Mad Men: Final Season

[cross22]



Same here. I thought Betty was tied up pretty nice, was not expecting to see any more of her.

Interesting season so far. Slow start, but picking up nicely.

Peggy looked baws in that last scene, uber mod cool. Very interesting juxtaposition to her drunken teenager Alice In Wonderland roller-skating scene right before it. I wonder if people at McCann will take her seriously, I hope so. She seemed endlessly frustrated at SC&P, bur that may just be her nature.

I like Rogers macabre yet silly despair, its suits him. Wonder how he will play at the new gig. My guess it depends solely on how important they allow him to be, or allow him to think he is.

New Pete is a big improvement. Finding less and less reasons to dislike him by the episode. I think I almost like him actually.

Joans story irks me. Were the times we are looking at here really such that she could not say to the guy, "Hey, everyone that gets paired with me is doing nothing but trying to bone me. I have a job to do and this needs to stop."? In any case, her cashing out and finding happiness with her new man would be a satisfying end to her story for me. I think she deserves it.

Dons arch is just really really sad. His going out to seek that woman was really disheartening. His life is very cyclical though. I would bet he picks himself up. Iirc, in the past his initial response to adversity is to run away from it/drink himself into a stupor/avoid it, and then after time he mans up and uses his skills to actually rise to the occasion. He went from being king of the hill at SC&P to just another suit and McCann, and that sucked for him. Not to mention being called a white whale, like he was just another notch on a fat mans belt.

I would guess that this wayward journey of his leads him to some kind of epiphany that allows him to separate himself from the sea of "Don Drapers" at McAnn and rise up to be a boss again. Or it leads him to decide his whole life is crap and he escapes to some lackadaisical life. I dont really see him reinventing in a new career in a serious way. The issue I have with the latter is that he is not really the type to spend decades sitting on his butt drinking margaritas on the beach. Id lay bets at 88% the former 12% the latter.

I personally thought the end to The Sopranos was superb. Shows like Breaking Bad have a tight story that needs to be wrapped up. I mean, the entirety of 6 seasons took of what, like a year of time in Walters White life or less? The Sopranos was merely a snapshot of a decade in the life of a mob boss and his family (mafia family and actual family). There was no reason, in my opinion, that a clear ending had to be written. His life will continue on the way it had before the show started and the way it had during the show. He may die at any moment or he may live to be 80 like his uncle, either is just as likely. I did not think they had to end it, and serve it up on a platter for the audience. That would have been almost patronizing for me. Mad Mad is closer to The Sopranos for me, though it takes up a larger block of the characters lives. Im not sure I really need a very definitive end to all the characters and their stories. Just a nod in a general direction, leaving up to the imagination how exactly things end.

Sidebar, the Miller guy was a total tool bag and I saw no skill in his presentation. Just a Princeton guy that knew that everyone in the room had to lick his butt.

Lol stitchy. Tony was killed at the end...

 

[in stitches]

WAS NOT!

 

[grundletaint]

Well then.

 

[DocHolliday]

Remember how incredulous Don was when Peggy told him that she wanted to create something of lasting value? In advertising?

The Coke commercial was a real-world intersection far better and smarter than the goofy D.B. Cooper business. Perfect mix of answers and ambiguity.

 

[in stitches]

Even if that was genius, and Im really not sold it was, it does not make up for an almost entirely lackluster final season imo.

 

[DocHolliday]

Honestly, I thought they were going out on the shot of Don's face, with the smile suggesting Dick Whitman had found some small measure of peace in his spiritual home of California. That would have been a huge disappointment. But to subvert that kumbayah moment and connect it to a pinnacle of advertising, to an ad with as much lasting influence, emotional resonance and financial success as any, that's sharp. It's both crass and beautiful, like the best advertising. And it suggests that Dick Whitman really was Don Draper, without making it explicit. In the end, it all led up to a Coke commercial. Ha!

The trouble with structuring the episode in such fashion, of course, is that many people will have decided how they feel about it before they get to the punchline.

 

[DocHolliday]

Oh yeah, the knowing bit about Stan and Peggy's phone calls was also nifty. Fan service, sure, but I, like Don, appreciate a proper servicing.

 

[LawrenceMD]

Y'all acting like Betty draper Francis when her son traded her sandwich for a bag of candy.

 

[jcmeyer]

^ haha, nice scene choice

I thought it was a fine enough ending. It moved everyone down their path and I definitely agree that Don went back and made the Coke commercial. Also agree that the fridge monologue (though well written) and the man hug did come off a bit awkward... but instead of talking, for once, Don spent nearly the entire episode having to listen with little control over any of the events unfolding around him: couldn't get a ride, was told to listen by Sally, had to listen to Betty (great phone scene) and generally wasn't the one taking center stage anymore - literally he didn't sit in the "hot seat."

