Sunday, May 17, 2015

All 91 (or 89) Episodes of Mad Men (before the finale) Ranked (and also Top 100 Characters)

Well folks, here we are again. For the fifth time in the past few years, I've ranked episodes and characters from a series I love. Mad Men follows 30 Rock, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and Parks and Recreation, and was by far the most difficult list. First off, all the episodes ranked (I've put the two two-hour episodes each as one ranking spot, but counting as two episodes). Do you disagree with them? You're probably right. There's very few bad episodes of Mad Men:

Rank
Season/Episode
Total Episode
Title
1
s3e13
39
"Shut the Door. Have a Seat."
2
s4e9
48
"The Beautiful Girls"
3
s7Ae6
84
"The Strategy"
4
s1e13
13
"The Wheel"
5
s4e7
46
"The Suitcase"
6
s2e13
26
"Meditations in an Emergency"
7
s5e5
57
"Signal 30"
8
s4e13
52
"Tomorrowland"
9
s3e6
32
"Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency"
10
s2e5
18
"The New Girl"
11
s1e1
1
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
12
s7Ae7
85
"Waterloo"
13
s2e9
22
"Six Month Leave"
14
s1e12
12
"Nixon vs. Kennedy"
15
s2e6
19
"Maidenform"
16
s4e5
44
"The Chrysanthemum and the Sword"
17
s3e3
29
"My Old Kentucky Home"
18
s4e12
51
"Blowing Smoke"
19
s3e4
30
"The Arrangements"
20
s6e11
76
"Favors"
21
s2e11
24
"The Jet Set"
22-23
s6e1/2
66–67
"The Doorway"
24
s1e9
9
"Shoot"
25
s7Be4
89
"Time & Life"
26-27
s5e1/2
53–54
"A Little Kiss"
28
s6e6
71
"For Immediate Release"
29
s6e13
78
"In Care Of"
30
s4e1
40
"Public Relations"
31
s5e12
64
"Commissions and Fees"
32
s3e11
37
"The Gypsy and the Hobo"
33
s4e3
42
"The Good News"
34
s3e8
34
"Souvenir"
35
s5e6
58
"Far Away Places"
36
s1e8
8
"The Hobo Code"
37
s7Be6
91
"The Milk and Honey Route"
38
s5e7
59
"At the Codfish Ball"
39
s4e8
47
"The Summer Man"
40
s5e9
61
"Dark Shadows"
41
s1e2
2
"Ladies Room"
42
s3e1
27
"Out of Town"
43
s4e6
45
"Waldorf Stories"
44
s2e12
25
"The Mountain King"
45
s3e12
38
"The Grown-Ups"
46
s5e11
63
"The Other Woman"
47
s1e7
7
"Red in the Face"
48
s7Ae3
81
"Field Trip"
49
s4e11
50
"Chinese Wall"
50
s6e9
74
"The Better Half"
51
s3e9
35
"Wee Small Hours"
52
s4e4
43
"The Rejected"
53
s1e6
6
"Babylon"
54
s3e10
36
"The Color Blue"
55
s7Ae2
80
"A Day's Work"
56
s5e8
60
"Lady Lazarus"
57
s2e7
20
"The Gold Violin"
58
s3e5
31
"The Fog"
59
s6e12
77
"The Quality of Mercy"
60
s7Be5
90
"Lost Horizon"
61
s5e10
62
"Christmas Waltz"
62
s5e13
65
"The Phantom"
63
s6e5
70
"The Flood"
64
s7Ae4
82
"The Monolith"
65
s6e8
73
"The Crash"
66
s7Be3
88
"The Forecast"
67
s4e2
41
"Christmas Comes But Once a Year"
68
s7Ae1
79
"Time Zones"
69
s1e5
5
"5G"
70
s2e4
17
"Three Sundays"
71
s7Be1
86
"Severance"
72
s6e4
69
"To Have and to Hold"
73
s3e2
28
"Love Among the Ruins"
74
s1e10
10
"Long Weekend"
75
s2e10
23
"The Inheritance"
76
s4e10
49
"Hands and Knees"
77
s6e10
75
"A Tale of Two Cities"
78
s1e11
11
"Indian Summer"
79
s2e8
21
"A Night to Remember"
80
s3e7
33
"Seven Twenty Three"
81
s1e3
3
"Marriage of Figaro"
82
s1e4
4
"New Amsterdam"
83
s2e1
14
"For Those Who Think Young"
84
s2e2
15
"Flight 1"
85
s6e3
68
"Collaborators"
86
s5e3
55
"Tea Leaves"
87
s6e7
72
"Man with a Plan"
88
s7Ae5
83
"The Runaways"
89
s2e3
16
"The Benefactor"
90
s7Be2
87
"New Business"
91
s5e4
56
"Mystery Date"

And here are characters. The bottom of the list is generally characters that are the worst, so there are unranked characters, like Trudy's father or Megan's sister who might rank ahead of the bottom few who are notably bad:

