Don Draper's Season Five? Fan Fiction Goes Mad!

Mad Men is currently mired in contractual disputes between its network, AMC, and its production company, Lionsgate — only Matthew Weiner knows what'll happen next! Some fans are rewatching their show DVDs, some are plotting blood feuds against the critic Daniel Mendelsohn, who called the show a faux-highbrow soap opera, and some are writing their own plotlines. "Fan fiction" is not a new phenomenon, but Mad Men's melodramatic nature (okay, we admit it, Mr. Mendelsohn!) gives fans plenty to work with when they're creating fake plots: invented characters, romances, and hyper-emotional short scenes, all in another universe apart from the seasons-long context the series provides. Clicking through a fan fiction forum for the show kind of an alternate-world fifth season of Mad Men, one of constant moments of high dudgeon with no lulls in the action.

Here, the best fan fiction about the characters — but not the exact situations — of Mad Men.

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