Mad Men (Read 5,075 times)

[wendylou]

Kpatch - it's here! Are you ready? I am excited to see how this all wraps up but I will definitely miss this show every Sunday night. I really think it's one of the best show of all time. I have been checking AMC every once in a while during this marathon and watching if it's on a part a really liked. One morning before work they were showing the episode where Don pitched that Kodak carousel. That was so long ago I'd forgotten it. It really was so good and one of Don's shining moments as an ad man. I loved it.

[Kpatch]

wendylou, I've been watching much of the weekend. I can't look away. I am going to have such withdrawal after today! The series took a huge downturn once Don and Megan became a couple. The series was so much better before that.

The carousel pitch was amazing! I didn't remember that at all where Don showed pictures of his own family. It was beautiful.

[Kpatch]

wendylou! You got your wish! Peggy & Stan!

[wendylou]

I know! That was definitely my favorite thing about the finale. I loved it when he told her that every time he was with her he wanted to strangle her or something but he alway wants to be with her anyway. Yay!
I did kind of want her to go into business with Joan though. I was hoping that after she and Stan said they loved each other she might reconsider. Who knows? I'm still glad Joan is doing that though.
What did you think about Don? I kind of feel like he will eventually get back to his kids but he is going to stay at that retreat and actually heal first. It was kind of funny to see him meditating but that smile at the end said to me he is going to get better and be okay.

I half-expected him to turn off a projector at the end of that Coke commercial and be standing in front of a room full of executives for Coke. Maybe that retreat made him come up with the famous Coke commercial. Was that what that smile was really about - inspiration? Why else show the commercial and all of the other Coke references lately?

What did you think of it all?

[kathyj]

I watched the finale even though I was an infrequent viewer. I would love to see Sally as an adult. She is a powerhouse and I hope she learned from her parent's mistakes.

[Kpatch]

I’m glad most everyone got a happy ending. It’s kind of upside down that Peggy found love and Joan found a new career. Joan always wanted love and Peggy was always career-driven. At least Stan knows all of Peggy’s deep dark secrets and accepts and loves her.

I could have done without Marie.

I admit I didn’t enjoy Don’s journey to find himself these last few episodes. The Don I loved is the Don who was powerful, self-assured, wore a suit, presented his ideas and defended his position. But I understand that he had to hit rock-bottom in order to find peace and grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves. I think that projector idea would have been genius wendylou but Weiner apparently wanted to leave it to our imaginations. I believe you are right. It makes sense that all those references to Coke (remember when Jim looked at Don in that meeting and said the word “Coca-Cola” real slowly?) would lead up to this moment. We are led to believe that Don is the creative genius behind the “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” ad. I looked up the real creator of the ad and it was indeed a McCann Erickson creation dreamed up by a creative director with an alliterative name: Bill Backer. Is he the real Don Draper? Makes you think that Weiner planned the ending of the series when he planned the beginning.

[kathyj]

I may have to go back and watch the show from the beginning. I quit the show because I could not stand the way the women or "the girls" were treated. I know that is the way it was (and still may be) but it was hard to watch. The final straw for me was when Don yelled at the woman store owner in a meeting, telling her that he would not take orders from a woman. Then he slept with her - women were good enough for that. Maybe in later episodes we see a different side of Don.

A friend of mine is an engineer. She was taking her PE exam with all guys. She was coming back from lunch and all the guys walked back in the exam room without showing ID. She was stopped by someone asking "where do you think you are going"? She just showed the ID and let it go. I was more upset than she was.

Should I give the show another chance?

[wendylou]

kathyj if the treatment of women is what bothered you, you may not want to go back because even in the last season we saw some horrible treatment of Joan at the new company. I hated it but I just take it as a true depiction of what women had to go through before I got to go to work in offices where it's pretty much unheard of to be talked to that way. However, some of the main male characters did mature - Pete was a surprising example. His respect for Joan and Peggy at the end was nice.

Kpatch, I agree that Joan and Peggy's "endings" were ironic but I liked that Peggy found love (even though most critics didn't) because she was always portrayed as the career girl who had to forgo love to have her business success. I took that as Weiner's acknowledgement that women don't have to choose one or the other and I appreciate that. I also liked that Joan, the sexpot, finally chose herself over a man. She can have both some day too with a man who is secure enough to let her.

[Kpatch]

Great analysis wendylou!

kathyj, you're right, it's offensive, but I kind of think that's the point — to see how far we've come as a society. If you can look past that, then yes, I think it's worth another chance.

[Kpatch]

I had a dream last night that I worked for Don Draper and he was sending me to Poughkeepsie to promote the finale of Mad Men. Weird, right?

[Kpatch]

wendylou and kathyj - Fun Mad Men Trivia games:

Mad Men Trivia

[wendylou]

Kpatch i don't know if you are interested but the interview with Matt Weiner that I mentioned previously is available to listen to on iTunes (for free). If you have an iPhone you should have a podcast icon on your phone. If you just look at the top podcasts there is one called Fresh Air. He actually has two interviews on there. It's kind of interesting listening to it now that it's over.

Also, I have been having trouble sleeping lately so I was watching whichever late show Seth Meyers hosts and Elizabeth Moss was on talking about the show ending. I just thought this bit was funny- she said they asked her what song she wanted playing when she did that strut into the office and she said "Staying Alive," of course. So that was playing when she did that.

[Kpatch]

Which interview wendylou? I looked at your last few posts and didn't see it mentioned. If it was the interview at the New York Public Library, I watched it.

[wendylou]

No, it was a radio interview on NPR. It's on a program called Fresh Air. The one I mentioned before was one he did when there were two episodes left. That's where he talked about his idea for the show being about a man who has everything but is miserable. I had just heard a bit of it on the radio but I listened to the whole thing today.

[Kpatch]

Now I remember you mentioning it. Thanks wendylou!