Before Mad Men Leaves Netflix, Watch the Weirdest, Greatest Episode

Culture

Months stuck inside has people watching a lot of TV, including going back and watching some of the greatest series from the Golden Age of Television again (or for the first time). Mad Men, naturally, is a ripe candidate for a quarantine binge. But Netflix subscribers might want to squeeze in an extra episode or two each night: it appears that Mad Men will be leaving Netflix next month.

As with the departure of Friends, Mad Men leaving Netflix’s library has always been a possibility. Last year, Lionsgate, the studio behind the show, was publicly discussing shopping the acclaimed series to other streaming services once Netflix’s license expired in 2020. There’s been no word on where Don Draper and the gang will be headed next, and Netflix has not officially announced this is the end for Sterling Cooper. However, a look at the details section of the show’s page on Netflix reveals that its availability ends on June 10, 2020.

That means you have just under a month to watch the show. Or, at the very least, to watch the most incredible, bonkers, and arguably most divisive episode in the entire series. It’s the Season 6 episode “The Crash,” also known as the one where everyone injects amphetamines into their butts.

Mad Men was never afraid to get experimental, but “The Crash” is a fever dream disguised as prestige television. The main story follows Don and several others at the agency as they try to spend the weekend knocking out a campaign for Chevrolet. To aid them in this creative endeavor, Jim Cutler’s special doctor offers to inject everyone with a swanky new drug cocktail that will give them all “uninterrupted creative focus, energy, and confidence.” Don obliges and drops trou, partaking in a dose of high-grade speed.

Things devolve from there. Don sees phantoms from his past and gives inspirational speeches that, while emphatically delivered, are utterly meaningless. Ken Cosgrove tap dances like Fred Astaire even though he’d just recently shattered his ankle in a surreal car crash that opened the episode. Stan volunteers to be a human dartboard—and gets a predictable injury as a result. It’s the perfect example of what to expect from a Mad Men episode, and also its perfect antithesis.

[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6nDsLx98SI]

When “The Crash” first aired in 2013, viewers and critics were split on it. This was back when TV recaps were still a big thing, and I distinctly remember reading two takes that opened with the sentence, “What the [expletive] was that?” The consensus seems to have gotten a little kinder to “The Crash” since, but for me, nothing else beats it. “The Suitcase” might be Mad Men’s best episode, but “The Crash”—an hour about trying to work while trapped inside while everything feels manic and off—is the right episode for our times. Give it a watch before Mad Men leaves Netflix.

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