Mad Men: Season 7 (AMC) (1 Viewer)

[ScottH]

I wasn't all that interested in the Peggy/Stan thing...but I get the point that it perhaps showed Peggy letting her guard down.


I thought it was interesting that Joan, wanting to have two names in her company, chose to use her ex-husband Greg's last name. You'd think that would be the last name she would want to commemorate, especially after her comment earlier in the episode about what a horrible person he is.

 

[Michael Henry]

Weird they didn't even touch on Peggy & Pet's kid...


I figured there would be SOME closure to that - she never told Pete in the series right?

 

[TravisR]

Weird they didn't even touch on Peggy & Pet's kid...


I figured there would be SOME closure to that - she never told Pete in the series right?

She told Pete years ago but I don't know if the two of them really acknowledged it after that. I think it was way back in the S2 finale set during the Cuba missile crisis.

 

[ScottH]

She also (I think) said she "gave the baby away" but it was unclear if that meant for adoption or her mother/aunt.

 

[Brandon Conway]

It was adoption. She mentions that she wasn't supposed to know where he was because that was how it worked. If it was with her family that wouldn't be the case.

 

[joshEH]

Thoughts on the post-credits scene?**

**that I totally made up in my head just now

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I found it a satisfying ending. Peggy kept emphasizing he would be welcome 'home' instantly, and why couldn't he return as a more self-realized man (which is the purpose of the Esalen Institute in Calfornia). Make more sense then him becoming Ram Dass (or D. B. Cooper). And the Institute definitely becomes his inspiration for the ad. A very cool ending.

 

[ScottH]

Someone I was talking to about the show mentioned he thought it would have been better if the final scene showed Don pitching the "I'd like to buy the world a coke" campaign to Coca Cola rather than actually showing the ad and I tend to agree. Seems a more fitting bookend for the show (and Don).

 

[Sam Favate]

I liked the finale. As someone else said somewhere, I perhaps wish it made us feel something a bit more, but I liked that while it wasn't definitive, it was not ambiguous either. We know Don went back, using his new experiences. In the end, his work is all he had - all his other relationships he abandoned. (Indeed, he was at his lowest point when Stephanie left him; as the last person who knew him as Dick Whitman, when she left, he was really all alone).


I daresay no one will ever end a show again the way the Sopranos did. And Mad Men didn't disappoint in that regard. It tied up all loose ends, giving each character a wrap up (although Peggy's felt unsatisfying). It also avoided the absurd ending by not killing off characters (I hate that).


I think Mad Men is ultimately a better show than the Sopranos, which previously is the high-water mark for television (although I'd argue The Wire is the best). But Mad Men was good from the start and it always stayed good; there was never a bad season or even a disappointing one. It remained one of the best shows on TV from the beginning to the end, and that's quite a feat.

 

[ScottH]

I've been pondering where I would put 'Mad Men' in my list of top shows, and I gotta say, I don't think I could ever put it in with the elite class. Certainly not at the level of The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or more recently shows like Fargo, Rectify or even Justified. Though obviously time will tell with those shows still on the air.


My main gripe with Mad Men has always been that I was never interested in the characters' personal lives. I loved all of the inter-office storylines and relationships. The Don & Betty stuff in the first couple seasons had me, but once they split up, it always seemed like they were just shoehorning Betty into the story, and I can't think of a character in the history of television that dragged a scene down more than Betty did these last few seasons. So while the acting and writing overall was consistently top notch, I have a really hard time considering it with the elite class of shows.

 

[Quentin]

I love that Peggy and Stan ended like a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. Weird, but sort of perfect.


I love that we got that final Peggy/Don scene and Peggy told him to "come home".


I love that Don and Betty know each other SO well that all they needed to share was raw emotion over the phone.


I love that Betty smokes her final moments away as Sally picks up the mantle of responsible adult in the family.


I love that Pete is so honest with Peggy, "No one's ever said that about me."


I love that Joan follows her heart - and her heart never needed a man, only the confidence to do what she knows she can do.


I love that Don has been seeing Coca Cola everywhere for multiple episodes now...and, it all came together as he meditated.


And, I love that Weiner has stated multiple times he would not have a "Sopranos" ending, and then he does! I think this one IS more clear than the Sopranos finale, but it still allows for us to piece things together.

 

[Quentin]

For the record, the man in the opening credits doesn't jump: he puts down his briefcase, and everything else falls around him (he falls, too). Then, the guy lands on a couch. If there is symbolism to be had, it is not suicide.

Quite right, Josh. What it turns out to symbolize is what I like to refer to as the "Don Draper cycle." He plummets to God knows what depths, drinking, screwing, cheating, running out on work, wandering, 'saving' people, you name it. And, then he lands on that sofa - groomed, confident, smoking, and delivering a pitch that blows everyone away.


He never "changed" all series long - at least not the way we expect main characters to grow and change. He's still the same Don now - writing the most iconic ad of our time and using his bizarre experiences to do it - as he was when the show began. Ultimately, it's what he's good at...and the "falling" is part of how he does it. I've been guilty myself of hoping he falls and comes out on the other side - a better person. But, that's not the character. This character is "home" pitching these ads and drawing from the dysfunctional depths to do it.

 

[Tim Gerdes]

I think it's pretty clear that it is his ad but I much prefer the idea of Don getting out of the advertising game and hopefully being a happier man. Then again, advertising is what he's great at and making one of the most recognizable ads of all time is pretty good too.

I do kind of perversely love the idea that Don thought up the Coke commercial in the TV show's fictional universe. After all of his emotional turmoil, listening to that sad "refrigerator-light" monologue and crying, Don starts to meditate to cleanse his mind.


