‘Mad Men’: All 7 Seasons, Ranked
It’s been 18 years since Mad Men first premiered on AMC and ushered in the network’s drama domination era (with Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead coming along shortly thereafter), but the period series is still just as entertaining and upsetting as ever.
The show centers on the mysterious Don Draper (Jon Hamm), a genius ad man who dazzles clients with his thoughtful (and often off-the-cuff) campaign ideas, all while his personal life slowly falls to pieces. Don remains one of the seminal antiheroes in television history, and he’s not the only iconic character to emerge from the show.
There’s also Betty (January Jones), who has a perfect exterior but a deeply imperfect personality and experiences both tremendous growth and backsliding throughout the story; Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who begins as a sheepish secretary and claws her way into a place of power with her talent and grit; Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), a quick-witted bombshell who becomes a major player and a survivor; Roger Sterling (John Slattery), a nepo-man-baby with an oversized chip on his shoulder and a clever line for every occasion; Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), an accounts guy who goes from smarmy and scuzzy to, well, still smarmy but a little less scuzzy; and so many more.
Mad Men ran for a celebrated seven seasons on the network, taking audiences through the ’60s through the eyes of its creative character set. Some of those seasons were, of course, better than others, so here’s a ranking of each season of the show.
Mad Men Season 6 (December 1967 to November 1968)
Though this season finds SDCP doing well, the oversized egos of some of these so-called “Mad Men” undermine all of it. First, Don fires Jaguar because of his guilt over the company’s victimization of Joan, and Pete runs afoul of his father-in-law and loses Vicks. The two also self-immolate on the personal front, each having affairs with their neighbors; in Don’s case, it’s a torrid (and sometimes disturbingly dominating) affair with neighbor Sylvia (Linda Cardellini) that results in Sally (Kiernan Shipka) experiencing the ultimate trauma by walking in on them. Don also sleeps with the newly-thin-again Betty on a family camping trip, but that affair only reveals just how cavalier Betty has learned to be about such things.
Elsewhere, Peggy has a good thing going at Cutler, Gleason & Chaough until Ted (Kevin Rahm) decides he’s in love with her and makes a backdoor deal with Don to merge their companies in hopes of getting the General Motors account, thereby putting Peggy back in Don’s employ, whether she likes that or not. Sterling Cooper & Partners is a ramshackle operation right from the start. The Chevy account proves to be a disaster, leaving poor Ken (Aaron Staton) without an eye and Pete humiliated by the opportunistic Bob Benson (James Wolk), whose associate very likely murders his mother. The rather random season ends on an even more random note as Don makes some life-changing decisions for absolutely everyone — he exposes his true past to Hershey’s in the middle of a pitch, ruining both the account and his career, then he ditches his plans to move to the newly-minted L.A. office so Megan can pursue her acting career there (after convincing her to leave her successful soap job), and he sends Ted in his place so he can repair his own family, much to Peggy’s chagrin.
The best part of the season comes at the tail end when Don shows the kids his childhood home, bringing the first sliver of honesty to their relationship. However, the season is overall incohesive and driven by the errant impulses of the characters.
Mad Men Season 5 (May 1966 to April 1967)
Don’s marriage to Megan (Jessica Pare) is in full swing in this season, for better and for worse, as the two thrive on their physical and even professional connection (after she’s promoted to copywriter and begins to excel). Their emotional connection begins to dissipate, though, due to their age differences and individual ambitions. It’s melodramatic at best and soapy at worst.
This season is weakened by the Betty storyline, which sees her experiencing weight gain and a health scare. That arc is redeemed by the growing relationship between Betty and Sally, but not enough. The worst offense of the season is how the agency treats Joan, who’s proven herself to be an essential part of the company but gets pressured into sleeping with a disgusting potential client. The season is capped off by the death by suicide of Lane after he is caught embezzling from the company.
In general, it’s one of the more filler-feeling season of the bunch, which is why it ranks lower on this list.
Mad Men Season 2 (February to October 1962)
This season sees the rise and fall of Duck Phillips (Mark Moses), a recovering alcoholic who wants to chase a major airline against Don’s wishes and attempts to usurp the leadership at Sterling Cooper by orchestrating a sale of the company to the British powerhouse Putnam, Powell & Lowe, with a secret handshake agreement to put him on top. It almost works out for him until Don, who accepted a partnership role due to client unease over Roger’s heart attacks but did not sign a contract, threatens to leave after getting a surprising tip from Pete. This results in Duck getting the boot.
Elsewhere, this is the season when Betty first confirms Don’s infidelity after client Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fischler) tells her about his fling with his wife Bobbie (Melinda McGraw). After she kicks him out, and he spends some time in L.A. with his namesake’s widow Anna Draper (Melinda Page Hamilton), the two reconcile amid Betty’s unexpected pregnancy, but neither of them is happy about it. This is also when we get to see Peggy’s devout family being disappointed in her, even as her career reaches new heights due to the downfall of Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray), and Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) makes a power move by establishing the new TV department.
