‘Mad Men,’ Welcome to Disneyland «

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"Mad Men is a show that defies easy categorization, because it qualifies for so many: suspense, melodrama, farce, comedy, tragedy. At its core it is existential horror, like Waiting for Godot or reality. There’s nothing as easy as a supernatural component or thematic metaphor to tie it up with a bow. Like real life, Mad Men is littered with false doors and loose threads. There’s no hero’s quest for vengeance, no big crime to be unraveled, no zombies to kill. There are no manipulative plot twists or their cousin, deus ex machina, no easy ways out, and maybe no way out at all. This might frustrate a viewer looking for traditional clues and obvious arcs, but it’s satisfying on a much deeper level. The show’s big mysteries might be subtler, but they are richer, more universal questions. Who are we? What are we doing here? Why do we fall in love or out of it? Why do we grow old and die?"

"There is still the odd faction of Mad Men viewers who want Don Draper to jump off a building, simply because it would release the tension the show has been building up for years in one glorious burst of steam. But that would be too easy, a tidy ending rather than a realistically messy one. Mad Men deals in complications that mirror the ugly underbellies and dead ends of genuine human lives. The show is an open text, in which the viewer is complicit in their own interpretation of the presented facts. You are forced to draw on your own personal experiences in order to read those offered to you by the show. If you want to remain an optimist about the world, then the show’s inherent cynicism may strike you as a fault, but if you’re a pessimist you might just view it as pragmatic realism. The ad might be perfect, the orgy might be massive, and maybe you’ll be seated next to a beautiful woman on the plane. They’re all just false endings. There’s always another day to conquer, and it never really gets any easier or more fun. There are peaks and valleys, wins and losses, but mostly there’s a lot of flat, ugly middle. The victories that you spend forever building end up being as ephemeral as fireworks, sparkling briefly before quickly fading back into the endless blackness of the nighttime sky."

Molly Lambert has an interesting analysis & review of the show: