Mad Men

[quadcent]

great ending to a great show. yeah it had some odd or off slow points, but overall it was totally different than anything else on tv for years. I actually cried during this episode so I must say it was well done.

 

[batfan08]

I loved the finale. I can't believe how they managed to tie up so many loose ends in a single episode. I always thought that Peggy and Rizzo had great chemistry, but I never thought they'd take that anywhere, as there never seemed to be any sort of indication that they would, so, that came as a surprise. I never really cry during movies. I don't know why, but the stuff with Betty was definitely getting to me, especially watching both episodes back to back. As far as Don goes, I'm not sure how to interpret it; I definitely think that the implication is that he created the "Coke Happiness" campaign, but I think there's also something deeper to it; perhaps, a better balance between work and life? He always seemed conflicted, and we really saw that bubble to the surface when the Hershey revelation came about in Season 6; where authenticity, ultimately, won out over salesmanship.

It's fascinating to think about. This has been one of my favorite shows for over 5 years, and, now, it's over. I know a lot of people thought of the "End of An Era" stuff as marketing to cash in on Breaking Bad's success as a two-parter, but it truly does feel like the end of something. Almost like we're in the twilight of the golden age of television. There has been such a high standard, and so many incredible shows, and I feel like this stands with The Sopranos as one of those that were really at the forefront of it all. The Sopranos was the first show to really give us an idea of what was possible with premium cable, where creators were only limited by their ambition, but Mad Men really showed us that basic cable could keep up with the heavy hitters on those pay channels, and, frankly, I still think it's vastly underrated. Critics love it, but it hasn't seemed to catch on nearly as well as Breaking Bad did with general audiences, and it's one of the highest quality productions I've ever seen.

It was an amazing journey, though, with one of the most complex characters on television. I'll just be sitting here, processing it, and trying to figure out what it all means.

 

[Devil_666]

Crazy, I read an article online last week where a woman correctly guessed the ending. Not exactly, but she knew the finale scene would be that specific Coke commercial and that Don would be behind it. Great finale.

 

[toylion]

McCann-Erickson is real, and they were the company behind the Coke ad. We're deep-diving into that Coke commercial

 

[Mr. Green]

McCann-Erickson is real, and they were the company behind the Coke ad. We're deep-diving into that Coke commercial

true. Mr. Green actually wrote a Vendor web site app for McCann-Erickson that was still active a few yrs ago. not sure about now though. he also wrote a second web app to managed the first app. they're certainly a big ad company. strange how Mr. Green also did consulting for an ad company, on Park Ave Manhattan, for a short 3 weeks stunt, lol.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Crazy, I read an article online last week where a woman correctly guessed the ending.

That article from VOX smells more like a leak than a brilliant guess.

And that finale smelled like a big pile of excrement: Weener would have done better making Don into a lumberjack.

The entire 2nd half of this season (thanks, AMC) seemed like a different show composed by a brain-damaged writer.

Spoiler

Peggy sauntering into McCann like a saucy hipster dude? Utterly out of character.

Joan's going to have great success in her solo business when every episode shows her colliding with entrenched sexism?
Why would her future be any different?

Peggy and Beard-boy declare phone-love in a scene that's cheesy even by rom-com standards?
I expected to see them running hand-in-hand through sunshine in slow motion.
That was just tired, cliched writing pushing for some forced closure.

Vile Pete is now a jet-setter with his coont wife? What happened to his character's arc?

Speaking of which: Don Draper pulls a Kerouac, gets beaten with a phone book, races on saltflats, has his testicles removed by new age flakes in Big Sur, and achieves an instant catharsis by tearfully hugging a nebbish? WTF? Did I miss the lumberjack scene?

Mad Men was best when it dealt with the office, not aping Route 66. The road trip seemed foreign. And WTF would Don be doing in Bumfark, Oklahoma a second longer than it took to fix his car? Then racing cars? Esalen? Don becoming a charter member of the men's movement? The entire second half-season (way to go, AMC) was exceptionally tangential and boring.

Oh, and I get the "brilliant" dark irony of the Coke ad: what better ad for Don, a fake person, to create, than one that co-opts the counterculture?
Too smug, too cute, too pedantic, and too obvious by half.
Unfortunately, I think that sums up Weener's show as a whole.

I'd like to buy the world a better finale.

____

 

[quadcent]

Hmmmm sorry you feel that way.....lol

 

[Gully Foyle]

Why? Did you write it or something? . . lol

 

[batfan08]

That article from VOX smells more like a leak than a brilliant guess.

And that finale smelled like a big pile of excrement: Weener would have done better making Don into a lumberjack.

The entire 2nd half of this season (thanks, AMC) seemed like a different show composed by a brain-damaged writer.

Spoiler

Peggy sauntering into McCann like a saucy hipster dude? Utterly out of character.

Joan's going to have great success in her solo business when every episode shows her colliding with entrenched sexism?
Why would her future be any different?

Peggy and Beard-boy declare phone-love in a scene that's cheesy even by rom-com standards?
I expected to see them running hand-in-hand through sunshine in slow motion.
That was just tired, cliched writing pushing for some forced closure.

Vile Pete is now a jet-setter with his coont wife? What happened to his character's arc?

Speaking of which: Don Draper pulls a Kerouac, gets beaten with a phone book, races on saltflats, has his testicles removed by new age flakes in Big Sur, and achieves an instant catharsis by tearfully hugging a nebbish? WTF? Did I miss the lumberjack scene?

Mad Men was best when it dealt with the office, not aping Route 66. The road trip seemed foreign. And WTF would Don be doing in Bumfark, Oklahoma a second longer than it took to fix his car? Then racing cars? Esalen? Don becoming a charter member of the men's movement? The entire second half-season (way to go, AMC) was exceptionally tangential and boring.

Oh, and I get the "brilliant" dark irony of the Coke ad: what better ad for Don, a fake person, to create, than one that co-opts the counterculture?
Too smug, too cute, too pedantic, and too obvious by half.
Unfortunately, I think that sums up Weener's show as a whole.

I'd like to buy the world a better finale.

____

I've been thinking about the end a lot, and, honestly, I don't see it that way, at all. One of the best moments in Season 6 was that glimpse of authenticity, when he tells the truth to Hershey's and his kids, and, suddenly, the people in his life get a glimpse of the man behind the stoic Don Draper, and I think that his arc in Season 6, ultimately, was their way of following through on that. Don wanted to find his true self, and I think that's what it was all about. He reached a moment of clarity, where he could better balance the authenticity with the job, and it, ultimately, provided him with his defining work.

 

[The Iron Koob]

I've been thinking about the end a lot, and, honestly, I don't see it that way, at all. One of the best moments in Season 6 was that glimpse of authenticity, when he tells the truth to Hershey's and his kids, and, suddenly, the people in his life get a glimpse of the man behind the stoic Don Draper, and I think that his arc in Season 6, ultimately, was their way of following through on that. Don wanted to find his true self, and I think that's what it was all about. He reached a moment of clarity, where he could better balance the authenticity with the job, and it, ultimately, provided him with his defining work.

This is what I don't seem to understand. He made the ad, but how did that solve all of his other problems? He basically has no wife, no kids, no friends besides peggy and maybe roger so no family at all really. He cried with that guy who didn't have a connection with his family. I thought he was going to go try and redeem himself with his family and start new but instead he went and made another ad. Am I missing something here?

 

[The Iron Koob]

That article from VOX smells more like a leak than a brilliant guess.

And that finale smelled like a big pile of excrement: Weener would have done better making Don into a lumberjack.

The entire 2nd half of this season (thanks, AMC) seemed like a different show composed by a brain-damaged writer.

Spoiler

Peggy sauntering into McCann like a saucy hipster dude? Utterly out of character.

Joan's going to have great success in her solo business when every episode shows her colliding with entrenched sexism?
Why would her future be any different?

