Season Analysis

Mad Men

Season 4 Analysis

Season Woke Score

3.6

out of 10

Season Overview

Season four takes place between November 1964 and October 1965. It is set at the new and considerably more modern advertising agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The main narrative of the fourth season is driven by Don Draper's identity crisis. As Don falls deeper into existential despair, he begins regularly meeting with women of loose moral character and faces debilitating alcoholism.

Season Review

Season 4 of Mad Men remains firmly rooted in historical realism rather than modern social engineering. The narrative focuses on Don Draper’s personal dissolution and the cutthroat nature of building a new agency. While the show explores the shifting social tides of the mid-1960s, it does so through a lens of period-accurate observation. Characters like Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway must navigate a world that is often indifferent to them, earning their status through persistence rather than narrative handouts. The show avoids the trap of demonizing its male leads to elevate its female ones, instead presenting a cast of deeply flawed, complex individuals struggling with the emptiness of their own success.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The show maintains a commitment to historical authenticity. The agency remains overwhelmingly white and male, reflecting the reality of 1964 Madison Avenue without forcing modern diversity quotas. Merit and office optics drive the plot, and the narrative acknowledges racial tensions as a background historical fact rather than a lecture on systemic privilege.

Oikophobia4/10

The series critiques the hollow consumerism of the American Dream but stops short of hating Western civilization. It portrays the 1960s with a mix of aesthetic appreciation and moral scrutiny. The focus is on the internal rot of individuals rather than a fundamental condemnation of the nation or its institutions.

Feminism4/10

Peggy and Joan represent the changing role of women, but they are never depicted as perfect 'Girl Bosses.' They face harsh consequences for their choices and must work within the existing system to survive. Men are shown as flawed and often decadent, but they remain competent in their fields and are not used as comedic foils.

LGBTQ+3/10

The introduction of a lesbian character in the New York art scene reflects the actual underground counterculture of the time. The show does not center 'Queer Theory' or use sexual identity to deconstruct the nuclear family. Traditional dynamics remain the standard, and alternative lifestyles are portrayed as fringe elements of the era.

Anti-Theism4/10

The season is defined by a secular, almost nihilistic atmosphere. Religion is treated as a social relic or a source of guilt for certain characters rather than a guiding light. While not overtly attacking faith, the narrative presents a spiritual vacuum where characters find no solace in traditional morality or religious institutions.