Mad Men (2007)
Mad Men is a 2007 drama series created by Matthew Weiner. It stars Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss and Vincent Kartheiser.
Don Draper can sell anyone anything except himself. Matthew Weiner's period drama drops into the wood-paneled offices of a Madison Avenue advertising agency across the 1960s, where creative directors, account men and secretaries chase accounts, affairs and reinvention. Cigarettes burn, whiskey pours and the decade churns around them: shifting gender roles, civil rights, a country remaking itself. Beneath the tailored suits and flawless pitches lurk private discontents and buried pasts. Slow, precise and impeccably designed, it studies ambition and identity in the golden age of the hard sell.
Quick answers
What is Mad Men about?
Don Draper can sell anyone anything except himself. Matthew Weiner's period drama drops into the wood-paneled offices of a Madison Avenue advertising agency across the 1960s, where creative directors, account men and secretaries chase accounts, affairs and reinvention. Cigarettes burn, whiskey pours and the decade churns around them: shifting gender roles, civil rights, a country remaking itself. Beneath the tailored suits and flawless pitches lurk private discontents and buried pasts. Slow, precise and impeccably designed, it studies ambition and identity in the golden age of the hard sell.
When was Mad Men released?
Mad Men was released on 19 July 2007.
How many episodes does Mad Men have?
Mad Men has 92 episodes across 7 seasons.
Who made Mad Men?
Mad Men was created by Matthew Weiner.
Where can I watch Mad Men?
Mad Men is available on AMC+, DirecTV On Demand, HBO (Via Hulu), HBO Max, MAX (Via Amazon Prime) and Philo.
Where to watch Mad Men
Stream: AMC+, DirecTV On Demand, HBO (Via Hulu), HBO Max, MAX (Via Amazon Prime), Philo, Spectrum On Demand, YouTube TV
Watch free: Plex, Pluto TV, Xumo Play
Rent: Google Play
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Google Play
Cast
- Jon Hamm as Don Draper
- Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson
- Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell
- January Jones as Betty Draper
- Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway
- Aaron Staton as Ken Cosgrove
- Rich Sommer as Harry Crane
- Kiernan Shipka as Sally Draper
- John Slattery as Roger Sterling
- Robert Morse as Bertram Cooper
- Christopher Stanley as Henry Francis
- Jessica Paré as Megan Draper
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A few thoughts on Mad Men
Sit with the same mid-century ambition elsewhere. Mario Puzo's The Godfather charts American power and family across the same postwar decades; Red Dead Redemption 2 mourns men left behind by a changing country; and Thomas Newman's American Beauty score captures the quiet suburban ache humming under all that polished success.
Period American dramas steeped in their era's detail
Mad Men treats the 1960s as a character, letting the decade churn around a Madison Avenue ad shop. These dramas share that obsession with time and place: Cold War paranoia, a grimy Times Square, the music business at full tilt. Each recreates a distinct American moment so precisely that the period does half the storytelling.
Ambition and a buried past driving the climb
Don Draper can sell anyone anything except himself, and Mad Men keeps circling that secret history. These stories run on the same engine: reinvention, self-made success, and an old identity the hero would rather bury. Whether it's a Birmingham gangster or a drifter remaking himself in a closing frontier, the climb always costs something.
Desire and scandal simmering under a polished surface
For all its tailored suits, Mad Men runs on private discontent and affairs conducted behind office doors. These stories share that heat: attraction that wrecks careers and marriages, sex used as leverage, respectable people undone by want. They match the show's fascination with the mess hiding beneath a composed, well-dressed exterior.
Identity and social change reshaping private lives
Mad Men sets its personal dramas against civil rights, feminism, and a country remaking itself. These stories put the same pressure on their characters: shifting roles, hidden lives forced into daylight, and ambition colliding with what society will allow. History keeps rewriting the rules while everyone scrambles to keep up with it.