Peggy and Beard-boy declare phone-love in a scene that's cheesy even by rom-com standards?
I expected to see them running hand-in-hand through sunshine in slow motion.
That was just tired, cliched writing pushing for some forced closure.

Vile Pete is now a jet-setter with his coont wife? What happened to his character's arc?

Speaking of which: Don Draper pulls a Kerouac, gets beaten with a phone book, races on saltflats, has his testicles removed by new age flakes in Big Sur, and achieves an instant catharsis by tearfully hugging a nebbish? WTF? Did I miss the lumberjack scene?

Mad Men was best when it dealt with the office, not aping Route 66. The road trip seemed foreign. And WTF would Don be doing in Bumfark, Oklahoma a second longer than it took to fix his car? Then racing cars? Esalen? Don becoming a charter member of the men's movement? The entire second half-season (way to go, AMC) was exceptionally tangential and boring.

Oh, and I get the "brilliant" dark irony of the Coke ad: what better ad for Don, a fake person, to create, than one that co-opts the counterculture?
Too smug, too cute, too pedantic, and too obvious by half.
Unfortunately, I think that sums up Weener's show as a whole.

I'd like to buy the world a better finale.

____

I have to agree with most of what is said here. The season had plenty of bright spots but overall it left me scratching my head at what they were doing and a lot of it didn't pay off imo (waitress, don's adventures, peggy's love, joan's choices, etc.) This show always felt very real to me and aside from Betty's story, this past season was like watching a different show.

 

[batfan08]

This is what I don't seem to understand. He made the ad, but how did that solve all of his other problems? He basically has no wife, no kids, no friends besides peggy and maybe roger so no family at all really. He cried with that guy who didn't have a connection with his family. I thought he was going to go try and redeem himself with his family and start new but instead he went and made another ad. Am I missing something here?

I think that's where the self-realization comes into play. It didn't solve any of those other problems, but he was able to reconcile the fact that his purpose was in advertising. He was never a good husband or a good father, but he was a damn good ad man. I think that's what it was all about; that people can't have it all. You see Roger and Pete, and then you look at Don and Joan, and they're like two sides of the same coin.

There was an excellent Q&A that Jon Hamm did for the New York Times, where he describes how he interpreted it all. I recommend it.


Jon Hamm Talks About the ‘Mad Men’ Series Finale - NYTimes.com

 

[abake]

Nice read, thanks!

At first I didn't quite make the connection that Don had made the ad, but rather thought it was a more generalised commentary on how advertising can sometimes capture the zeitgeist so well. But as soon as I read some comment on it (Don making the ad), it made immediate sense.
I think Don found some sort of peace and that gave him his mojo back.
The bit where the "invisible guy" says that maybe all this people are giving him love, but he doesn't understand/see it, is the part that made Don realise that he's been loved all along, but he just couldn't see it due to his own insecurities, and that's why he kept moving from one thing to the next.
Now he's finally able to see how he has been loved, and can go back "home". To advertising.

I liked the finale.

 

[LIBBY1957DOG]

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's... Don Draper?: The Parallels Between 'Mad Men' & Superman - Spinoff Online - TV, Film, and Entertainment News DailySpinoff Online – TV, Film, and Entertainment News Daily

 

[MeatHook]

Pete, Peggy, Joan and Roger all pretty much got their happy endings. The writers did Betty wrong

Functionally, this is part of the problem I had with the last few seasons and the finale.

These are all horrible people. I mean truly despicable people. While they might be interesting characters, I feel they got happy "endings" for purely fan service.

Pete is a rapist. He raped that neighbors maid in the 2nd season. He cheated on his wife multiple times, even setting up an apartment to bang other chicks. He cheated with Peggy and had a child with a woman who was not his wife. He slept with the mentally ill wife of a guy he knew. He tried to blackmail Don in the early part of the show. So he gets a happy ending cashing in for millions and getting his wife back and jet setting around the country?

A rapist doesn't deserve a happy ending, he deserves, IMHO, a bullet in the head.

