History YMMV / MadMen

** Peggy Olson has found plenty of fans that relate to her, thanks to Elisbeth Moss's work on making Peggy an Everywoman figure and for her CharacterDevelopment; in fact ''The New Yorker'' proclaimed that [[http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1668387/thumbs/o-ELISABETH-570.jpg?1 "Creator/ElisabethMoss Has Been the star of ''Mad Men'' All Along: She Just Didn't Know It"]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: Any fan of ''Series/{{Community}}'' who watches this show tends to be very surprised by Creator/AlisonBrie as Trudy Campbell.

* {{Narm}}: Ham-handed attempts to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance bring up differences in the 1960s]], like Don sarcastically talking about a magic machine that can copy documents in the pilot and Sally playing with a plastic bag in the third episode. Thankfully, "Weren't the 60's wacky" comments [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness fade as the first season goes on]].

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Aside from the obvious about the social injustices of the era against [[ButNotTooBlack Peop]][[InnocentBigot le]] [[YouAreACreditToYourRace of Color]] and [[YouHaveToHaveJews minorities]], [[SlobsVersusSnobs the working class]], [[StayInTheKitchen wom]][[AcceptableFeminineGoalsAndTraits en]], [[DisabledMeansHelpless the disabled]], [[InsaneEqualsViolent the mentally ill]], [[HollywoodPersonalityDisorders addicted people]], [[AbusiveParents child]][[ParentalAbandonment ren]], and the [[HeteronormativeCrusader LGBTQ]] community along with how shallow advertising is and how [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Rape and Sexual Harassment are traumatic and humiliating for the victim and even those indirectly involved]] , there is a recurring theme of Self-Actualization and Acceptance. How people need to accept themselves for how they are while growing as people along the way, even if they don't change completely, they need to work within their own psyche and realize their full potential. And that everyone deserves some love. We still have a long way to go on all these social issues, even in the 21st century.

* HeReallyCanAct: Many ''Series/{{Angel}}'' fans had this reaction to Vincent Kartheiser's performance of Pete Campbell after seeing him play the [[TheScrappy dour, sulky]] Connor originally.

** Trudy Campbell has always been popular with the fanbase, but her MomentOfAwesome when she [[spoiler: kicks Pete Campbell out with a rousing ReasonYouSuckSpeech]] pushed her into a bit of a twitter sensation.

** In ''Series/{{GLOW}}'', Harry has an affair with Trudy.

* MagnificentBastard: Don Draper is the best of them. Duck and Pete both try and fail. Peggy is rapidly becoming one. Bert Cooper is one when the situation calls for it. Roger has his moments but his propensity for killer one-liners far outshines his actual cunning [[spoiler: at least until the mid-season finale of season 7.]]
** [[spoiler: Duck finally pulls this off in the penultimate episode by leveraging Pete into the Learjet job he didn't know he wanted.]]

** While discussing the film adaptation of 'The Best of Everything' with Betty, Don mentions how Sal couldn't stop talking about Joan Crawford, a famous gay icon of the 50's and 60's.

** Megan reads an audition script for ''Series/DarkShadows'' and is soon ranting about how terrible it is. This episode, itself titled "Dark Shadows," happened to air on the very weekend that Tim Burton's film version of the classic soap opera was released.

** Betty has become kind of a JerkassWoobie. Sometimes, when she's her most [[CountryMatters Catch-You-Next-Tuesday]]-ish, she looks like she's about to start bawling any second. She goes straight to plain old woobie status in Season 7B when [[spoiler:she's diagnosed with terminal lung cancer]].

*** Despite the win for Hamm, they managed to miss winning Best Drama Series over ''Series/GameOfThrones'', whom, according to most, had what was probably their weakest season. They also lost out to Best Writing against Game of Thrones as well, which is considered by many to be the show's weakest season.

* {{Narm}}: Ham-handed attempts to bring up differences in the 1960s, like Don sarcastically talking about a magic machine that can copy documents in the pilot and Sally playing with a plastic bag in the third episode. Thankfully, "Weren't the 60's wacky" comments fade as the first season goes on.

* {{Narm}}: Don sarcastically talking about a magic machine that can copy documents in the pilot episode is very artificial and comes off more as the show saying "Weren't the '60s wacky?" than anything that someone living in that time would actually say. Luckily, the show immediately got better about this.

