Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - How Will Mad Men Tackle the Politics and Counterculture of the Late 1960s?

Mad Men has been absent from our TV screens for a year and a half, but the universe in which it operates has reportedly progressed almost longer, culturally speaking. When the show left off, it was set amid the paradigm shift that had begun in 1963, with Don Draper—the enigmatic, problematic quasi-protagonist—as a type of sundial showing how swiftly times were changing. While the younger employees around him are malleable, growing and bending with their era, Don Draper becomes increasingly rigid, and as culture moves on, his womanizing ways become increasingly self-sabotaging until, at the end of last season, he rejects the modern woman he loves and proposes, rather out the blue, to his much-younger secretary. He is becoming a relic, particularly when put against the case of Peggy, who in past seasons emerged from her out-of-wedlock pregnancy to become a burgeoning proto-feminist and an adventurous weed smoker. He’s looking daunted and worn out, whereas Peggy’s fresh-faced combination of enthusiasm and wariness are increasingly the way of the world.

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http://www.alternet.org/story/154675/how_will_mad_men_tackle_the_politics_and_counterculture_of_the_late_1960s