Joan is a whore with a giant vindictive streak. She is beyond cruel to Peggy in the beginning. ( i.e put a bag over your head and look at yourself naked and assess your strengths) Her ex BF, the future crazy Krishna, has a black gf and Joan belittles him and her just because she can. She gets married, not because she loves the guy, but because he fits the profile of the "ideal guy" then she cheats on him. Then has a baby with Roger and has the husband think that it's his. But there's a throwaway line that the exhusband abandoned the kid anyway, so I guess that makes it ok. And she slept with a guy to get a partnership. Not to mention all the years of sleeping with Roger, a married man. The only reason they don't show her being more mean and more cruel to people is she interacts with people on the show that she simply cannot be mean to and vicious to all the time. The only guy she's nice to? The nutjob Bob Benson.

Joan is a whore and a cheap lousy human being. She doesn't deserve a happy ending in some bizarre feminist spin on empowerment. She also deserves a bullet in the back of the head.

Peggy, you start by feeling bad for her. Shes not from a powerful family or money and she doesn't have the looks to get by just on that. She has to bleed and sweat for everything. Then she sleeps with a married man, Pete, has a kid with him, then throws that in his face at the right time for vindication. She's generally cruel to her other boyfriends. Then she sleeps with Ted, angry that he won't leave his wife and kids for her. While there are a ton of elements of Peggy that are sympathetic, she's also a cheap worthless whore.

She gets a bizarre send off with a work boyfriend because Weiner wants a happy ending for her. In my book, she's a homewrecking whore who resents the currency of looks in the world.

Roger rides the coattails of his dad, coasts, cheats on his wives. Is a drunk. Seems to be a lousy dad, a lousy boss and a lousy friend ( nice job hitting on Don's wife at dinner) Strings Joan along, even if she is a worthless whore.

Roger IMHO is a smug self centered POS.

And our beloved Don. Lousy dad, flaky albeit brillant adman, cheating husband. In the first season was willing to leave his wife and kids for Rachel Menken. Turned his back on his real brother. Stole another person's name. Hired hookers. Was a drunk. Took another guys name to run from his duty in the war.

But I guess it mirrors real life. It's clearly more important to be good looking wealthy and popular than to be decent in any way.

The first three or four seasons, it was such a well written, interesting and thought provoking show. Then it just ended up looking like a milk job for more money for Weiner.

The last few seasons of this show reminds me to better appreciate The Shield and Breaking Bad and The Wire, at least those shows, the people paid for the things they did. They were forced to face their choices and didn't get a sweetheart ending just because a character was popular.

Seeing Pete Campbell cash in his millions and get his wife's forgiveness to live a life of travel and luxury all while being rapist is totally repugnant.

The Betty storyline and the cancer just seemed like a giant middle finger from Weiner to all the fans who hated her guts the first three seasons.

A better ending would have been Sal coming back with a shotgun, clearing out the office Rambo style then throwing Don out of a high rise window.

I don't expect all characters on TV to be perfect, but there's a point where you take a character and strip off every last piece of redeeming possibility and there's no where left to take that character that's interesting. This wasn't as horrible as the ending's of Dexter and Entourage, but it does stink of a outright cheap money grab to coast for a few seasons.

 

[quadcent]

 

[MegaPrime33]

I would have put money down that the majority of the cast, especially Don, would have just died. Or that this whole story was an advertisement pitch to a company done by the guy who Don took the identity of. That would have been awesome.

 

[abake]

Functionally, this is part of the problem I had with the last few seasons and the finale.

These are all horrible people. I mean truly despicable people. While they might be interesting characters, I feel they got happy "endings" for purely fan service.

Pete is a rapist. He raped that neighbors maid in the 2nd season. He cheated on his wife multiple times, even setting up an apartment to bang other chicks. He cheated with Peggy and had a child with a woman who was not his wife. He slept with the mentally ill wife of a guy he knew. He tried to blackmail Don in the early part of the show. So he gets a happy ending cashing in for millions and getting his wife back and jet setting around the country?

A rapist doesn't deserve a happy ending, he deserves, IMHO, a bullet in the head.

