Mad Men: 10 Greatest Episodes

A woozily beautiful, vignetted hour details the venture to far away places that intoxication takes us. It also presents how, as social and cultural changes occur before our very eyes, the here and now can seem the furthest away place of all.

Separated into three distinct paths following first Peggy, then Roger, and finally Don and Megan, “Far Away Places” shows better than any other episode how each character is the lead in their own tales.

While most notable for Roger’s mind-bending segment in which he drops acid with his wife, leading to the peaceful dissolution of his marriage, it also features a frustrated Peggy experiencing a sobering jolt back to reality with the story of Ginsberg's concentration camp birth.

Yet the biggest come down of all is found in Don’s ill-fated trip to a roadside Howard Johnson’s chain with Megan, where a scoop of orange sherbet ignites their first volcanic fight. Little by little, the high of being in love erodes and diminishes until every argument feels like the end of the world.

Frequently skipping and jumping back in time, the hour invites favourable comparisons to Weiner’s predecessor show The Sopranos for dreamlike, experimental formats. Its structure and cinematic tricks more than pay off artistically, and it’s also not as audaciously wacky as season 6’s “The Crash”.

Season 5 had a stretch where the show was knocking it out of the park week after week, and “Far Away Places’ is one of the most memorable episodes of all.