3. Mad Men – As with 30 Rock, I’m running out of ways to talk about how good Mad Men is. This may have been the best season yet, with everybody involved at the absolute top of their game. What’s most impressive is the way Mad Men keeps changing its approach – last season, especially at the end, saw major historical events play out and examined them through the actions and reactions of the characters. This year, the turmoil of the mid-60s continued to simmer, but it was largely in the background. The characters themselves, and not history, drove the storytelling this season. With the Drapers divorced, we saw Don really suffer as self-loathing set in. The boozing that’s been a staple of this show since the beginning turned sad, as seeing Don and Roger get drunk once again stopped being funny. This season took the iconic aspects of the show and gave them a different emotional resonance. Don’s womanizing, for example, finally took a real toll on him. The rest of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce crew made the most of their season, too. Peggy continued to come into her own, her timid first season incarnation long forgotten. Joan saw her husband (who, don’t forget, raped her) leave for the army and then decided not to terminate the pregnancy that resulted from a final, post-mugging tryst with Roger. And Roger lost SCPD’s biggest client, showing real fear for the first time ever. If you made a greatest hits package for the season, it would pretty much consist of the entire season.
While I stand by my Top 10, I actually feel bad about Eastbound & Down and Louie not being on it! They are both so fabulous. And I know how much I’m missing out by not watching Breaking Bad…I will just have to hibernate with the DVDs one of these days, although it sounds like I may end up suffering from clinical depression if I do that.