Mad Men Season 5 is not comfort viewing. It is a punch to the gut. It asks the question we all dread: What happens when you get everything you wanted?
Notice how many scenes take place in hallways or elevators. Characters are always between places—between marriages, between careers, between sanity and breakdown. The season’s visual motif is the crack in the facade. A spilled drink. A wrinkled dress. A lipstick stain on a collar. We see the mess just beneath the polish. Some fans prefer the rocket-fuel of Season 1 or the breakup drama of Season 3. But Season 5 is the season where Mad Men stopped being a period drama and started being a horror movie. Mad Men - Season 5
In "The Other Woman," she finally asks for a raise and a title. Don refuses, not because she doesn't deserve it, but because he needs her to need him. The subsequent scene—where Peggy walks into the elevator of the Time & Life Building, leaving Don alone in the hallway—is the show’s most heartbreaking moment. No music. No slow motion. Just the ding of the elevator door. Mad Men Season 5 is not comfort viewing
It is a season about the terrifying passage of time. "Are you alone?" Don asks the ghost of his dead brother in the finale. The answer, for everyone on this show, is yes . Notice how many scenes take place in hallways or elevators