Mad Men: Season Five (2012)

Creator: Matthew Weiner

 The 1960's are famous for having been the era of great social change, and Mad Men has been well aware of this during its run, but we haven't seen it manifest itself completely. Up till the fourth season it was mostly hints of what was to come. But now that we're in the second half of the 1960's we're seeing a lot more of the actual social change and seeing how it is affecting both the young and old characters. This season takes on this divide between the young and old workers head-on. The first half of the season is about the old making way for the new. We see people like Don Draper and Roger Sterling struggling to keep up with society's new trends, something that's pretty important to their jobs. The second half of the season we see their responses to that struggle, which ends up being denial. They have an increased ambition to keep up with the younger people and try to get back what they once had.

For the main character, Don Draper, we see this not only in his professional life, but his personal life as well. The beginning is the best of times for Don. He gets rejuvenated when he starts a new firm, a new account, a new family. But once that beginning ends, the dissatisfaction comes back, and a search for a new beginning begins once again. This season shows us the negative consequences that come with ambition, which is a constant sense of dissatisfaction. Mad Men goes deep into the human psyche like no other show has done before, and it does so in a sophisticated, artful, and subtle way. The show has created such complicated characters in a world that is so much like our own that makes it so easy to react to even the smallest of changes or events in their lives because we know exactly what they're going through. This is because Mad Men is a show about one of the most universal things there is, the endless pursuit of happiness. And what is Don's definition of happiness? "It's the moment before you need more happiness."

Grade: A