Mad Men - Season 5

When Mad Men returned for its fifth season in March 2012 after a notoriously long 17-month hiatus, fans were hungry for resolution. The previous season ended with a bombshell: Anna Draper’s death, the sale of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to a British conglomerate, and a tearful proposal from Don to his secretary, Megan Calvet. The question on everyone’s lips was simple: Can Don Draper ever really be happy?

There is a moment early in Mad Men Season 5 that perfectly encapsulates its thesis. Megan Draper (née Calvet) surprises her new husband, Don Draper, with a sultry, intimate performance of the French pop song "Zou Bisou Bisou" at his surprise birthday party. As she twirls in a sequined mini-dress, the room of stiff ad executives looks on with a mixture of envy, confusion, and barely concealed contempt. Don, the man who has everything, sits frozen, smiling with his teeth but screaming with his eyes.

We watch Megan fade away. We watch Peggy fly away. We watch Lane die. And we watch Don Draper, sitting in a dark bar, listening to a stranger’s problems, because he cannot face his own. The season ends with Don hearing the Rolling Stones’ "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" for the first time. He smirks. The song is a primal scream against consumerism, conformity, and the emptiness of modern life. It is the anthem of the revolution that Don Draper—ad man, liar, phantom—will never be able to join. Mad Men - Season 5

After the revolutionary upheaval of Season 4 (the "Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce" era), Season 5 arrives like a hangover you didn't see coming. It is a season of transformation, but not the kind anyone wants. It’s a season about the terrifying gap between who we are and who we are pretending to be. In my humble opinion, it is the single greatest season of television’s greatest drama.

Feeling undervalued and stifled by Don, Peggy Olson makes the radical decision to leave Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) to join a rival agency, CGC. The Jaguar Account: When Mad Men returned for its fifth season

Welcome to 1966. The pills are brighter, the skirts are shorter, and the existential dread has never been deeper.

A major through-line is the characters' reaction to the rapidly changing world. While Roger Sterling attempts to embrace the new era (famously through LSD), Don Draper increasingly feels like a man out of time, unable to connect with the evolving zeitgeist as he once did. Passion vs. Skill: There is a moment early in Mad Men

Struggling with massive personal debt and caught forging a check, Lane Pryce's story reaches a devastating conclusion when his professional life collapses. Critical Reception