Mad Men, Meet 2014.

As any true Mad Men maniac would know, a behind-the-scenes shot of Don and Joan graces the cover of Time magazine's April 7th issue. The cover reads, "The Last Days of Mad Men." Sad, but the article within with truly make you happy.

Media editor James Poniewozik begins with an image you don't see often, or ever. Don Draper and Jon Hamm collide, as he checks text messages on his iPhone in between takes for the fifth episode of the seventh season of Mad Men. Honestly, I still have a hard time seeing Don Jon in any role other than as the macho creative director every dude wants to be and every girl wants to...ya know.

 

I don't mind it so much when Jon plays a jerk in Bridesmaids (see here, and other Bridesmaids gifs because really what else are you doing), but I get a little aggravated when I see him in a silly sitcomish thing called Friends with Kids, available on Netflix, btw.

But besides for my gif nonsense, I really love when James Poniewozik writes, "It’s the modern equivalent of a 1960s cigarette break: women in done-up bouffants and men in chunky glasses perch on modernist furniture and inhale data. If Sterling Cooper and Partners were actually in business, this would make one hell of an ad pitch to Apple." 

And it gets better, in a Mad-Men-meets-college-course way: 

"The on-set mashup of rotary phone and smartphone doesn’t so much spoil the illusion of Mad Men as reveal what the show really is: a period piece, but one where the past haunts the present and the present haunts the past."

Think about that one.

I made a sad face when I read that Matt Weiner said, "The average person didn't go to Woodstock," because that probably means my dream of seeing Sally rebel and attend will not happen, because Weiner chooses to write a show about average people. Most people simply saw the documentary a year later. He also notes that Mad Men is about the secrets of everyday life. Poniewozik writes, "In Weiner's style of storytelling, a whisper can speak loudly." Mad Men does not have viewers coming back, season after season, because of cliffhangers and intense explosions. Matthew Weiner uses secrets, doors constantly opening and closing, but with an artful eye. 

The article also goes into the perfect props of the series, which goes to show that being painstakingly detail-oriented pays off as the show manages to be non-cliche 1960s, which is essentially the goal. 

Saddest, but truest half-sentence in the article? "...the end of Mad Men will be the end of an era." 

Photos from Time.com