If You've Never Seen 'Mad Men', Here Are the 10 Episodes You Need to Watch to Know It's Not "Boring"

Image via Complex Original

Lit factor: Office turn-up

The 1960 election looms in the background, but instead of being super This Show is a Period Piece™ about it, we're treated to the Sterling Cooper junior team turning up in the office while the votes rush in. Meanwhile, the season-long conflict between Don and Pete hits a boiling point. Fireworks in the penultimate episode? Standard fare as per The Sopranos, right? But the result zigzags away from the expected reaction in the most subversive way possible. It's a huge sign in the debut season that the series you're about to embark on is far from a Golden Age rulebook-following carbon copy.

Lit factor: Accidental Alcoholic Onset Public Urination; a K.O. courtesy of Don himself; two imploded marriages

Don gets kicked out by Betty about a full season before anyone thought his chickens would come home to roost, and a real-recognize-real talk with Roger inadvertently results in another marriage's end. But Don's early response to being in the dog house is a wild night that ends with him hooking off on the guy who snitched to Betty in the first place, and office lush Freddy Rumsen realizing he may have a serious problem, courtesy of a wet pair of pants.

Lit factor: See GIF

Some context: the eponymous "Guy" is a new executive actually named Guy. He's there to make some very drastic changes to Sterling Cooper and generally fuck our favorite ad men's lives up, changes that would alter the show itself. How's he going to be dealt with? Where does the show go from here? Then the lawnmower John Deere graciously sent over after signing with the company comes into play and, well...see above. How dull can a show really be when it's applying Chekhov's Gun to a fucking lawnmower, dog?

Lit factor: Domestic strife; corporate subterfuge

It's Mad Men's answer to Ocean's Eleven, except the theft revolves around employees and clients worth millions instead of...actual millions. Don and Roger's harebrained scheme to finally escape their British rule before Sterling Cooper is flipped to boring suits who'd gut their creativity is a caper in its own right. And while Don's work life heads towards a flourish, his personal takes a sharp nosedive about two seasons before anyone expected it to.

Lit factor: Covert ad men vs. ad men (plus Peggy) hijinks

​It's fun to see Don and the work squad on the offensive. Here they square up against recurring nemesis Teddy Chaough to score a prime account from Honda, although Roger's inability to let WWII bygones be bygones might squander that business for them already.

Lit factor: Office fistfight; one extended group trip to a high class whorehouse; extended co-worker home dinner scene

This has already been field-tested. I used this episode, a key phase in the sad, downward spiral ballads of both Lane Pryce and Pete Campbell to get my boy who'd been laming on the show to recognize. Fam went on to house three seasons in two weeks on Netflix. Two of the show's biggest sad sacks being pushed past their usual point of reserved behavior, anchored by a subplot from Sterling Cooper's most level-headed, well-adjusted employee (that'd be pre-eye-patch Kenny Cosgrove), plus one happily married Don Draper results in one of the most compelling episodes the show's ever had.

Lit factor: Corporate prostitution; a career-defining ad pitch

A car company is the big get, as per Mad Men mythology. Five seasons later, and the Sterling Cooper boys finally find themselves on the precipice of landing Jaguar. Car companies, also per the mythology, are also home to rich, sordid louts. The reputation is proven tenfold when a Jaguar sleaze, who holds a crucial vote in which ad company gets to be in bed with Jaguar, more than implies the easiest way to win his bid is a hand-delivered night with Joan. Don is obviously against it—he grew up in a whorehouse—but the other partners aren't so inclined to morality. Is Don nice enough to win Jaguar over with a pitch and no extra incentives? Meanwhile Peggy decides she's had enough of working under Don's bipolar reign. The stakes behind a pitch have never been higher; the ending is doubly heartbreaking, courtesy of two of the show's longest-running and fan favorite female characters. 

Lit factor: Drugs breh

This isn't even one of the show's finer hours. In fact, you're bound to see it atop more worst lists than anything else. But a weak episode of Mad Men is still worthwhile. The team takes speed at the behest of new partner Jim Cutler, and the way the resulting hijinks are filmed will make you feel like you're tripping too. Incidentally, Don gives one of his most rousing addresses to the troops, meanwhile his kids are being robbed (or meeting their grandma, who really knows in an episode this weird) and Kenny Cosgrove officially loses his inherent cool. He's succumbed his soul to the madness of Madison Avenue just like the rest of his co-workers. All it took him was six seasons.

Lit factor: Extra-marital backsliding; accidental stabbing

Peggy and her boyfriend break up in the most spectacularly violent way possible; meanwhile, circumstances force exes Don and Betty into sharing the most screen time since Season 3, a reunion you didn't even know you wanted anymore, but is oh so good. Six years in, and these characters are still interacting in exciting ways.