Mad Men: The Final Season -- Part 1

The '60s-rific AMC drama that made a nation yearn for a not-so-simpler time has hit the home stretch, and the cable channel that made "Breaking Bad"'s final season into a two-part nail biter is once again spreading the last episodes of a beloved show over two years.

That's okay: A little anticipation only makes gratification that much better, and while we wait for Spring and the final seven episodes to air, the Blu-ray release of "Mad Men: The Final Season - Part 1" will help to tide us over.

The first half of the season finds Don Draper (Jon Hamm) negotiating a professional minefield, with a little help from his friend and fellow ad agency partner Roger (John Slattery). Draper is also juggling a bicoastal marriage, with second wife Megan (Jessica Par�) pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles while Don works his way back to the top in New York after his spectacular fall from grace at the end of Season Six.

Along the way, Don reestablishes his mentoring relationship with protege Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and manages relations with ex-wife Betty (January Jones) and children, especially daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka), now growing into a young woman in her own right.

"Mad Men" has always focused on the lives of people going about their ordinary business while an extraordinary era unfolds in the background. It's no different here: Vietnam rages, cultural upheavals dot the landscape, and mankind sets foot on the Moon, the latter event lending the seventh episode an air of gravity and poetry. A beloved character also dies in the seventh episode, his departure capped with the most outlandish and delightful ending any episode in the series has yet given us; we can only hope that the show's finale will be as surprising, and as moving, in its final moments.

The Blu-ray set consists of two discs, and comes complete with a cache of extras that clue in the young and refresh the memories of somewhat older viewers. Two features address the rise of the gay rights movement; a two-part featurette examines the political and social struggles that were, in some ways, embodied by "The Trial of the Chicago 8." Part One of Season Seven involves the installation of a computer in the Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce offices (and a cheeky homage to the film "2001"), which makes another extra, an "interactive timeline" called "Technology 1969," especially a prop. And that core character mentioned above? The one with the swan song in Episode 7? He gets a featurette of his own, too, titled "The Best Things in Life Are Free."

"Mad Men" has consistently provoked, teased, fascinated, shocked, and prompted laughter, dread, and nostalgia in equal parts. So far, the final season has upped the ante and, more impressively, stayed on top of the game. Fans who were out of their minds earlier this year with the first half of Season Seven will go mental all over again.

"Mad Men: The Final Season - Part 1"
Blu-ray
$39.97
http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/shop