Why we don’t love ‘Mad Men’

The last days of Don Draper have been something of a disappointment.

To say this is sacrilege, I know.

People in the church of “Mad Men” hang on every cryptic word of dialogue, decode every scene, prop, wardrobe choice, piece of background music to the point of insanity — honestly, some of these folks need a day outdoors — but all we’re really left with is the story.

And two episodes in, roughly one-third of the seven AMC has deigned in its infinite corporate wisdom to give us, Don’s not doing much.

And he’s not doing much very slowly.

Not that we were expecting “Breaking Bad,” another AMC series that celebrated its final season by dividing its episodes into two sections broadcast a year apart. But “Breaking Bad” was a thriller — viewers knew Walter White was going to get it in the end, they just didn’t know how. “Mad Men” is a character study set in the workplace.

Momentum was never its stock in trade, so trying to reposition the show at this point as “event television” hasn’t worked out. Ratings have declined from the first to the second episode. Producers should have picked up the pace.

Many of the problems stem from Don’s personality, which has been skillfully stripped down to the bone: he’s a good-looking drunk from a terrible, terrible background.

Having brought him to such a low point last season — There goes the marriage! There goes the career! — there’s no place for him to go but back up.

Is that really going to happen?

Confessing to prospective clients that he grew up in a whorehouse has made him untouchable on Madison Avenue. Having cheated on yet another wife sent the second one — the one with a job — out to California to make a living as an actress.

Though “Mad Men” contains a colorful cast of characters, the show itself is very Don-centric.AMC

If Don is going to reverse 20 years of boozing and whoring in some miraculous redemption, is it going to happen in the next five episodes?

Do people at the show think we’re going to wait until 2015 for that blessed moment?

It may be too little, too late.

Right now, Don is in limbo, and so is the show. There are telling scenes of him dressing for “work,” which means having one of the secretaries from Sterling Cooper & Partners come to his apartment and bring him coffee in a paper bag, and then him loosening his tie after she leaves.

The scenes of life at Sterling Cooper & Partners, while entertaining, seem mostly superfluous because Don is not in them. “Mad Men” is Don’s show. Not Peggy’s. Or Roger Sterling’s. Or Pete Campbell’s, hamming it up out in LA.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm) tries to re-connect with his daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka).AMC

In Don’s defense — and the show’s — he had some nice scenes with his daughter, Sally (Kiernan Shipka), trying to repair some of the damage he’s caused between them before he loses her, too.

Maybe that’s how “Mad Men” will end, with Don making amends with all the women in his life that he’s treated badly. Sweet, but not exactly event television worth stretching out over a year.