Starring: Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Christina Hendricks, Robert Morse, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Joel Murray, Elisabeth Moss, Jessica Pare, Jared Harris
Spoilers abound!
The key to Mad Men's success is Jon Hamm, whose look and stature are tailor-made for a complex chameleon like Don Draper. How many actors could have pulled off such a character whose dynamics change as often as Don's? Hamm never reaches for effect as Don Draper evolves, or devolves, from chain-smoking, alcohol-guzzling ad man in early 1960's Madison Avenue to the psuedo-hippie practicing yoga in 1970 California who masterminds the iconic Coca-Cola ad featuring "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". One constant in Don Draper is his ability to adapt to overcome trauma, and he's had much trauma to deal with.
Mad Men's exquisite production values make us think we've time traveled back to 1961 Madison Avenue, where big time advertising agency Sterling-Cooper is making its mark. The partners are the womanizing Roger Sterling (Slattery), Draper's biggest ally in the firm and the eccentric Bert Cooper (Morse), who allows so few people in his office the employees have to break into it after hours just to allay their curiosity as to what's in there. Sterling-Cooper has big-name clients, and are on the hunt for more. Wining, dining, and arranging for strippers and hookers are common business practices. Each office is equipped with its own minibar, which judging by how much these people drink must have to be restocked daily. Most of the characters chain smoke in the first few seasons, with less emphasis on smoking in the later seasons, thank goodness.
Don has an artist girlfriend in Greenwich Village dipping her toe into the burgeoning hippie culture. With his clean-shaven face, pristine suit, and not a hair out of place, Don does not fit into this world. Much to our surprise, or maybe it shouldn't be, Don has a wife and two children waiting for him in the suburbs. Betty (Jones) is a former beauty queen turned suburbanite housewife who remains blissfully unaware of Don's affair, or does she not want to interrupt her opulent lifestyle? Don loves his children, and seems reluctant to use any sort of physical punishment, which was more accepted back then. We soon learn why.
Big time spoiler here! Don Draper, we learn early in the first season, is really Dick Whitman, who was raised by an abusive family and had a prostitute for a birth mother. Dick enlisted in the army to fight in Korea, and when a fellow soldier is killed and burned beyond recognition after a bombing, Dick assumes the identity of the dead man and begins a new life elsewhere. His cover is soon blown by the real Don Draper's widow, and they resolve this situation amicably and become partners in his deception.
As with anything, a lot changes in the ten years from the beginning to the end of Mad Men. Some other key characters include Peggy Olson (Moss), who begins her career as a copywriter before being promoted to ad exec by her mentor Don, another ad exec Pete Campbell (Kartheiser), who discovers Don's secret and tries to use it to blackmail him for more money and a promotion. How Don and the partners handle this is an unexpected masterstroke. And there's the busty redhead Joan Harris (Hendricks), who has an on-again, off-again relationship with Roger Sterling, and whose character arc rises to unexpected places. The supporting performances are also fully realized. This isn't simply Hamm's show.
Don's story provides Mad Men's center of gravity. He escaped one world only to inhabit the problems of another. There are subtle nuances which Hamm nails between Don and Dick. Don is more assured, colder, and worldly, while Dick is softer and gentler. Both people exist in the same person, with neither one jockeying for his soul. Again, thank goodness. The last thing we need is a tortured Don Draper. Mad Men lasted ninety-two episodes with Hamm at the epicenter of each one. Over that many episodes, Mad Men's production design never falters, and the best episodes occur when the main players strike out on their own to form their own firm.
Like most series that go on for longer than four or five seasons, Mad Men could have wrapped up successfully maybe two seasons before it did. But it's quite riveting to watch these people change as the prim and proper early 1960's gives way to the more turbulent late 1960's following the Kennedy assassination and the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Some characters can morph into newer personas, while others get swallowed whole due to their inability to adapt, which is one thing you can never say about Don Draper.
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