let's talk MAD MEN

I don't want to say it is outright my favourite show of all time, because... I don't know, but I do know I've rewatched the thing more times than any other drama series. I must have been through it all 5 times by now. It is one of those shows you can just mine deeper into each time, but has that sheen of production, that seductive look and feel that makes it easy to just get wrapped up in the world unlike my other favourites (Deadwood, The Wire) where the worlds are so ugly it's far less desirable to go dipping back into them again and again.

Yet the brilliance of the show is how it probes just that very thing, digging under the shiny surfaces to the darker heart below, it's like opening up some ornate music box to be fascinated by just how it all works on the inside.

Anyway, I kind of agree with you on all Don's mistresses, none of them were particularly interesting as individuals (though I love the performances of the two in the first season so much that it doesn't matter to me) but they all helped further unravel the mystery that is Draper himself.

To me there's this sort of divide in the middle of the show. The first 3 (really the first 2, by the third the tone is already short of shifting) seasons have a certain feel about them that the following seasons are completely different too. They lose this sort of smokey, archaic time capsule, looking back into the past quality about them, where the later seasons feel much more shiny and modern. It's another touch that probably is just due to increased budget, but really sort of works on account of the changing society that by season 4 the show was more overtly coming to reflect.

The other change aside from that general look in feel that comes in about the same time is more of a shift from a more serialized style where less seems to happen in each episode, and they all flow together to paint the bigger picture, where as from like season 4 onwards there seems to me to be more of a standalone quality to more episodes than there had been in the earlier years. When the thing was airing I think I tended to prefer that, but rewatching now I almost like the earlier style better.

In fact the only thing about the show that I really don't like is Joan's storyline in the final season. Much respect for Bruce Greenwood, but just the whole fucking thing except for her scene with Jim Hobart is corny, simplistic, cliche nonsense we've seen done in other shows and movies in just as good if not better fashion.

Favourite performances are definitely Hamm and Moss towering over the others, with Kartheiser a not at all too distant third. Probably would agree with your other two picks rounding out the top 5. Slattery just nails every single line he has, while Hendricks got more and more to do with each season and really nailed it. It'd either be her or Rich Sommer for the fifth spot.

Characters is Don, Betty, Peggy, Pete, and Harry. Betty got real boring there in like seasons 3 and most especially 4, but she rebounded real good. God bless Jim "It's a lot of money" Cutler too.

Glen is easy pick for least favourite character, but any fellow puts fucking Duck in their top 5 deserves to be shot. Damn you, Viced. Justice for Chauncey.

I too cannot rank the seasons because... I think they're all so fucking good. I guess 7 is probably my least favourite, but even that has got so many incredible episodes in I look forward to getting around to every time.

Favourite episodes off the top of my head:
Marriage of Figaro
The Hobo Code
Three Sundays
The Gold Violin
Seven Twenty Three
Shut the Door. Have a Seat.
Public Relations
The Rejected
A Little Kiss Part 2
Signal 30
At the Codfish Ball
The Other Woman
Commissions and Fees
The Flood
The Better Half
In Care Of
Field Trip
Waterloo
Time & Life
Lost Horizon

Favourite moments:-
When Don goes to that joint with Midge and the hippie.
When Betty shoots the birds.
When Don slams the door at the end of The Hobo Code.
When Peggy has to hold the baby in church.
When Ken goes to Sal's for lunch.
When Sal does the Bye Bye Birdie dance for his wife.
"Just when he got his foot in the door".
When Don signs his contract.
When Don drops his cigarette.
When Roger asks Peggy to get him some coffee.
When Roger and Don go to recruit Pete.
"Did you enjoy ze Fuhrer's birthday?"
When Peggy peeks into Don's office after that secretary runs off wailing.
When Megan seduces Don in his office.
When Sally hugs Megan after falling over in the hallway.
The end of A Little Kiss.
The end of Signal 30.
The end of At the Codfish Ball.
The end of The Other Woman.
When Lane tries to start the Jag.
"Are you alone?"
When Pete and Harry argue over Martin Luther King.
When Don, Betty and Bobby sing that song.
When Pete smokes a joint.
The Hershey's presentation.
The end of In Care Of.
The end of The Strategy.
"It's a lot of money".
"Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car at night?"
The end of Time and Money.
The end of Lost Horizon.
THE END OF PERSON TO PERSON.

Glad you loved it...

It's been about four years since my last full rewatch (went and gave it a second viewing after the show ended), so my memory is a little rusty on a lot of it. I've always adored it, though, and it's for sure one of my favorite drama series ... top five with little doubt, I'd say ... it really is just impeccable across the board. The time period realization is absolutely unprecedented, I think, and the extent to which it involves you in this unique cultural era couldn't be more immersive and poignant. The characters are just so perfectly crafted, so many who you're never sure if you actually love 'em or hate 'em, and that's the beauty of it, because it's always kind of both at the same time. They're so lifelike and they're brought to life by one of the best television ensembles of all-time. Really only have great things to say about this show, and I've never really gotten onboard with the criticism that the latter seasons were considerably weaker. I guess the sixth season is the weakest of the show, but not by a very significant stretch, and in fact the entire run is pretty damn consistent. Plus it has one of the best final seasons/series finales that I've ever seen ... it's done so perfectly and I was just overwhelmed with emotion during that last stretch. Such a damn fine series & easily one of the best written ever, really only The Wire and The Sopranos are in that same echelon surely ... and it's reeeally due for a rewatch for me, but that's something I can do when I have the time for it in, uh, a few years?

For now ... some favorites as my memory best serves me ...

Episodes
1. "The Suitcase" (4x07)
2. "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" (3x06)
3. "Nixon vs. Kennedy" (1x12)
4. "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." (3x13)
5. "Time & Life" (7x11)
6. "The Other Woman" (5x11)
7. "Person to Person" (7x14)
8. "Lost Horizon" (7x12)
9. "The Gypsy and the Hobo" (3x11) 
10. "Far Away Places" (5x06)
11. "The Strategy" (7x06)
12. "Commissions and Fees" (5x12)

Performances
Elisabeth Moss
Jon Hamm
Christina Hendricks
John Slattery 
Jared Harris
January Jones
Robert Morse

Characters
Pete Campbell
Peggy Olson
Joan Harris
Lane Pryce
Roger Sterling
Don Draper
Bert Cooper
Stan Rizzo
Harry Crane 

Moments

Quite easily my favourite show of all time. Think I've probably watched it all the way through roughly 3 times, though not always in chronological order. It's a show I've fallen more and more in love with with reflection and getting older (I was 13-15 when I first saw it, and a lot of its greater elements kinda flew past me). It didn't have an entirely perfect run - season 6, while solid, fumbled with several of its character and plot developments - but its first 5 seasons are just impeccable on every conceivable front, and it really came back with full force in its final stretch. The ending was perfect in its open-ended, quiet optimism. 

Seasons ranked
1) S5 - 10
2) S4 - 10
3) S1 - 10
4) S7B - 9.5
5) S2 - 9.5
6) S3 - 9.5
7) S7A - 9
8) S6 - 8.5

Top performances
Elisabeth Moss (maybe my all-time favourite performance)
Jon Hamm
John Slattery
Christina Hendricks
Robert Morse
Jared Harris
January Jones

Was gonna do top episodes, but there's too damn many! The amount of singularly excellent episodes in almost every season is staggering. 

Yikes i read an article that said it was leaving Netflix next month. Ugh. I gotta watch it again before it leaves.

It's on IMDB TV.