After watching five seasons of "Mad Men", it has finally clicked why this show has been such a unique experience for me. My past favorite TV shows (LOST, X-Files, Smallville, 24) pretty much all focused on over-arching plots from episode to episode. "Mad Men" uses a similar strategy...but with characters instead of plot points, By this season, the show has developed such a stable of incredible characters that you can't help but what to see what will happen to them all.
By this point in the show, there are just so many juicy stories going on that it truly takes an entire season to get them all enough screen time! For example:
-The "business stuff" with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his work partners like Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), Harry (Rich Sommer), Ken (Aaron Staten), Roger (John Slattery), Bert (Robert Morse), and Lane (Jared Harris).
-Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) and husband Greg (Sam Page) try to get things straightened out.
-Personal players in Don's life such as new wife Megan (Jessica Pare), old wife Betty (January Jones), and daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka).
-Even some new blood in the character of Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldmen) is introduced, while Paul Kinsey (Micheal Gladis) re-surfaces for a brief period.
There are no set plot arcs to this show, but rather it just shows the lives of all those characters and how they interact with each other and the world. Show creator Matthew Weiner has such a deft touch at making them all interesting that by now the "formula" (if one can use such a simple term like that to describe something so complex) is set: In just a 13 episode season, focusing on the characters described above alone is plenty of material!
After a noticeable drop in standards during the second season and the beginning of the third, this show has been hitting on all cylinders since that point. Nothing to dissuade loyal viewers in this season.
By this point in the show, there are just so many juicy stories going on that it truly takes an entire season to get them all enough screen time! For example:
-The "business stuff" with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his work partners like Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), Harry (Rich Sommer), Ken (Aaron Staten), Roger (John Slattery), Bert (Robert Morse), and Lane (Jared Harris).
-Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) and husband Greg (Sam Page) try to get things straightened out.
-Personal players in Don's life such as new wife Megan (Jessica Pare), old wife Betty (January Jones), and daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka).
-Even some new blood in the character of Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldmen) is introduced, while Paul Kinsey (Micheal Gladis) re-surfaces for a brief period.
There are no set plot arcs to this show, but rather it just shows the lives of all those characters and how they interact with each other and the world. Show creator Matthew Weiner has such a deft touch at making them all interesting that by now the "formula" (if one can use such a simple term like that to describe something so complex) is set: In just a 13 episode season, focusing on the characters described above alone is plenty of material!
After a noticeable drop in standards during the second season and the beginning of the third, this show has been hitting on all cylinders since that point. Nothing to dissuade loyal viewers in this season.