** Peggy. She even gets the idea that she isn't attractive, not helping are Joan's insults on her looks and fashion sense or when the guys make jokes about her being a "Gertrude Stein" as opposed to a "Jackie or [[MarilynMonroe Marilyn]]". Yet given that she's played by Creator/ElisabethMoss, it's been lampshaded on the show that the idea of her being unattractive is insane and can be attributed to the Men wrapping their heads around the idea that a woman can be beautiful and intellectual along with misogyny. Don ("You're an attractive girl Peggy" and once compared her to Creator/IreneDunne), a suspicious Bobbie ("You're so young and beautiful"), even Joan (admits she has darling ankles and laments her "hiding a very attractive girl under a lot of lunch"), Stan ("You have a nice ass"), and Mathis ("You know you're a catch right?") have commented on how pretty she is.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: "Waterloo" ends with Bert Cooper's surprise musical performance of "The Best Things in Life are Free". [[spoiler:The late Bert Cooper]]. ItMakesSenseInContext, [[spoiler:and is a rather well-done sendoff for Bert and tribute to Robert Morse's Broadway career, chiefly his leading role in ''HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'']].

** Peggy. She even gets the idea that she isn't attractive, not helping are Joan's insults on her looks and fashion sense or when the guys make jokes about her being a "Gertrude Stein" as opposed to a "Jackie or [[MarilynMonroe Marilyn]]". Yet given that she's played by ElisabethMoss, it's been lampshaded on the show that the idea of her being unattractive is insane and can be attributed to the Men wrapping their heads around the idea that a woman can be beautiful and intellectual along with misogyny. Don ("You're an attractive girl Peggy" and once compared her to Creator/IreneDunne), a suspicious Bobbie ("You're so young and beautiful"), even Joan (admits she has darling ankles and laments her "hiding a very attractive girl under a lot of lunch"), Stan ("You have a nice ass"), and Mathis ("You know you're a catch right?") have commented on how pretty she is.

** Peggy Olson has found plenty of fans that relate to her, thanks to Elisbeth Moss's work on making Peggy an Everywoman figure and for her CharacterDevelopment; in fact ''The New Yorker'' proclaimed that [[http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1668387/thumbs/o-ELISABETH-570.jpg?1 "ElisabethMoss Has Been the star of ''Mad Men'' All Along: She Just Didn't Know It"]].

** Don himself. While he has been acclaimed as a well-realized and complex character, there's contention as to whether his deep character flaws affect the audience's ability to be invested in him. Many argue that his complexity makes him an interesting character you can be invested in even if you disagree with his decisions and find him to be a bad person, others find him so horrible that they simply can't care about what happens to him.

** Peggy. She even gets the idea that she isn't attractive, not helping are Joan's insults on her looks and fashion sense or when the guys make jokes about her being a "Gertrude Stein" as opposed to a "Jackie or [[MarilynMonroe Marilyn]]". Yet given that she's played by ElisabethMoss, it's been lampshaded on the show that the idea of her being unattractive is insane and can be attributed to the Men wrapping their heads around the idea that a woman can be beautiful and intellectual along with misogyny. Don ("You're an attractive girl Peggy" and once compared her to [[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=667&q=Irene+dunne&oq=Irene+dunne&gs_l=img.3..0l10.34.3500.0.3632.20.15.1.1.1.0.299.1479.0j8j1.9.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..9.11.1486.7zROgfZs7eQ#imgrc=euikCY7wS78arM%253A%3B8R5MmDVCLounTM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fia.media-imdb.com%252Fimages%252FM%252FMV5BMzA1NTg0NzU2MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjU5OTU2._V1_SY317_CR21%252C0%252C214%252C317_AL_.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.imdb.com%252Fname%252Fnm0002050%252F%3B214%3B317 Irene Dunne]]), a suspicious Bobbie ("You're so young and beautiful"), even Joan (admits she has darling ankles and laments her "hiding a very attractive girl under a lot of lunch"), Stan ("You have a nice ass"), and Mathis ("You know you're a catch right?") have commented on how pretty she is.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Camille Paglia's beef with the first season of the show--namely, that it's tainted by the self-righteous wisdom of "hindsight":

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Betty a paranoid, spoiled, and selfish bully? Or is she a victim of the times and years of psychological abuse from her parents and Don? Quite possibly [[JerkassWoobie both at the same time]], but good luck getting two fans to agree.

* JerkassWoobie: Don. Both sides of the trope expand as the series goes on.