Ah, yes. It’s been about a year and half since we’ve been in this situation, but now we remember: This is what it’s like to gear up for a new season of Mad Men. We scour interviews with actors and showrunners, scrutinize every set photo that leaks, and pounce on every new piece of publicity material AMC deigns to release. So, it’s time for our first major freakout of the Mad Men anticipation season: We have a teaser poster, and it is a doozy.
In a way, the image of an unidentified man in a suit falling headfirst into the air (which, unfortunately, will never not recall 9/11), is nothing new. It’s ripped from the show’s opening credits, which we’ve been watching for a good four seasons now. But it’s pretty scary that AMC is focusing on this moment in particular. If Season 4 saw Don Draper’s picture-perfect family fall apart as TV’s smoothest operator dissolved into tears in front of his underling, then what does it mean that Season 5 — which, remember, comes after he gets engaged to a beautiful, young secretary — is the one where he’s metaphorically jumping out of a building and/or floating in grayscale nothingness?
