-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mad Men - Season 7, Part 2 - The End of an Era - AMC Sundays
- Thread starter Cornballer
- Start date
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Yeah. Like a perfect ending.
Mad Men has always been a Great American Novel, and the best, while not ending in some big climax scene, all end with a perfect line that, in a very real way, are the best part of the book and what the entire narrative has been driving to.
It's very clear that this is what the commercial was for this particular novel. And it was perfect. Pop open your copies of The Corrections or Infinite Jest and read those last few lines again and think about how endings should work.
Go ahead. You'll see. This was perfect. This was a novel not some dumb ass movie.
StriKeVillain
Banned
RoryDropkick
Member
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
I mean i liked where Peggy ended up, just not sure about how Weiner took us there.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
There's also a great little moment in the first scene of the episode where Don notices a song on the radio and hears a kchoo of a can being opened.
I suppose that ending could be read two ways. One, the optimistic reading, says that he found happiness and went home and made that ad. The other, that it's just another Don Draper move: he found "happiness," but couldn't resist his urge to cheapen it and sell it. At heart, he's an ad man.
I like the former more, though.
I like the former more, though.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Don sheds everything admits everything, gets trapped in a place where he has to deal with it (and can), perfect.
Mrs. Mouse has been shipping Peggy/Stan for a long time, so she's satisfied. When Peggy met Stannie?
Mrs. Mouse has been shipping Peggy/Stan for a long time, so she's satisfied. When Peggy met Stannie?
CharminUltra
Member
Mad Men is still my fourth or fifth favorite show of all time thanks to S1-S4, but yeah, this finale was just ok.
The Coke commercial was brilliant, though.
The Coke commercial was brilliant, though.
Inferno313
Banned
So is the suggestion that Peggy did or didn't go with Joan? Was that supposed to be her resignation letter she was typing in her final shot? Or some copy?
Two weeks ago, he even kissed him goodbye I think!
Frustrated_me
Member
I love endings like this, so so good. I like to think Don went back and fucking killed it with the ad, that's how I see it.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
It was in the bar when Roger remarked about Don being ok and the ups and downs of there relationship
We still got two Hammy moments with Betty and Peggy on the phone.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
I love the ending because they both work. If you look through the whole life of the show, there's always been a war between art and commerce. Remember Abe's "Nuremberg" essay he wrote for Peggy?
World SkiFree
Member
Agreed. Still unpacking the episode, but I'll stick to my claim of great ending and Roger being awesome in every scene. Rest may have been a bit meh, particularly with Joan and Peggy. Seemed a bit abrupt, like out the season finale handbook.
Really enjoyed Season 7 - both of them!
sooperkool
Member
Most likely the scripts for Joan. Remember Stan's whole message to her was about being happy at being good at her job and not having to prove anything. Add to the fact that joan has no partner at "H&H" and well it fits.
Didn't. When Joan picked up the phone, she said "Holloway/Harris", which are both her names.
The Outsider
Member
That finale was not at all what I expected.
Which is why I love this show so damn much.
I've said it for years, and tonight only reinforces my belief that this is the best television show I've ever watched.
Thanks for everything, Weiner and company. Can't wait to do a series rewatch from beginning to end sometime down the road.
Which is why I love this show so damn much.
I've said it for years, and tonight only reinforces my belief that this is the best television show I've ever watched.
Thanks for everything, Weiner and company. Can't wait to do a series rewatch from beginning to end sometime down the road.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8589783/mad-men-finale-predictions
Somebody got it right or they got an advance viewing
Somebody got it right or they got an advance viewing
True but I thought I remember one of AMC's teasers being what will the last meeting between them be like?
World SkiFree
Member
As I mentioned earlier, I'm with the latter. You provide a great breakdown of both interpretations. But c'mon, the ad man angle is much more clever and interesting!
I think one of Don's biggest flaws was that for all his talent at creating ads that really connected with people deep down he could never actually identify his own true feelings/fears and express them. And this nobody did that for him, he put into words something Don spent most of his life struggling with and finally let him face it. I like that it was someone else and not him. It would have felt weird for him to just understand it on his own. This was something he shared with another person, he connected with him on a fundamental level. Which leads perfectly to the Coke commercial.
Their last scene together a couple weeks back was incredible so it's alright. I was wishing for some more though.
I also love how people in this thread were speculating what iconic song the series was gonna close on, and it occurred to no one that it would actually close on an iconic ad
lol. yeah, I guess obvious in hindsight.
honestly if the show had just ended on the meditation I would have been, well, 'ok'. Just the jump to the ad made it absolutely perfect.
That smile went from 'found some peace' to 'found some peace and THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT AD'.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/04/did-do...c-buy-the-world-a-coke-television-commercial/
Even further back right predictions
Even further back right predictions
Yeah, I noticed that too.
Frustrated_me
Member
Confirmed. Holy shit.
Yes, I noticed this when I watched the ad again! Liking the ending a lot more after thinking about it
shadyspace
Banned
So there are two ways this went: Either Don went back to McCann and inadvertandly ended the countercultural movement of the 60s by shrewdly using his experience in an situation awash with the countercultural movement to turn it into a packaged commodity that could be safely co-opted by the mainstream. OR he embraced the counterculture only to ironically have his life's work put an end to it.
Hilarious!
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Also incredible about the ending, it casts the actual AD in a realer light. As a kid I always imagined it as a really sweet sentiment, naturally, because that's the feeling it was SUPPOSED to give me. Now I realize it was just coopting that sentiment to sell sodey pop.
Person to Person, guys. Communication.
Fucking brilliant television.
Person to Person, guys. Communication.
Fucking brilliant television.
I just realized, I don't think we ever saw or heard from Dawn again after they found out McCann was absorbing SC&P. That's pretty disappointing, she was one of my favorite smaller characters....I was really happy for her when she took over Joan's job last year. Strange, we saw most of the other employees at least get a parting moment.
Did I miss one for her? Don't think so.
Did I miss one for her? Don't think so.
I'm with ya.
slightconfuse
Banned
Coke is the thing you always take out of the fridge. Never ignored
sooperkool
Member
She basically mentioned that she wasn't going to McCann
Didn't she say she was going to work at a travel company or something when she was talking to Roger a few episodes ago?
She had the scene with Roger where she quit. Do you mean other than that?
shadyspace
Banned
Yeah. This ending was cynical as hell. It was Don single handedly ending the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s.
That was Shirley
NYR
Member
Preach.