Mad Men - Season 5

After seventeen long months, the wait is almost over. That’s right, Sunday is the two hour(!) premiere of Season 5 of Mad Men. But has it been too long? Do we even still care about Mad Men? In the intervening seventeen months, Mrs. and I have plowed through three seasons of The Wire and two seasons of Downton Abbey, so we haven’t exactly been starved for great television. Do we really want to have to commit every Sunday night to Mad Men again? Well, I can emphatically say that yes, we still care. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t overly excited about the return of Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and the rest of the gang. So what can we expect?

The lingering questions:

1) In what year will this season be set, and why is this such a secret? Each season the first question is what year will it be and each season I’ve managed to find out before the premiere. But I haven’t seen anything yet for Season 5, so I guess it’s going to be a surprise. I doubt they’ll skip too far ahead, but with so many unresolved issues (Don’s wedding, Joan’s baby, the state of SCDP) I want it to pick up right where it left off. But in true Mad Men form, my guess is that we’ll fast forward a year or eighteen months. Hopefully there will at least be some flashbacks to what happened in the interim.

2) Are Don and Megan married? Do they have kids? And seriously, are they married? With such a spontaneous engagement, why do I have the feeling Don may have had some second thoughts. My guess is the wedding was either called off or at least put on hold. Mrs. agrees and is even predicting a Don-Betty tryst in Season Five.

3) Joan and the baby. Well, I’m sure she’s had it (assuming we’re moving ahead a bit), but does it have a head of silver hair? And does Roger know the kid is his? I assume he must, right? Is Greg home from the war (assuming he made it back – and I’ve reversed course on this and assume he will)? Does he have any suspicions? And is Joan now a stay at home mom? How is the office surviving without her (Roger in particular)?

4) What is the state of Sterling Cooper Draper Price? They were struggling with the loss of Lucky Strike, so have they turned it around or are they still trying to fight their way back to the top? Has a large client come in to take the place of Lucky Strike and save the day? Is Cooper back in the fold? How high up the chain has Peggy moved? And is it going to be Sterling Cooper Draper Price Campbell?

5) Are there going to be some new characters introduced? It’s been so long I can’t even remember the new characters from Season 4. Heck, I feel like I need to watch all of Season 4 again just to refresh my memory about what happened, it's been that long.

6) How old is Sally going to be? If Season 5 picks up shortly after we left off in October 1965, then more time will have passed in real time than on the show and this could spell trouble for the younger actors as they get older over the next couple of seasons. At some point it’s going to be like Ian Ziering playing a high-schooler at the age of 34. And what trouble is Sally going to get into this year? That girl is headed for trouble.

7) And finally, will Don’s past continue to haunt him? Betty knows the truth, but his secret is probably safe with her, unless her childishness gets the best of her after another fight with her ex-husband. Has Don told Megan (assuming they wedding has gone off as planned)? I mean, he’s not going to go into another marriage with a bunch of lies hanging over him, is he? And what about Faye Miller? Don did tell her the truth, so is that going to come back to haunt him? I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Faye.

I feel like before the beginning of every season of Mad Men my first thought is, “well it can’t possibly live up to all of the hype.” Before Mrs. and I dove into Season 1 we were skeptical it would live up to the rave reviews and recommendations and it exceeded them. Then we assumed Season 2 would be a let down after the greatness of Season 1. Wrong again. And then we thought there was no way the show could keep up the high standards it set for itself. But Season 3 and 4 were both stellar, and in fact Season 4 was probably the best yet. So after the seventeen month layoff and all of the anticipation the buildup is again making me wonder - is it all going to be a let down? My guess? The show will once again surprise us and take it's place back on top as the best drama on television. Luckily, only two days until we find out.