For those who don't find Don Draper utterly abhorrent (and I presume that speaks for the majority of the MM fans), why do you cut him any slack? Is it because you admire him for pulling himself up by his bootstraps? Or are you so mesmerized by his presence that you excuse his few (OK not so few) lapses?

I, for one, love a villain.  I find it fascinating when a character is complex enough to have more than one side.  DD has some redeeming qualities after all.  But when it comes down to it- why would anyone want to watch a show where the characters are all noble and good?  Or simplistic and one-sided?  Might as well watch a sit-com!

I agree and yes the very fact that Don became a successful people from a beginning of so much abuse and poverty speaks volumes. It only natural that he has quirks and weaknesses. He is lucky to have survived.

He's an intensely interesting character.  It's hard to predict what he will do at times, and he's woven so many lies that we're all just biting our nails, waiting for them to fall down around him.

He's an interesting case study, I would say, but not someone I would want to be involved with in real life.

We need to remember that the show is written by people who want to expose the 50's generation negative side. Madison avenue is a perfect foil for this agenda. Don is a guy who made his own success. Betty was a model right, someone hired for their looks. She was give a excellent education and like many women of her time used that to find the right catch. For me that was where society was at that time. The lawyer summed it up best...Are you afraid he will (physically) hurt you? Is he a good provider?  He may have included "Is he arm candy" (attractive).  The requirements of s good marriage in the 50's and 60's have changed greatly in todays world. But lets not kid ourselves as we watch all the fashion and celebrities act out today. We still focus on looks and money just like they did only we have a different style of doing so.

I see Don as very troubled, he is trying the best he can with what was given to him, good looks, an excellent study of what motivated people around him an skilled sensibility of how to apply these talents to impress the people he needs to impress.

Sounds like most politicians to me.

Don is a fascinating character, and not wholly evil. He's weak in one key respect in that he obviously has a tendency to fool around. That puts him with probably 50% of the married people nowadays. Now, he does it quite a bit and pretty brazenly, but still, is that necessarily evil? I don't know for sure, but it's certainly fun to watch on this show.