Faking It
Mad Men’s Don Draper problem:
As the island was to “Lost,” Don Draper is to “Mad Men.” He was a great premise, a mystery we were dying to understand. But, the more the puzzle has been filled in, the more he’s begun to feel suspiciously like a symbol, a thesis title rather than a character: “Appearance Versus Reality”; “American Masculinity as Performance”; “The Links Between Prostitution, Marriage, and the Ad Game.”
I think the problem for many people is that Draper is no longer someone you can root for. It’s similar to Walter White’s arc in Breaking Bad – kind of the whole point of the show, yet out of sync with what many viewers expect of their protagonists.