To celebrate 10 years of Mad Men, let's revisit the show's 20 best episodes. It’s impossibly lurid: Ginsburg (Ben Feldman) lashes out at his colleagues for being titillated by images of “girls trussed up like a cut of meat.” It’s densely allusive (the title comes from a contemporaneous board game) and visually stunning (Don’s murderous dream sequence is punctuated by the overhead image of a garish pink pump). With so many memorable episodes of the show, it's hard to trust just one person's opinion of what the top Mad Men episodes of all time are. “Shut the Door. Joan rejects Bob Benson’s proposal of a loveless marriage, not caring whether it’s her last offer. Peggy’s confession that she “wanted other things,” and her attempt to explain the feelings of loss and acceptance she has experienced, is so quietly devastating it still gives me chills all these years later. The whole episode has a getting-the-gang-back-together vibe, where you believe that, once again, Don and Roger will be able to save and reinvent Sterling Cooper, but they don’t, and they lose their identity to the big McCann-Erickson machine. It’s wickedly, wildly funny: “Hey, Trotsky, you’re in advertising,” Roger snipes at Peggy, after approaching her with an under-the-table assignment. And yet, what the agency’s really selling -- a feeling, an experience, a sense of freedom -- is something that money can’t buy. Evolution has past him, gone beyond him. Most importantly, the episode ends with Don showing his three children where he actually grew up. Yes, that means you only have a couple days left to complete (or start) the saga of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the many faces of Sterling Cooper. It makes him rush home to his family, only to find an empty house, which only reinforces the reason why nostalgia is powerful: you can’t go back to that place once it’s gone. Resolving story threads and setting up the next season’s course, or throwing the series entirely out of balance via creative upheaval? All Rights Reserved, 20. I’m interested in how Nick’s are all body episodes well in the middle of the seasons. “Shut the Door. The threat of global annihilation pushes people to odd and revealing actions: pregnant Betty has sex with a stranger, Pete exhibits his first real traces of maturity, and then Peggy knocks the wind out of him by rejecting his affection with her confession about their baby. – Nick. Not too long ago, I decided to sit down and watch Mad Men for the first time. Don's exile is over, but the ghost of Bert sings to him in a surreal Broadway dance number, “The best things in life are free.” It’s a blessing. He’s sleeping with a girl named Joy who reads The Sound and the Fury: If nothing else, “Jet Set” is the episode for English majors.—Darren Franich, If the sexist atmosphere of Mad Men was mildly quaint, “Babylon” is the episode where the reality of 1960s' chauvinistic attitudes turned grotesque. The writers make an attempt to stave off late-night boredom during a mandatory overtime... A rival ad agency courts Don, involving Betty in their attempt to lure him from Sterling... On election night, the Sterling Cooper staff pulls a rowdy all-nighter while watching the... Don takes a trip. But the pitch stands out because those photos of a young family’s happier days sum up what makes Mad Men great. Even Betty seems stunned by how shaken he is; his hands are trembling so badly he can’t even hold on to the cigarette he’s fumbling for to calm his nerves, so she takes pity on him and offers to get him a drink. Need help finding something to watch? 30 essential albums from the last 30 years. Joan has scheduling problems. -- Esther Zuckerman, Season 2, Episode 6The "Jackie vs. Marilyn" dichotomy is maybe one of Sterling Cooper's greatest taglines, and this is one of the show's greatest episodes. Fans of Mad Men are extremely passionate about the show, and there is often debate over which episodes are better than others. The entire thing can be read as an allegory for the Vietnam War, with the agency worn down by the impossible, un-winnable Chevy account. There he has a vision of Anna Draper and wakes up to learn that she has died. – John. At the same time, we have a mighty helping of fun and scandal in the first episode, including Pete’s disgusting attitude towards women, Peggy’s acceptance of it, Don’s first affair, Sal’s pretty obvious sexuality, and a goddamn bachelor party to boot. The episode begins with the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno: Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path. Offers