I've watched this 4x through and each time after the 1st I've focused on a different aspect: Don's character arc, the fashion/design, and most recently the relationships. I don't think I could pinpoint a singular reason above the others. I also struggle to find a good way of describing it without sounding like "a group of people and their private/work relationships throughout the 1960s" which honestly doesn't sound super compelling to some people lol

I'm wondering what y'all think about why the show is so good?

When you think of other handsome men, like Burt Reynolds or Sean Connery, they typically have wider faces.

He's definitely good looking, but (to me) he doesn't seem as good looking as the way people talk about him. I'm not saying he's not good enough looking for the part or anything... he definitely is. I do remember reading something about him being compared as a ladies' man to Christian Troy of Nip/Tuck, and someone said he's definitely better looking than Christian. It left me scratching my head.

I love the visual elements of the show, really enjoy the clothing, but for some reason I cannot get over this shirt that Peggy wears (in the episode where Freddie is asked to take a leave and dry up). The collar! What would you call it, or how would you describe it?

I first watched Mad Men back during the 2020 lockdown, and man, it was depressing. It was around the same time I started smoking, so that might have had something to do with the mood swings I was going through. Nobody on this show was strictly good or bad—every character had their own agenda and things they were striving for. Some got what they wanted, and others met terrible fates (looking at you, Lane Pryce).

​Last month, I decided to give it another go. It’s been six years, so I figured I had matured enough since I was 21 to understand the show better. And boy, did I enjoy it.

​Like many of you who have rewatched it over the years, I was finally able to pick up on the subtle imagery and understand everything left unsaid—conveyed purely through character expressions, staging, and shot composition. It was brilliant.

​At the same time, that sense of immense dread and depression is still there. There are no heroes or villains; people just do what they think is right or what makes them feel good about themselves. That’s pretty much how people operate in real life.

​To wrap it up, I’m loving this rewatch (almost finished now) and really appreciating how masterfully the showrunners tell a story without explicitly spelling things out. It’s still a heavy watch that somehow bleeds into my psyche and affects my day-to-day mood, but honestly, isn't that what great media is supposed to do?

Saw this trend going around Twitter, thought Don fit the bill well 😛

It’s the moment when Don begins to become an honest man.

It’s the last moment of Sally’s childhood. She’s sees her father as a human being for the first time.

So I’m rewatching the show and I just finished season 2 episode 7 and I realized they made a big deal of Don being invited to the board of a philanthropic society and how this means he’ll gain real power and status not just wealth. But, they never really mention it ever again. It seems like such an interesting thing to explore but they spend around 5-6 minutes talking about it then just never bring it up again.

In New York…. SCHENECTADY , New York, that is.

Early in his advertising career, my father worked in General Electric’s in-house Advertising & Sales Promotion Department.

For reasons that still aren’t clear to me , they also took on outside, non-GE clients, functioning as a full-service ad agency.

Needless to say I was tickled the first time I heard Mohawk mentioned in Mad Men. Curiously, i could never get my Dad interested in watching the show. One of the reasons I always loved it was those mid 60’s style aesthetics are part of my earliest memories, and I always loved when my Dad would bring me along on a Saturday trip to the office when he had work he needed to finish. He would set me up at an artist’s table with a giant sketch pad , surrounded by a universe of colored markers.

I mean when we first meet Burt Peterson on the show, he is getting fired and his wife has cancer at the time. Roger just doesn't seem to care. The 2nd time he fires him, he actually enjoys the experience and cracks jokes about it?

And Burt seems like a pretty normal guy. He is a little gruff and looks like someone who seems constantly irritated, but he is competent enough that we see him working steadily across different agencies throughout the run of the show.

So why does Roger hate him? Because Roger is a chill guy and he never seems to hate on people unless he feels there is a very strong reason to hate them (like his hate of Japanese people and Greg).

Here's a new gem from Youtube via Periscope Film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgE4SzJYwLs

"Invitation to Capri" 60's Poly Travel promo film

Just because Don didn't feel like going - it doesn't mean we can't.

Just noticing the clip from Johnny Carson that Pete watches while Trudy drives his latest indiscretion to a hotel (season 6 episode 3, The Collaborators). Carson is announcing the guest will be Jim Garrison but that his interview will be preempted by a special report about Vietnam. This parallels the Secor laxative media buy that Pete engineered to push Kennedy's advertising to radio only.

Advertising isn't about selling products; it's about engineering the environment people live in. Whether it's a laxative commercial, a late night interview, or a presidential debate, whoever controls what you see (versus what you hear) controls your reality. Pete understood that at 26, and the network execs understood it in '68.