Joan is a whore with a giant vindictive streak. She is beyond cruel to Peggy in the beginning. ( i.e put a bag over your head and look at yourself naked and assess your strengths) Her ex BF, the future crazy Krishna, has a black gf and Joan belittles him and her just because she can. She gets married, not because she loves the guy, but because he fits the profile of the "ideal guy" then she cheats on him. Then has a baby with Roger and has the husband think that it's his. But there's a throwaway line that the exhusband abandoned the kid anyway, so I guess that makes it ok. And she slept with a guy to get a partnership. Not to mention all the years of sleeping with Roger, a married man. The only reason they don't show her being more mean and more cruel to people is she interacts with people on the show that she simply cannot be mean to and vicious to all the time. The only guy she's nice to? The nutjob Bob Benson.

Joan is a whore and a cheap lousy human being. She doesn't deserve a happy ending in some bizarre feminist spin on empowerment. She also deserves a bullet in the back of the head.

Peggy, you start by feeling bad for her. Shes not from a powerful family or money and she doesn't have the looks to get by just on that. She has to bleed and sweat for everything. Then she sleeps with a married man, Pete, has a kid with him, then throws that in his face at the right time for vindication. She's generally cruel to her other boyfriends. Then she sleeps with Ted, angry that he won't leave his wife and kids for her. While there are a ton of elements of Peggy that are sympathetic, she's also a cheap worthless whore.

She gets a bizarre send off with a work boyfriend because Weiner wants a happy ending for her. In my book, she's a homewrecking whore who resents the currency of looks in the world.

Roger rides the coattails of his dad, coasts, cheats on his wives. Is a drunk. Seems to be a lousy dad, a lousy boss and a lousy friend ( nice job hitting on Don's wife at dinner) Strings Joan along, even if she is a worthless whore.

Roger IMHO is a smug self centered POS.

And our beloved Don. Lousy dad, flaky albeit brillant adman, cheating husband. In the first season was willing to leave his wife and kids for Rachel Menken. Turned his back on his real brother. Stole another person's name. Hired hookers. Was a drunk. Took another guys name to run from his duty in the war.

But I guess it mirrors real life. It's clearly more important to be good looking wealthy and popular than to be decent in any way.

The first three or four seasons, it was such a well written, interesting and thought provoking show. Then it just ended up looking like a milk job for more money for Weiner.

The last few seasons of this show reminds me to better appreciate The Shield and Breaking Bad and The Wire, at least those shows, the people paid for the things they did. They were forced to face their choices and didn't get a sweetheart ending just because a character was popular.

Seeing Pete Campbell cash in his millions and get his wife's forgiveness to live a life of travel and luxury all while being rapist is totally repugnant.

The Betty storyline and the cancer just seemed like a giant middle finger from Weiner to all the fans who hated her guts the first three seasons.

A better ending would have been Sal coming back with a shotgun, clearing out the office Rambo style then throwing Don out of a high rise window.

I don't expect all characters on TV to be perfect, but there's a point where you take a character and strip off every last piece of redeeming possibility and there's no where left to take that character that's interesting. This wasn't as horrible as the ending's of Dexter and Entourage, but it does stink of a outright cheap money grab to coast for a few seasons.

While I understand where you're coming from, I find it refreshing that this show was no morality play. It wasn't about what people deserve, but rather about how horrible people can be and still function in society, and sometimes even get rewarded.

 

[Gully Foyle]

I feel they got happy "endings" for purely fan service.

This line describes the finale of this show quite succinctly.

Call it fan service.
Call it lazy writing.
Call it lame.

Draper became a lumberjack.

And he now resides with the smoke monster.

Buh-bye

 

[GrueSam]

While I understand where you're coming from, I find it refreshing that this show was no morality play. It wasn't about what people deserve, but rather about how horrible people can be and still function in society, and sometimes even get rewarded.

I feel that your opinion is much more realistic and how the world really works. Plus, I don't need to see justice handed out in every show I watch.
I thought it was a brilliant show, loved the subtlety of it and will miss the characters.