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Mad Men

Booker Noe said:
I tired to listen but when I knew some of the back story more than they did I lost interest.
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The chick is terrible, but the guy is usually pretty good.

He usually pulls up some good historical facts and themes.

I'm too cheap for cable and have watched the entire series four times, including twice in the past year. They usually don't miss much.
 
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So season one finale ends with Peggy having her baby and Don coming home to an empty house after delivering probably his best pitch of the series, The Carasoul, that was bad around his picture perfect family.

You'd have to think Peggy looks for her child.

I just can't help but think Don is going to end up alone. It will be weird if he does the unselfish thing and takes the boys.
 
I liked it, didn't love it...very Sopranos-like. I think it'll grow on me. I hated the Sopranos ending at first, now I really like it. Going to have to digest it a little bit.
 
Not sure how I feel, honestly. It was a great episode, but I feel like it was almost too neat. Everyone but Betty came out great. That seems odd/improbable given the previous 7 seasons. Also, way too much Joan.

And I don't think it's obvious that Don went back and created the Coke commercial. I think there are two equally likely scenarios: 1) Don did go back and write it, because his "enlightenment" amounted to being good at selling stuff again, i.e. he realizes that is who he is and accepts that for the first time or 2) It was an ironic bit correlating Don's real, new found happiness with drinking a Coke, which is what the original ad was saying. Could be Weiner making a point about the entire ad business being built on using real, deep emotions to hock sodas and whatnot and Don finally coming out of that.

I personally lean towards the second explanation.
 
Really liked the way it wrapped up. Reading Sepinwall's recap now and there is a way to interpret the end other than the Coke commercial being Don's creation.

But I, with most everyone else, feel like he did. As much as I wanted him to change and become Dick Whitman or a better version of Don, he just falls right back in that comfy seat in New York making millions creating brilliant commercials. Enough ambiguity to see it differently though, which is always a good thing for finales imo.
 
TransyCat09 said:
Not sure how I feel, honestly. It was a great episode, but I feel like it was almost too neat. Everyone but Betty came out great. That seems odd/improbable given the previous 7 seasons. Also, way too much Joan.

And I don't think it's obvious that Don went back and created the Coke commercial. I think there are two equally likely scenarios: 1) Don did go back and write it, because his "enlightenment" amounted to being good at selling stuff again, i.e. he realizes that is who he is and accepts that for the first time or 2) It was an ironic bit correlating Don's real, new found happiness with drinking a Coke, which is what the original ad was saying. Could be Weiner making a point about the entire ad business being built on using real, deep emotions to hock sodas and whatnot and Don finally coming out of that.

I personally lean towards the second explanation.
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Agreed. In interviews Weiner said he wouldn't have his fictional characters take credit for real work. I think it was indicative of his new found happiness that he finally achieved following his finally being able to express emotion.

I also think it was interesting that Peggy didn't realize she loved Stan until she made the conscious decision to let Don go.
 
-So did that phone call with Betty (which is was unreal acting BTW) send Don on another binge? Him going to see Stephanie seemed out of place.

-I'm happy that Peggy and Stan got together. I really did not see that coming.

-Glad we got to see Roger throw in some good lines on the way out. Even one in French at the end.

-Disappointed that Pete come out smelling like a rose. He was the biggest slimeball of the bunch.

-The timing of the Coke commercial was 1971 and the start of the this season is April 1970. WE don't know how long Don was out on his retirement but know it was several months. So I guess its possible but I would have like one more Don pitch in the conference room.
 
-Don's only happiness comes from his next idea. His last one wasn't good enough. Fantasizing about what makes everyone else happy is as close as he gets to real happiness.

-I don't know about everyone being happy. Don's going back to NYC to be an Ad man, which cost him his family and 2 wives. He didn't solve anything. His kids are going to live with their Aunt/Uncle and he didn't fight for them at all, he just ran away, likes he's always done.

-Peggy although she found love, she passed up on a chance to start her own business and was called on her constant need for vindication. Also she'll still have the nagging memory of her adopted child that went unresolved.

-Pete, the Real Knickerbocker, did come out well but he lives in Wichita now and I think MW gives Pete all these second chances because he's showing in the real world being born on 3rd base actually matters/life isn't always fair.

-Joan sacrificed love and the chance at a life of luxury to start her own company.

-Don't try to over think it and take the Coke ad from Don. I think it's brilliant. Spent 70 minutes with Don lost in an episode trying to find himself, scared to death they are going to end it with something stupid and him flopping around a hippie compound, and end it with an obvious leap.

-Roger is getting married... to a crazy French Canadian. We all know what's going to happen there.

In short, he's saying we are who we are and you can't change that. Almost every story had the "but.."


-Completely agree with seeing the Coke pitch. Wish it would've ended with Don coming back, winning his job and pitching coke, but I think that would've been too neat.
 
I wish they would've shown Pete Campbell getting eaten by the bear when he boarded the plane, but I suppose they wanted to leave that to the viewer's imagination.

Also, Don used a tag line from a real ad in the very first episode ("It's toasted."), so it would be appropriate for Weiner to do that again. I think the viewer is supposed to believe that Don created the Coke ad, but the question is whether that creation comes from a very cynical place (i.e., Don hasn't learned a damn thing and is just using hippie culture for his own ends) or a better one. I could also buy the argument, though, that the ending is intended to contrast the "real" happiness being felt by Don at that moment and the fleeting, consumerist happiness represented by the Coke ad.

It was also a little cheesy that Peggy and Stan ended up together, but there's nothing wrong with a little cheese.
 
Don told you who he was in the very first episode of the series.



