Mad Men is back for its seventh and, thankfully, final season. Sunday’s premiere episode didn’t seem to spark much fire or interest among critics, or viewers, with ratings very close to the show’s all-time low: critically acclaimed Mad Men may have been in the past, but is it possible that viewers are getting bored with it? It certainly seems like this might be the case, and they have good reason to be. Mad Men appears to have sailed past its expiry date, but someone accidentally left it on the shelf and the resulting buildup of mold is becoming highly unsightly.
What’s going on in the world of Mad Men? It’s 1969, Don Draper is bicoastal and unhappy in his marriage, the women are struggling for recognition in a man’s world, Roger is off in his own little world, and Pete is, well, Pete. So little has changed that Mad Men is starting to feel less like an artfully crafted, delicate character study and more like a slow, sluggish slog through the ‘60s.
While individual seasons have had their highs and lows, with plots varying from the prosaic to the absurd, the characters themselves feel very stagnant in many ways. Growth and learning don’t seem to be on anyone’s agenda, and the story of Don Draper’s Man Pain has, after six seasons, grown rather old—one longs to get something more out of his character, to see hidden depths and riches, and yet, it seems like there’s nothing there.
Throughout the season, Draper has lived in a tangle of lies and deceptions, not showing his true self to anyone and donning a thousand masks, slipping in and out of identities as needed. In a way, it’s become almost a metaphor for the whole show, as something that has managed to trick readers and critics alike into thinking it has substance, when it fact it may be more superficial than we have realised. Perhaps I’m being too harsh on Mad Men, but as a viewer, I began to lose interest several seasons ago, and watching this season’s pilot certainly didn’t engage me.
It’s not that I don’t like cerebral television, because I do. Chewy, complicated plots with rich characters are delightful, and so are shows that may not be action-packed, but are delightful character studies and views into social microcosms—take Call the Midwife, for example, which is character and not plot-driven. The problem is that nothing seems to be happening with the characters in Mad Men, and their frustrating superficiality has become deeply grating.
I had high hopes for both Joan and Peggy as women fighting to establish themselves in an industry, and an era, dominated by men, but both have faded over the years. It may have been a conscious decision on the part of the creative team, to create a world where women become beaten down by a world that’s constantly working against them, and it may be an accurate depiction of the world the women lived in, but it doesn’t make it enjoyable to watch, as it doesn’t seem to offer some deeper, darker commentary on the ‘60s or the world of Mad Men itself.
What I initially watched this show for was the meticulous attention to detail, the craft, and the possibilities it represented. While Mad Men is still sartorially brilliant and beautiful in an aesthetic sense, with sets, lighting, and production styles that pull the viewer compelling into the era in which the action is set, a pretty face simply isn’t enough. The show also needs substance, and it feels increasingly like there was never any there there, only a series of motions.
It’s clear that the cast members feel it’s time to say farewell, and that they’re definitely ready for this to be the last season. In public interviews, they’ve spoken of a mixed nostalgia and eagerness to move on to new projects that speaks to a private understanding that the show is losing its loyal following—few actors would be unwise enough to speak badly of productions and creators they’re involved with for fear of giving themselves a bad name in the industry, but a quick read between the lines highlights a world where the actors are perhaps as bored with the drama as some of the viewers.
Ultimately, this show has been about the long, slow decline of Don Draper, but the problem is that this journey hasn’t been nearly compelling or interesting enough. For season after season, we’ve watched him thrash through lies, mommy issues, failed relationships, and affairs, and there comes a time when this fails to be entertaining. In part, it’s because so much of what’s on offer on television right now includes exactly the same set of circumstances and ‘entertainment.’ Where is the drama, pull, and interest in a show that really isn’t bringing all that much new to the table, creatively?
When it first started airing, Mad Men stood out as a leader among the pack of costume dramas, creating a strong new niche for historically accurate, involved, detailed shows exploring our recent past. Now, though, it feels old and tired, like someone who has stayed up long past her bedtime and needs to be quietly tucked in with a hot water bottle.