Watch: Why Mad Men is a show like no other

Mad Men begins its final run of seven episodes on Sunday, April 5, at 10 pm Eastern on AMC. The show will air its series finale on May 17.

The beauty of Mad Men has always been in how it communicates huge emotional turning points via tiny little moments — one line of dialogue, or a physical gesture, or even just a potent image that makes the viewer feel a certain way. It's content to let lots of things stay in the subtext, to allow these swells of emotion to carry the story forward.

TV — even good TV — often over-explains itself, to the point where certain things are hammered into the audience's head. This has never been Mad Men's problem, and it's why the show felt so immediately impressive when it debuted in 2007.

I went to a recent press day for the show in Los Angeles, where I and other journalists got a chance to ask series creator Matt Weiner about some of the techniques he's used to achieve this effect. Here are my thoughts on the show, sprinkled with a few of his.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via