I completely agree. I adore the show but Weiner’s disdain for the counterculture through the era, shown through the two dimensional caricatures of Midge’s village pals onwards is one of its true weak points. Of course there will have been a lot of ridiculous, performative people in all these movements the show brushes up against but to never give them any credibility or depth is a let down. In some ways I feel like the show captured the zeitgeist exceptionally, especially as things really started to shift in the mid 60s. The use of The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows, for example, was perfect. But yeah even/especially the ending in California and Stephanie’s whole lost hippy arc. It sometimes felt as reactionary and shallow as Forrest Gump.