Goodbye, Mad Men
Pictured: Time-Life Building in New York City, home of Sterling Cooper's offices
It's hard to believe that we first met Don Draper way back in 2007. The debonair, successful 1960s-era ad executive brimmed with confidence and swagger but hid dark, painful secrets that could lead to his undoing at any moment. We've come a long way with Don and his Sterling Cooper cohorts since then, but it all comes to an end this spring (starting Easter Sunday), when AMC airs the final seven episodes of Mad Men.
The cultural impact of the show has been immense. Mad Men has become a locus of discussion in our assessment of the modern era culturally, economically, and artistically. It raised the quality of acting and writing we've come to see in original cable television series. And it made stars of actors Christina Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser and, of course, Jon Hamm, whose career-making television performance is rivaled only by Bryan Cranston's on Breaking Bad. Hamm has been nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series 7 years in a row. (Hopefully, he'll finally win one next year.)
It will be hard to let go of this show once it runs its course. Thankfully, MPL has plenty of great Mad Men stuff you can check out - books, soundtracks, and DVDs of the series going back to the beginning. So let's take one more drink and smoke one last cigarette with Don, Roger, Peggy, Pete and Joan. We won't see a show like it ever again.