Him using his experience in the last episode to create the Coke campaign makes complete sense. He hasn't really grown so much as he has learned to accept himself as he is. I think that's the overall journey of the series, not necessarily change, but acceptance. Every character learned that same lesson to one degree or another.
 
TransyCat09 said:
I personally lean towards the second explanation.
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Disagree.

Every "haymaker" pitch on the show was informed by other plots in that episode:

Kodak Carousel: Don is missing out on real family life / memories.

Popsicle: Peggy exploits a maternal ritual she will never take part in after abandoning her kid.

Suitcase: Don needs a vessel for his "baggage."

Jaguar: Fat NJ guy bangs Joan, but she is still not "something beautiful you can truly own."

Burger Chef: Don, Peggy and Pete are "the family" at Burger Chef's table.

etc.
 
Brilliant finale. Tied up a lot of loose ends but left us wondering which path Don took. They want you to think he came back to NYC told McCann he was out west researching a great idea for Coke and voila he's back in the fold. Or he found happiness without the money, the accolades, etc. and never went back. Curious to see if they end up doing a movie in a couple of years.
 
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Season One - Jim Hobart tries to lure Don to McCann with the Coke account and offering Betty a modeling job on the account.

mad-men-episode-711-don-hamm-935-4.jpg


Season 7 - Jim Hobart specifically singles Don out for the Coke account once McCann absorbs SC&P.

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Don stares longingly at the Coke machine he fixed last episode.



Don came up with the Coke spot. I didn't think there was any ambiguity at all. It was anvil, after anvil, after anvil.
 
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He wasn't out west researching an idea for Coke. To our knowledge he had never even met with Coke. He bailed 4 minutes into his first meeting a M-E. He was out west on one of his journeys to find himself and in the process effectively hit one of his rock bottom moments.

I get that a lot of the episodes take some serious thought and research to fully get, but this one was pretty simple.
 
Yeah, I realized all but the likeness of the girl at the retreat and the girl in the commercial. Peggy even dropped a Coke reference during their phone call.
 
anthonys735 said:
Yeah, I realized all but the likeness of the girl at the retreat and the girl in the commercial. Peggy even dropped a Coke reference during their phone call.
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And Peggy told him to come home that McCann would take him back. Stan said the same thing that McCann would take him back. Peggy then commented Stan was always right.

Roger said he figured Don would be back by now, but the implication was that Roger fully expected Don to return.

Hobart called Don his white whale. He's been chasing the guy since the first season. He would welcome him back into the fold, especially if Don has a brilliant pitch for one of the biggest clients.

There's pretty much no one who takes the position that Don cannot return to McCann. I even took the Duck Phillips scene from the previous episode as a ruse. Duck was never there to meet with the McCann people about replacing Don. He had no business with McCann at all. Duck just let Pete believe that to be true and that their meeting was happenstance as an in with Pete. Duck's only purpose at McCann was to recruit Pete to Learjet.
 
TransyCat09 said:
Not sure how I feel, honestly. It was a great episode, but I feel like it was almost too neat. Everyone but Betty came out great. That seems odd/improbable given the previous 7 seasons. Also, way too much Joan.

And I don't think it's obvious that Don went back and created the Coke commercial. I think there are two equally likely scenarios: 1) Don did go back and write it, because his "enlightenment" amounted to being good at selling stuff again, i.e. he realizes that is who he is and accepts that for the first time or 2) It was an ironic bit correlating Don's real, new found happiness with drinking a Coke, which is what the original ad was saying. Could be Weiner making a point about the entire ad business being built on using real, deep emotions to hock sodas and whatnot and Don finally coming out of that.

I personally lean towards the second explanation.
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I think the writers absolutely telegraphed what happened and I'm amazed more people -- including the paid analysts at the NYT, NPR, etc. missed it. Think back to the sad sack talking about his dream -- the one Don emotionally embraces. He's talking about feeling like a product on a refrigerator shelf, with nobody paying attention to him. That's when Don -- who had just had the phone call with Peggy in which she suggests he come back and handle the Coke account -- has his epiphany. Coke can be that product in the refrigerator that brings us all together. He's not hugging the guy because suddenly he has become some caring person. He's hugging him for providing the Eureka moment, the one he knows will lift him past his despair at never doing 'anything that mattered.' The Coke commercial will become his lasting legacy, the White Whale that had eluded him and generated his sense of emptiness.
 
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Noone here gonna mention the whole "hey Peggy, here's a cactus, it grows in dry desolate environments that usually don't spring forth life (that's right hold it by your lady parts while I'm talking), I'd hold onto it, but I have a kid at my home, and you don't (since you abandoned our kid) so your house is a safe place for this!" goodbye from Pete?
 
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MaxPowerrr said:
Noone here gonna mention the whole "hey Peggy, here's a cactus, it grows in dry desolate environments that usually don't spring forth life (that's right hold it by your lady parts while I'm talking), I'd hold onto it, but I have a kid at my home, and you don't (since you abandoned our kid) so your house is a safe place for this!" goodbye from Pete?
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That interaction was maybe the best of the night. I caught the cactus and the placement as well as Pete saying, "I'll be back and it better still be alive."
 
I have to admit when I watch commercials now I say "Don Draper would like that or Don Draper wouldn't allow this to be put on TV."
 
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I loved this finale. While I would have loved to see one final pitch from Don, it was left up to the audience's imagination regarding how it went down...I could envision it but appreciated that the producers left it up to the viewer to make it their own thing.

Mad Men was the show that my wife and I bonded over in the dating phase before it all progressed. I'm definitely going to miss it.
 
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