. Don Draper — like Tony Soprano, Walter White and many characters before and after them — is an anti-hero.
Don is probably the most decent man of the three, but he's still a selfish cheater who stole a man's identity to run away from his problems, only to realize that he still has problems, because that is life. But Hamm brought charisma and tragedy to Don that made audiences love him and want him to be happy, despite his many, many flaws. Another notable performance is Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson.
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