Mad Men (season 5) | |
---|---|
Season 5 promotional poster
|
|
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Release | |
Original network | AMC |
Original release | March 25 | – June 10, 2012
Season chronology | |
The fifth season of the American television drama series Mad Men premiered on March 25, 2012, with a two-episode premiere, and concluded on June 10, 2012. It consisted of thirteen episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length. AMC broadcast the fifth season on Sundays at 10:00 pm in the United States. The fifth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on October 16, 2012.
Season 5 takes place between Memorial Day (May 30) 1966 and spring 1967. The season explores Don Draper's new marriage to Megan, which leads him to ignore his work at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency. Meanwhile, Lane, Pete, Roger, Joan, and Peggy learn that it is "every man for himself" in their personal and professional lives, as they each face painful new beginnings.
Don Draper has married his secretary Megan Calvet, who throws a surprise birthday party for Don and their co-workers. Don is embarrassed by the party and Megan serenading him in front of his co-workers. Megan (who has been promoted to copywriter) meanwhile struggles with Don's growing detachment with work, as he is constantly having Megan come in late and leave early to the agency, and her own unfulfilled dream of being an actress. Don's detachment alienates Peggy, who is being made to train Megan, and Bert, who feels that Don has gone "on love leave", not caring about his job or turning in quality work.
Feeling her chances at work have been undercut by Don's detachment, the couple have a fight while touring a Howard Johnson's hotel. Don leaves Megan behind in a huff when she tells him that she's come to find the advertising industry hollow and superficial. Megan manages to hitch a ride back to their new apartment, where they fight and ultimately reconcile.
Don's slacking at work coincides with the arrival of a new hire, in the form of young advertising phenom Michael Ginsberg. Young, aggressive, and anti-social, Ginsberg proves to be a rival for Don and Peggy. When the two are made to pitch advertisements for a snow cone company, Don purposely leaves behind Ginsberg's child-friendly campaign material in order to pitch his own darker, devil-themed campaign instead, which is ultimately chosen. Meanwhile, Peggy finds herself reaching a glass ceiling with regards to Ginsberg being able to rise faster within the company. However, one evening Ginsberg confides his dark secret to Peggy: that he was born in a Nazi concentration camp for Jews, where his mother died and that he spent his first five years in an orphanage before his father found him and took him to America to live. By the end, Peggy decides to leave the agency for another firm in order to fulfill her full potential. Don attempts to keep her by offering her a raise but ultimately concedes that Peggy has to leave him to continue out of his shadow. Before she leaves the office forever, Don kisses her hand, finally realizing how important she was to him. Peggy also makes a new change at home: she accepts her boyfriend's proposal to live together, to her mother's disapproval.