Other highlights include Joan’s engagement to Greg Harr (Sam Page), which results in a devastating assault in the office, Roger’s divorce from Mona (Talia Balsam) and new marriage to Jane (Peyton List), Ken Cosgrove’s burgeoning authorial career, and the instant crumbling of Salvatore Romano’s (Bryan Batt) sham marriage.
Overall, it’s a solid season filled with backstabbing and consequences, but it has some lulls that land it lower on the list than some others.
Mad Men Season 7 (January to July 1969; April to November 1970)
The seventh season of Mad Men had a very tall order to fill in bringing all of these characters — and the decade — to a satisfying end, and as a result, there are a few contrivances, including the reunion of Pete and Trudy (Allison Brie), the marriage of Roger and Marie Calvet (Julia Ormond), Peggy’s romance with Stan Rizzo (Jay Rowland Ferguson Jr.), and Betty’s sudden diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
On a positive note, the season sees the long-overdue dissolution of Don and Megan’s marriage and the arrival of consequences for Don, who’s hired back to the agency to work under the no-nonsense Lou Avery (Allan Havey) under strict conditions. Though he initially rebuffs being subservient to Peggy, he eventually sucks it up and gets back to working his way back from the bottom. His newfound humility doesn’t work, though, because he’s still targeted by Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin), so Don schemes to save the company from a takeover. To that end, Roger convinces McCann Erickson to buy in and put him at the top, but Don wants no part of that. He takes off for California and begins to spiral, ultimately landing in a hippie commune where he seemingly gets the idea for what would become the most famous ad in history, Coca-Cola’s iconic “Hilltop” commercial. The ending shot is just quixotic enough to bring this series to a clever close.
Another major highlight of the season arrives when Bert dies after watching the moon landing, and Don hallucinates him engaging in a spirited flash mob dance. Elsewhere, Bob, who is closeted, tries to ingratiate himself to Joan, but she declines. She also chooses to bet on herself and hang her own shingle while staying single, despite a tempting offer from the handsome Richard (Bruce Greenwood), proving just how far this whipsmart character had come.
Mad Men Season 4 (November 1964 to October 1965)
Here marks the start of a bold new adventure for the agency after it’s refounded as Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the troubles start right away: Don steps on a rake in an interview and begins experiencing the consequences of his booze-soaked lifestyle, Lane’s personal life implodes (with a horrifying visit from his father), and Lucky Strike fires the agency, resulting in firings and the partners’ personal investment.
This is also the season where the agency wins the Clio for Glo-coat, and the Samsonite account leads to the brilliant “The Suitcase” episode, a series high that reveals the depth of the professional and personal relationship between Don and Peggy. Also, after the death of Anna, Don comes very, very close to being with Faye Miller (Cara Buono), someone who could help him grapple with his past and present, but he takes the easy way out by suddenly marrying his secretary-turned-nanny Megan (Jessica Pare) instead.
Mad Men Season 3 (March to December 1963)
This season introduces us to two new series regulars with the suffering Putnam, Powell & Lowe money man Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) and Betty’s new political love interest Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), along with some memorable guest characters like Betty’s father Gene (Ryan Cutrona), Sally’s grade school teacher-turned-Don’s new lover Suzanne (Abigail Spencer), and the demanding Conrad Hilton (Chelcie Ross). This is also the season when Joan struggles with her husband’s career floundering and decision to go off to war. Instead of admitting her home life woes and returning to her old job at the agency, she takes a retail job. That puts her in an awkward position with Pete, who attempts to cover up an affair with his neighbor’s au pair.
This season is notably backdropped by the John F. Kennedy assassination and PPL’s takeover of the agency (and that lawnmower incident). Perhaps the most riveting development of the season is when Don learns McCann Erickson wants to buy PPL (and thus Sterling Cooper) and convinces Lane to fire him, Roger, and Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) so they can escape their contracts and start a new agency. This leads to a mad dash to secure key clients and employees, culminating in a new start for the MVPs, including Joan.
It’s a messy moment for all of our favorites, especially on their homefront, but the crescendo of the busy finale events makes this a truly memorable one.
Mad Men Season 1 (March to November 1960)
The first season instantly immerses audiences into the cartoonishly misogynistic atmosphere of Sterling Cooper, where cocky ad men yuck it up over brandy and cigars and shamelessly ogle their female colleagues, all of whom are their underlings in the beginning. It’s here we first see that Don leads a double life by routinely cheating on Betty and that she suffers from anxiety and depression due in part to her suspicions about him, as well as her grief over mother’s recent death. It’s also here that we first get a whiff of Peggy’s ambition and her Achilles heel (that is, Pete Campbell, who engages in an affair with her that results in an unwanted pregnancy, just as he becomes a newlywed). She becomes a copywriter in her own right by the end of the season.
Highlights of this season include the Lucky Strike CYA campaign, Don’s professional and personal dalliance with Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), the agency’s failed Richard Nixon campaign, Roger’s heart attack(s), a glimpse at Don’s devastating family history, and Pete’s attempt to blackmail Don over his false identity.
The season is filled with sharp writing, compelling performances, and a satisfying arc that truly sells the story and gets us hooked on this brave new-old world.
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