Rank
Character
Actor
1
Peggy Olson
Elisabeth Moss
2
Sally Draper
Kiernan Shipka
3
Bert Cooper
Robert Morse
4
Joan Holloway/Harris
Christina Hendricks
5
Don Draper
Jon Hamm
6
Roger Sterling
John Slattery
7
Lane Pryce
Jared Harris
8
Sal Romano
Bryan Batt
9
Betty Draper/Francis
January Jones
10
Freddy Rumsen
Joel Murray
11
Stan Rizzo
Jay R. Ferguson
12
Ken Cosgrove
Aaron Staton
13
Pete Campbell
Vincent Kartheiser
14
Michael Ginsburg
Ben Feldman
15
Meredith
Stephanie Drake
16
Carla
Deborah Lacey
17
Anna Draper
Melinda Page Hamilton
18
Megan Calvet/Draper
Jessica Paré
19
Dawn Chambers
Teyonah Parris
20
Bob Benson
James Wolk
21
Rachel Menken/Katz
Maggie Siff
22
Conrad Hilton
Chelcie Ross
23
Trudy Campbell
Alison Brie
24
Joyce Ramsay
Zosia Mamet
25
Suzanne Farrell
Abigail Spencer
26
Ted Chaough
Kevin Rahm
27
Bobby Draper
Maxwell Huckabee, Aaron Hart, Jared Gilmore, Mason Vale Cotton
28
Adam Whitman
Jay Paulson
29
Jim Cutler
Harry Hamlin
30
Paul Kinsey
Michael Gladis
31
Eugene Hofstadt
Ryan Cutrona
32
Mona Sterling
Talia Balsam
33
Francine Hanson
Anne Dudek
34
Jane Siegel/Sterling
Peyton List
35
Burt Peterson
Michael Gaston
36
Gene Draper
Evan Londo
37
Smitty Smith
Patrick Cavanaugh
38
Kurt Smith
Edin Gali
39
John Hooker
Ryan Cartwright
40
Herman “Duck” Phillips
Mark Moses
41
Edna Keener
Patricia Bethune
42
Faye Miller
Cara Buono
43
Shirley
Sola Bamis
44
Allison
Alexa Alemanni
45
Bobbie Barrett
Melinda McGraw
46
Lois Sadler
Crista Flanagan
47
Guy MacKendrick
Jamie Thomas King
48
Stephanie Horton
Caity Lotz
49
Hollis
La Monde Byrd
50
Hildy
Julie McNiven
51
Midge Daniels
Rosemarie DeWitt
52
Lt. Don Draper
Troy Ruptash
53
Helen Bishop
Darby Stanchfield
54
Ida Blankenship
Randee Heller
55
Cynthia Cosgrove
Larisa Oleynik
56
Caroline
Beth Hall
57
St. John Powell
Charles Shaughnessy
58
Tammy Campbell
Aria Lyric Leabu
59
Toni Charles
Naturi Naughton
60
Kevin Harris
Caiden Milick
61
Frank Gleason
Craig Anton
62
Kitty Romano
Sarah Drew
63
Manolo Colon
Andres Faucher
64
Arnold Rosen
Brian Markinson
65
Joy
Laura Ramsey
66
Danny Siegel
Danny Strong
67
John Gill
Colin Hanks
68
John Mathis
Trevor Einhorn
69
Bethany Van Nuys
Anna Camp
70
Grandma Ida
Davenia McFadden
71
Brooks Stanford Hargrove
Derek Ray
72
Arthur Case
Gabriel Mann
73
Lou Avery
Allan Havey
74
Jimmy Barrett
Patrick Fischler
75
Glen Bishop
Marten Weiner
76
Anita Olson Respola
Audrey Wasilewski
77
Jennifer Crane
Laura Regan
78
Ed Baxter
Ray Wise
79
Beth Dawes
Alexis Bledel
80
Gail Holloway
Christine Estabrook
81
Lee Garner, Jr.
Darren Pettie
82
Rebecca Pryce
Embeth Davidtz
83
Bud Campbell
Rich Hutchman
84
William Hofstadt
Eric Ladin
85
Katherine Olson
Myra Turley
86
Jim Hobart
H. Richard Greene
87
Marie Calvet
Julia Ormond
88
Margaret Sterling/Hargrove
Elizabeth Rice
89
Sylvia Rosen
Linda Cardellini
90
Joey Baird
Matt Long
91
Arnold Wayne
Andy Umberger
92
Abigail Whitman
Brynn Horrocks
93
Abe Drexler
Charlie Hofheimer
94
Robert Pryce
W. Morgan Sheppard
95
Diana Baur
Elizabeth Reasor
96
Archie Whitman
Joseph Culp
97
Mac Johnson
Morgan Rusler
98
Herb Rennet
Gary Basaraba
99
Pauline Francis
Pamela Dunlap
100
Greg Harris
Samuel Page