Top 10 Mad Men Characters

Here's my list:

1. Pete Campbell - Something about him is just so relatable and likable for some reason. Yes, he is selfish, morally bankrupt, entitled and Machiavellian. But he is also the most like myself and most people and I know than anyone else on the show. In the end most of us care more about our own happiness and status than being a good person, and, like Pete, most of us don't really know this and automatically frame themselves as the good guy/girl.

2. Don Draper/ Dick Whitman - Not much to say on this subject that hasn't already been said. I look at him like as a walking psychological scar, wounded extremely deeply, so he needs to develop an uncaring and simplified view of life in order to function.

3. Peggy Olson - Although her boyfriend Abe was not right about much, he was right when he said Peggy is a scared person who hides behind complacency. Timidity, fear, anxiety and self-doubt plague Peggy from beginning to end. This is no doubt brought on by being a less-than-stellar looking woman in a society that values women primarily for their looks, and being brought up in a household ruled by guilt and fear. She is the ultimate underdog.

4. Betty Hofstadt/Draper/Francis - She is heartbreakingly childlike despite being intelligent. She seems to go into each situation expecting perfection, paradise. She is the type of person who really does believe in advertising.


5. Roger Sterling - Easily the funniest character on the show. As a chain-smoker myself I can relate to him. Understandably preoccupied with death.


6. Joan Holloway/Harris - An incredibly sexy, strong woman. Intelligent, charming and ambitious. Like Peggy she is an underdog who persists despite adversity. This may be even more remarkable for Joan, because, unlike Peggy, she could pick and choose her men and basically retire to the country anytime she wanted.

7. Michael Ginsberg - His utter isolation and loneliness is something most of us can relate to. He is also extremely talented, entertaining, socially inept, and utterly insane. More pure fun than almost any other character except Roger.

8. Megan Draper/Calvet - I don't like her, but she is interesting. We are left unsure of her true motivations in her relationship with Don. Personally I think she was on some level playing Don for money the entire time, and when she got on her feet she had no more use for him. To be fair Don was worse to her than she was to him, though. Call me crazy but in the season 4 finale, when Don proposes, in the short period of hesitation before she says yes, she seems to be calculating the situation, as if she was thinking she should say no, but this guy's rich and I don't want to be a secretary for the rest of my life. This isn't that out there, given the fact that she is an actress.

9. Bertram Cooper - He is like an extremely intelligent animal, someone whose every action is calculated to preserve his own well-being and power and that of his social class. His gentle exterior and demeanor is in contradiction to his lack of humanity.

10. Lane Pryce - A man who lives his life in constant fear and inferiority. He lacks the power and charm of his other partners and he knows it. Basically a whipping boy for everyone he was ever worked with. His suicide was devastating.