Mad Men season 7: news and episode reviews

Mad Men, whose first episode aired 10 years ago today, held far more influence over the rest of television when it was on the air than after it left the air.

Think about how few obvious Mad Men clones you’ve seen since the AMC drama ended in 2015. There was a whole spate of sexy ’60s-set dramas in the early 2010s — your Pan Ams (which was kinda entertaining) and your Playboy Clubs (which was not) and even your Magic Citys (which was a TV show). But they all quickly failed, never recapturing whatever magic kept Mad Men on the air for seven seasons and won the show so many Emmys. (In purely mercenary terms, that magic was, “AMC was hell-bent on rebuilding itself into a home for fans of great TV and didn’t mind weathering low ratings for a while.”)

To discuss the series finale of Mad Men , culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by several of Vox’s other writers. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here.

Todd VanDerWerff: So where will you leave Mad Men?

To discuss the series finale of Mad Men , culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by several of Vox’s other writers. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here.

Dylan Matthews: Okay, I’ll admit it: I hate that Peggy ended up with Stan.

To discuss the series finale of Mad Men , culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by several of Vox’s other writers. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here.

Amanda Taub: Mad Men is over. I laughed. I cried. I googled “hotels in Big Sur how much to go to one right now.”

To discuss the series finale of Mad Men , culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by several of Vox’s other writers. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here.

Libby Nelson: One of Mad Men’s most prominent themes has been its characters’ ambiguous relationships with motherhood, particularly in an era when having children was the default for most women.

One of the most consistent criticisms of Mad Men from those who aren’t Mad Men fans is that — sniffs derisively — it’s only beloved by the coastal media elite, because it’s about rich white people who live glamorous lives and work in advertising.

That strain of criticism became all the more pronounced in the buildup to the AMC drama’s series finale, with Vulture launching the latest broadside against the show’s popularity as author Michael Idov argued that it wasn’t truly popular, just overhyped. (To support his claim, he points, in part, to the show’s lack of an audience in Russia.)

To discuss the series finale of Mad Men , culture editor Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by several of Vox’s other writers. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here.

Todd VanDerWerff: I had two thoughts upon immediately concluding “Person to Person,“ the series finale of Mad Men. The first was, Whoa, Eileen really nailed that prediction. The second was, That was hugely satisfying, but never in a way that pushed for too much closure.

This is what advertising does.

It takes authentic human experience, moments of genuine emotion or even art, and it turns them into pap. It wrings what is real from them and what is true about them, and it makes them suitable to sell products.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Amanda Taub: Todd, I think you’re on to something in your discussion of class, because there is another parallel between Don and Pete that I think is worth drawing out. Both men betrayed the social class that they were born into. It’s just that Pete betrayed it down, instead of climbing upward like Don did.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Libby Nelson: Now that Mad Men is drawing to a close, I assume Matthew Weiner is going to answer the true question at the heart of the series. Not “Who is Don Draper?” or “Did the falling man in the credits really fall, or was he pushed?” but “Can people change?”

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Todd VanDerWerff: What’s interesting to me about the Betty plot is the way it returns to a motif Mad Men has turned to again and again: cancer. So far, the wife of Don’s namesake and Don’s first-season lover have both died of the disease, with his ex-wife about to as well. Something about this disease is significant to Matthew Weiner — beyond just the fact that it’s a disease that kills so many of us.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Amanda Taub: Libby, I’m so glad that you were also taken with this Betty storyline.

Are you a Mad Men fan? Do you want to feel sad?

AMC has given us an exclusive look at the last Mad Men teaser ever. This is a series that has always produced haunting, stylish promos, both in still photograph and trailer form. So it’s noteworthy that AMC has chosen to go with something a little more heartwarming in the buildup to the series finale — and all those shots of Betty (January Jones) carry an added resonance in the wake of the penultimate episode.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Todd VanDerWerff: First of all, Libby, Duck Phillips is an amazing heel, and I will not have you besmirching him. He’s the perfect guy to bring Pete Campbell to a life of happiness in Wichita, Kansas, because he’s so desperate to be respected (and so very bad at it, too).

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and foreign policy writer Amanda Taub. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Libby Nelson: Well, that was emotional.

“The Milk and Honey Route” seems like a downright strange episode of Mad Men until you realize what it’s about. It employs a triptych structure, telling three completely separate stories that share a similar theme. This is a structure Mad Men has turned to often, most memorably in season five’s lovely “Far Away Places” (the one with Roger’s acid trip).

Most often, the show turns to this structure because it wants you to notice a particular idea or theme, something that will be important to the series going forward. And in the case of “The Milk and Honey Route,” that theme is reconciliation — with the past, with a loved one, with yourself.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Libby Nelson: Dylan and Todd, I’m glad you brought up Mad Men’s surrealist humor — one of the reasons I’ve loved the past few episodes is that they’ve all included moments, whether visual gags or verbal ones, that made me laugh out loud. But when you think back over the show’s memorable moments, so many of them are at least a little surreal: Roger’s blackface at the Kentucky Derby party, for example, or Megan singing “Zou Bisou Bisou,” or Joan’s painful, painted-on smile while she played the accordion for her husband’s hospital colleagues.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Dylan Matthews: I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking that serious prestige TV is getting a lot less funny. I actually think The Americans gets a bum rap as humorless — Henry Jennings’s recreation of “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” is some of the best cringe comedy I’ve seen in years — but Game of Thrones is definitely of the opinion that Tyrion’s occasional one-liners are all the levity it ever needs. The really bad offender here is Hannibal, a show I love — and know you do, too, Todd — but that couldn’t tell a joke to save its life. It’s a terrific psychological thriller, but there’s a limit to how much you can develop characters when all of their conversations center around murder most foul.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Todd VanDerWerff: One of the things I’ll miss most about Mad Men are those surreal flights of fancy that make the show so much fun to watch. The more unexpected they are, the better.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Dylan Matthews: Last week, I complained that the McCann takeover didn’t feel like a dramatic enough change to justify the horrified reaction it generated in the Sterling Cooper & Partners staff. Could it possibly be that different? “Lost Horizon” feels like a direct answer to that question. To whit: “Yes, it can be 1960 again.”

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Spoilers for Breaking Bad’s final season follow.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Libby Nelson: With just two episodes to go, things are starting to feel final, all of a sudden.

Here’s the one shot that explains Mad Men.

Don sits in a meeting, listening to the description of a Miller beer drinker, described as a man from Wisconsin. It’s the meeting he’s wanted his whole career, a chance to really impress a big client.

Every week, Todd VanDerWerff will be joined by two of Vox’s other writers to discuss the previous episode of Mad Men over the course of that week. Check out the recap for this episode here, and follow the whole discussion here. This week, Todd is joined by education reporter Libby Nelson and political writer Dylan Matthews. Keep checking in all week long for new entries.

Libby Nelson: The Massacre of Glencoe scene that Dylan analyzes so well sums up one of Mad Men’s most underrated virtues: beneath all the understated character drama and late-‘60s anomie, it can be a very funny show, in part because it’s not afraid to get a little ridiculous.