Mad Men · Characters Ranked
Best Mad Men Characters, Ranked by IQ Score
Matthew Weiner's 1960s Madison Avenue, the characters whose advertising-cognition drove the show. Ranked.
Mad Men's character density is the canonical late-2000s/early-2010s prestige-TV character-ensemble achievement. Matthew Weiner's commitment to letting each Sterling Cooper character (Don's brand-narrative-cognition, Peggy's emerging copywriter-cognition, Roger's WASP-institutional-cognition, Joan's gendered-organizational-cognition) operate inside the agency's institutional architecture defines the show.
Anchor picks: Don Draper, Jon Hamm's canonical 1960s-advertising-cognition character. The show won the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy four consecutive years (2008-2011).
1 titles · ranked by IQ Score
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Questions about this ranking
Who is the smartest Mad Men character?
By the TVI rubric, Don Draper anchors the cognitive register the show is built around, brand-narrative-intelligence operating at scale 1960s advertising required. The show's structural achievement is that Don's intelligence is genuine but his moral architecture is hollow, that contrast is the actual subject.
Why is Mad Men considered prestige TV?
Mad Men scores 174/200 (Masterclass tier) because Matthew Weiner's commitment to letting 1960s-Madison-Avenue cultural-cognitive material be the actual subject, and the seven-season character arcs the show committed to, defined the canonical late-2000s prestige-drama register.
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