may be subject to change without notice. You can’t, because there isn’t one. It’s the confrontation the series had been building up to for three years, and it does not disappoint. Yet Brownoser-in-Chief Pete Campbell is shaken up enough to miss his boss’ daughter’s wedding (this may partly be because he’d also just lost a promotion). “The Crash” feels completely surreal, and it’s easy to get distracted by all the crazy shit, like Stan making a move on Peggy, Ken doing that manic tap-dance, or Don on amphetamines sternly insisting that “The timbre of my voice is as important as the content.” But ultimately, it all comes back to Peggy’s Wordsworth reference: “The child is the father of the man.” Our antihero, who’s previously spouted off lines like “It will shock you how much this never happened” and been so keen to move forward that he literally reinvented himself and left his past behind, has discovered that those who don’t pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it. So would have the post-pitch drinks Ted shares with Peggy and Pete, where the latter two resolve ill will that has lingered since Mad Men’s earliest episodes. -- DJ, Season 5, Episode 7Yes, the one where Sally Draper walks in on Roger getting a blowjob from Megan Draper's mother. —Jeff Jensen, As 'Mad Men' turns 10, a look back at the best episodes in the landmark series. Season four’s high watermark “The Suitcase” is a general favorite in “Best Mad Men Episode” conversations, but the internet has written about it ad nauseam. “The Phantom” is another great season finale, perhaps the last great one. Have a Seat.” whether figuratively or literally. The takeaway from “Tomorrowland,” then, is Don’s engagement to Megan and all that it seemingly represents for the troubled ad-man. It’s something of a day in the life odyssey, tracking Don the smoke-blowing genius and lothario at his most magical and toxic (turning cigarettes into near sexy edibles with the tagline “It’s toasted”), his most seductive and cynical (“What you call love was invented by guys like me. Think Ocean’s Eleven, but with a smaller scale, even better suits, and infinitely more psychological baggage. The hour chronicles the few days before the Fourth of July holiday, when Sterling Cooper's British partners Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe make a sudden visit to check on the state of the company. A concentrated blast of brilliance from Mad Men’s MVP players, writer Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, maximized by the delicate direction of Jennifer Getzinger. When the man passing out candy looks Don in the eyes and asks, “And who are you supposed to be?” his smile fades, and it’s obvious he’ll be spending most of Season Four trying to answer. They have what she never can, and so Betty Draper calmly, cooly takes aim and tears them down. “Mystery Date” (Season Five, Episode 4), 10. “Commissions and Fees” (Season Five, Episode 12), 9. And it’s a mighty one. However, in this episode, we finally start to realize Pete’s problems. “Commissions & Fees” Season 5, Episode 12, 6. Jordin Althaus/AMC -- Dan Jackson, Season 1, Episode 8Crucially, this episode introduces us to a young Dick Whitman through Don's drug induced-flashbacks after a night hanging out with his hippie lover Midge. He also receives Anna Draper’s wedding ring and helps Betty move out of the family’s Ossining house, making relative peace with his ex-wife in the process. Peggy, Don, and Pete are one happy family during the victorious Burger Chef pitch, but this is Roger's episode. As moments go, this one is pretty satisfying, but the great trick of “Signal 30” is that we’re all left to puzzle at the morality of letting two men beat the tar out of each other in an office environment. “‘Stop struggling, you’ve won,’ McCann-Erickson’s head, Jim Hobart, tells the Sterling Cooper partners, so why do Don, Roger, Pete, and Joan sit solemnly like they’ve lost? Oh well. Watching Peggy prove herself to the boys’ … The best 10 episodes of Mad Men #1 Shut the Door, Have a Seat - season 3 episode 13 Original airdate: Sunday, November 8, 2009. —Jeff Jensen, Don Draper, at the lowest point of a self-degrading downward spiral, forces Peggy to spend the night with him. The project didn't get made right away, but the pages impressed The Sopranos executive producer David Chase enough to bring Weiner aboard his incredibly popular and influential mob drama. 0. But as “Signal 30” makes clear, he’s also a shivering bundle of frustrations and inadequacies.

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