They gave the rumor mill a nice shout out when he made the Peggy call and sounded like he was on the edge, but that wouldn't have been fitting at all.

Bedtime now, but personally I wasn't disappointed. Either way, if you saw Game of Thrones tonight as well, we got the phrase "Cock Merchant" added to our lives, so pretty much nothing could spoil that.

 

[RedLantern]

Happy with the Joan, Pete, Peggy, Roger, endings. I kind of like where they were going with Don's ending, but would have liked a little more out of it. C'est la vie.

I kind of liked that Don had his emotional breakthrough by listening to and comparing himself with someone else, rather than a personal exposition. I see Don hugging the guy as more of a thank you than to be supportive. I think Don realized how important he really is to people when the guy was mentioning that nobody notices when he is gone, whereas he just got off the phone with Peggy who was furious at him for leaving and not checking in.

 

[RedLantern]



^ haha, nice scene choice

I thought it was a fine enough ending. It moved everyone down their path and I definitely agree that Don went back and made the Coke commercial. Also agree that the fridge monologue (though well written) and the man hug did come off a bit awkward... but instead of talking, for once, Don spent nearly the entire episode having to listen with little control over any of the events unfolding around him: couldn't get a ride, was told to listen by Sally, had to listen to Betty (great phone scene) and generally wasn't the one taking center stage anymore - literally he didn't sit in the "hot seat."

They gave the rumor mill a nice shout out when he made the Peggy call and sounded like he was on the edge, but that wouldn't have been fitting at all.

Bedtime now, but personally I wasn't disappointed. Either way, if you saw Game of Thrones tonight as well, we got the phrase "Cock Merchant" added to our lives, so pretty much nothing could spoil that.

Agree the Betty phone call was a great scene.

 

[budapest12]

Happy with the Joan, Pete, Peggy, Roger, endings. I kind of like where they were going with Don's ending, but would have liked a little more out of it. C'est la vie.

I kind of liked that Don had his emotional breakthrough by listening to and comparing himself with someone else, rather than a personal exposition. I see Don hugging the guy as more of a thank you than to be supportive. I think Don realized how important he really is to people when the guy was mentioning that nobody notices when he is gone, whereas he just got off the phone with Peggy who was furious at him for leaving and not checking in.

Yes, absolutely. I thought Don's face lit up listening to that guy talk about how nobody cared when he was gone. Don, in turn, realized that there were people, lots of people, who did care when he was gone. This made him realize he wasn't the total failure he had just thought that he was. He could go back to NYC and be a better man, more compassionate, a real father, etc. I'm not saying this actually happens, other than that he goes back and makes a great ad (btw, perhaps he's imagining the way the bottles of Coke feel when left in the fridge unreached for). This, of course, implies that Hobart takes him back, everybody else takes him back, etc., bc he's Don Draper.

 

[Piobaire]

Stitches, Tony was whacked. That scene really left no ambiguity in the least if you know anything about how scenes are constructed. Honest.

Don's ending. No one has summarized it properly yet. The man who could not change, could not catch up with the times, finally caught up with the times and created his crowning glory of achievement. The last 3-4 seasons one of the major themes has obviously been Don was stuck in time/not changing with the times. In the very last scene we see Don engage in the ultimate of trendiness for that moment in history, and out of that, he creates his masterpiece. The smile was him coming up with the Coke idea and nothing more.

 

[RedLantern]



Stitches, Tony was whacked. That scene really left no ambiguity in the least if you know anything about how scenes are constructed. Honest.

Don's ending. No one has summarized it properly yet. The man who could not change, could not catch up with the times, finally caught up with the times and created his crowning glory of achievement. The last 3-4 seasons one of the major themes has obviously been Don was stuck in time/not changing with the times. In the very last scene we see Don engage in the ultimate of trendiness for that moment in history, and out of that, he creates his masterpiece. The smile was him coming up with the Coke idea and nothing more.

Yeah, we haven't seen Don Produce any work in a really long time, have we? I think it's pretty clear that that chime sound right at the end is a creative idea forming.

 

[RedLantern]

But also, while I do think that Don "gets his groove back", I'm not so cynical to think that he remains unchanged by his journey. I think despite him not telling his full story to the VFW guys and the way that all worked out - the fact that they were understanding and their general attitude about getting home in any way possible - gave Don some measure of absolution. I think Don's journey taught him that you can't simply pretend like the past did not happen - it will continue to weigh on you. On the other hand, he understands that it is not always possible to atone for one's mistakes, but that we can get absolution. In other words, to me, it does seem like Don has become a sort of Christian - He acknowledges that he cannot erase his sins or be free from sin, people will continue to love him despite those sins, and he can achieve grace through absolution.