Waterloo

With Don Draper on forced leave due to his semi-breakdown of honesty, work continues at the Agency with their main business on the east coast and their new venture on the west. With Don's lesson on honesty learnt, he keeps his situation from his family – including his wife, living on the opposite coast to get her acting career going while in theory she waits for Don to find and job and move out to join her. Meanwhile the new structure of the agency continues to have tensions and rifts – even more so as television and computing start to be more competitive advantages.

Screened in two distinct halves, this first half of the final season of Mad Men is a solid continuation of generally what the show has done well. Draper is in the wake of his struggles and not sure how to find his own way. As it always has been, he is the core of the show and his story continues to be interesting in where it is going as a conclusion. The doubts and weaknesses in the character seem more evident to himself now, whereas before maybe they were not so much, and this allows for the show to be more meditative about his direction (in particular spelt out by the final scene of this half- season). The supporting characters continue to do their thing but too often their material feels a little familiar or out-of-nowhere. Sometimes this is fine (Peggy's ongoing journey remains interesting) but with characters such as Pete, Joan, Sterling and a few others, they do feel like they are treading water in some ways. Meanwhile for others things seem to have little base, with conflict and drama not always feeling naturally occurring but rather done for something to do. However, Draper's core is strong and the rest fits in around and near it, mostly working.

The production values remain high, with a good sense of time and place. The portrayal of the changing times are done matter-of-factly rather than with heavy nostalgia; although events of note are of course featured, they do not stick out heavily but rather as part of the story of these characters. The changing times instead are made part of the turmoil and changing of the characters and not just something happening remotely – this has always been the case but here I thought it did it particularly well. The cast continue their good performances, with generally very well delivered characters, although one does wonder if they will ever manage to shake off the characters they do so well (Hamm particularly has had success outside of this show, but at the same time has many times just played a version of Draper).

A strong start to the endgame then, with plenty going on, most of which works. If it can keep this standard as it approaches the second and final set of episodes, I'll be happy enough.

There are so many shows right now hitting consistent greatness, shows hitting their peaks. Louie, Game of Thrones, Hannibal, Fargo, True Detective are just some of the few shows that are great on a week-to- week basis. Mad Men certainly cemented its greatness years ago, but how is it that in its 7th season it still manages to outperform all other shows on TV? I guess it's not fair to count these 7 episodes as a "season", but if we were ranking it with the other seasons of the series, it could very well be at the top if not share that first place with the masterful Season 4. This was a masterful run of episodes, and I very much doubt I'll think any other drama deserves the top Emmy award in a few months (but of course, this has no shot, the hype isn't what it used to be, sadly). A+

Note- Please, an actor from this show needs to win already. Come on! Hamm and Moss!

2nd note- This is how you start your final season, Breaking Bad (AKA the most overrated season in television history. Yes, both halves)

The midseason finale took place on the day of Neil Armstrong's historic landing on the moon. Of course that's a metaphor on Mad Man: a metaphor for togetherness. Here's how I see it. Everyone got some face time in tonight's episode. Also, we wave good-bye to some. I won't reveal who. Ted, who's been in limbo this season, finally has a purpose. He's depressed, teetering on the edge, and is questioning his future in advertising. He wants something new in his life, and he makes it clear (or tries to) that money isn't everything to him. This is the big picture in the episode. For everyone else, money is the motivation. It's what brings smiles to the character's faces. It makes the blood sucking Jim Cutler (who's consistent yapping about Donald Draper's removal like a pull-string doll is hilarious) back off. It makes a new-faced Joan ease up. But money isn't worth celebrating for Don. "I'll have plenty money if I sell out" Ted says. Is multiple lifetimes worth of money necessary? Don sees an image. It leaves him wondering, holding himself up on a desk. His reactions saved for next year. Then there's the Burger Chef pitch, which is sold on family and togetherness, ironically for capital means. The use of the moon landing in the pitch is genius and genuine. As we get a look at the different groups united around the television to witness the moon landing, I noted that the characters who played villain this episode weren't included in this sequence. Is that a sign of their exclusion from who really matters in Mad Men? (Sorry, Harry, you really can't sit with us; at the partner's table). Roger Sterling matters a whole lot in the episode. I noted earlier in the season that Roger looking out for Don solidifies one of the show's greatest relationships (the bromance is real). If anything, this episode shows it's Don's truly most important and long-lasting relationship. He'll look out for Don again because ever since the merger with CGC the agency has been running further away from the original Sterling Cooper. Therein lies the metaphor of the moon landing. (This is what I believe to the be the "waterloo"). The agency has endured so much and has evolved in so many ways throughout the course of the series. The new step taken in tonight's episode marks "one big step" for SCP. A step in unfamiliar territory, but really a step to preserve the main fabric of the agency. And for the second half of the season we'll see, like Neil and Apollo's trip back, if the gang can make it back in one piece. History proves they will. Tonight's quote of, "Giving everyone that they want, when they want it"; I think that's when Mad Men will achieve its apex and its resolution. A cute B-story; Sally Draper's hormones, her (familiar) hairstyle, and her (familiar) smoking posture. The Francis's are having guests over for the moon landing, one of the kids is a hunk, the other is a star-gazer. Sally takes notice. If you enjoy a nice narrative break into song and dance. This is truly your episode. TIll 2015! 10/10

When viewers last saw Don Draper (Jon Hamm), he was in complete meltdown mode-pitching to Hershey while simultaneously spilling some beans on his checkered past. As Season 7A (first 7 episodes released in 2014) opens, Don is on leave (perhaps code for "about to be fired?") from the agency that he helped build, trying to put together the pieces of his life and-as always-figure out the next step.

As has become a bit of a pattern with this series, the first few episodes of this season are a bit slow. Not "bad", per se, but 7/10 star average affairs. Not necessarily befitting the start of Mad Men's final go-round and prone to the navel-gazing and ground-retreading the show can often fall into.

But as the installments continue rolling out, the quality begins improving again-slowly at first and then a few 10/10 star efforts to finish up this first 7 of Season Seven.

Without going into all the details on all the characters, no one gets the short shrift here. A few especially compelling angles in this set include...

-Both Don and Betty (January Jones) trying to connect with a now firmly adolescent (and insolent) Sally (Kiernan Shipka).

-Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) forced to reckon yet again with her role in a male-dominated industry.

-The agency enters the computer age, and not everyone-especially Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldman)-is happy about the digital intruder.

-Roger Sterling (John Slattery) traversing to a commune to retrieve-or perhaps reconcile?-with daughter Margaret (Elizabeth Rice).

Of course, the prevailing themes always come back to Don (and Peggy, to a slightly lesser extent) and that ends up being the case again here. The final few episodes see those characters share many scenes together and it feels as magical as it did at some points in the earlier seasons.

Overall, I gave this first half of S7 8.5/10 stars. It may not be the very best the show has to offer to this point because of the slow start-I'll still give that honor to S5-but the finale set to the backdrop of the 1969 moon landing is entrancing from beginning to end and whets the viewing appetite for the stretch run to be sure. By this point, the characters are so endearing that even a Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) musical number doesn't feel out of place in the slightest.