But instead, he thinks up the most famous ad campaign for one of the world's biggest conglomerates, and sells a sugary, unhealthy drink to billions of people.


It's darkly funny, cynical, and brilliant. Don is the soulless ad-man after all. Instead of nirvana, he has advertising -- the art of manipulating people in order to get them to buy totally useless stuff.

I've seen this complaint a few times today, but I'm not sure they're mutually exclusive. Sure, you can argue that advertising is cynical and manipulative, but you could really say that about capitalism in general. To a degree, we all debase ourselves for money. Don just happens to be good at advertising. He has to do something with the rest of his life.


And we all love Peggy, right? She's good at her job. Even opted to stay with McCann rather that do something with Joan that would have allowed for more freedom, because advertising is what she does.


Not to mention, that people watched Mad Men, in part, for the pitches. There was magic in Don's Carousel pitch. Some viewers seemed to care a lot more about Don's work than his family or personal life, often lamenting that the show was boring outside of the offices of Sterling Cooper. In a way this really is Weiner's Sopranos ending. When "The Sopranos" ended, David Chase lamented the fact that for years, the audience rooted for Tony, a sociopath, but then wanted to see some cosmic justice in the end. They want to know he was dead, to see that he'd gotten his. In a way, those calling the Coke ad cynical are doing the same, as they spent seven seasons thrilled when Don was at the top of his game.


But, and for me this is personal and key, I am an alcoholic. It's evident to me that so is Don Draper. For seven years we saw a guy that drank because he couldn't stand to be in his own skin, and for whom love had been replaced with sexual encounters. He is a conventional addict. And over the last several episodes we witness him honestly start to take stock of his life, even beginning to make amends in his phone call with Peggy.


I submit Don's hug in group therapy was genuine and I believe his smile was because he had honestly reconciled himself to his past. As an alcoholic my hope for the series end was just this, that Don could find a way to live in his own head without resorting to self-destructive behavior. I believe we saw him do that.


That he happened to be good at advertising, perhaps using his experience as the basis for a new ad, doesn't negate that fact that he managed real and positive change.


I've said before both "Mad Men" and "The Sopranos" are fundamentally about the same basic theme. Can people really change? Whereas the Sopranos ending suggested a dim view, Mad Men was much more hopeful, and this makes me happy. Anyone who has struggled with addition wants to believe that they can be better. I'm gratified Matt Weiner seems to believe, like I do, that we can.

 

[Dr Griffin]

A nice wrap up , but I wanted more. I liked the way the season was going, but I think the disappiontment of the series coming to an end was too much for the decided ending.

 

[ScottH]

And, I love that Weiner has stated multiple times he would not have a "Sopranos" ending, and then he does! I think this one IS more clear than the Sopranos finale, but it still allows for us to piece things together.

I don't liken this to The Sopranos ending at all. Not even close.

 

[Tim Gerdes]

I've been guilty myself of hoping he falls and comes out on the other side - a better person. But, that's not the character. This character is "home" pitching these ads and drawing from the dysfunctional depths to do it.

As someone who thinks Don has become a better person, it's possible that his ads will just draw on different experiences.


Consider the eerie emptiness that ran through season 6's ads. A vanishing hotel guest, a ketchup ad that didn't show the product. Don's ads are always drawing on his state of mind, and the Coke ad is a pretty optimistic statement.

 

[Tim Gerdes]

I do kind of perversely love the idea that Don thought up the Coke commercial in the TV show's fictional universe. After all of his emotional turmoil, listening to that sad "refrigerator-light" monologue and crying, Don starts to meditate to cleanse his mind.

Not everybody uses TM to cleanse their minds. Check out David Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish, about meditation and creativity. It should be noted that Lynch isn't above using his creativity to sell products, directing a few commercials himself. ;-)

 

[Tim Gerdes]

I thought it was interesting that Joan, wanting to have two names in her company, chose to use her ex-husband Greg's last name. You'd think that would be the last name she would want to commemorate, especially after her comment earlier in the episode about what a horrible person he is.

Joan has continued to use Greg's name, Harris, since the divorce, which isn't unusual for a professional woman who has made a reputation using her married name. Even the company she pitched to Peggy, Harris-Olson, used her married name.

 

[Quentin]

As someone who thinks Don has become a better person, it's possible that his ads will just draw on different experiences.


Consider the eerie emptiness that ran through season 6's ads. A vanishing hotel guest, a ketchup ad that didn't show the product. Don's ads are always drawing on his state of mind, and the Coke ad is a pretty optimistic statement.

A perfectly possible reading of this finale. It is why I think it is comparable to the Sopranos ending (does Tony die or not?) - only the question shouldn't be "Did Don create the ad or not?" I think he absolutely did. But, even if he didn't, the cut away from Don's moment of zen and knowing smile to THAT ad begs the question - what is Don smiling about? Did he find happiness? Did he think of the ad? Has he grown/changed? Can he do BOTH?


Certainly, a reading that he has grown AND come up with the ad is reasonable. After all, everyone else but Betty and Sally have gotten their cake and are eating it too. So, Don could be a happy ad man now, sure. I have more of an 'in between' view: I think he will always be tortured by something and the cycle is likely to renew in a somewhat different form. He is still trying to save Stephanie up to the very end, and maybe even trying to save Sad Fridge Guy.


And, maybe...just maybe, that is how he sees his genius ads: a thing that calls out to a part of people and fills that void for them. We all need it. But everyone 'gets' it in different ways. Sad Fridge Guy and Don don't really know "what it is" or how to accept it. But, they look for it. And, Don? He provides it in the shape of iconic ads.

 

[ScottH]

Even the company she pitched to Peggy, Harris-Olson, used her married name.

Ah, good point. I think I mixed up the two and was thinking Holloway was the married name.