Mad Men Season 7 (Spoilers): Who are you supposed to be?

[DemiNymph]

He has to heal himself before he could give to the people he love. He's very much damaged goods. He thought that by helping other damaged people as a project, he would heal his soul or make up for his mistakes or whatever. The women he tried to use, the waitress and stephanie, knew that, and rejected him. Some sort of deux ex machina brought him to a hippie retreat in which he got what he needed. God, I hope those don't make a comeback because of this show.

[MarieAntoinette]

The show ended on a more positive note than I would have expected, but it is alright with me. I loved the phone calls between Betty and Don and Peggy and Don, both were very moving.I liked that the episode wasn't focused solely on Don, I'm glad we got to see Ken, Pete, Sally and Roger again one last time. Speaking of Roger, his last scene was awesome. Peggy and Stan scene was a bit too sweet and sugary for this show, but I like that they ended up together.

[OnionAhaiReborn]

But Don isn't selling anything to the stranger- he's just showing genuine compassion there, and truly having an epiphany in the end. There's no point of showing that if he's just going to come back and be exactly the same, but even better at selling products. I see his relationships with the people close to him getting better (although not perfect- he's still Don).

The point of showing the genuine moment of compassion is that Don is much better at giving this to strangers than those closest to him, and he takes this 'epiphany,' such as it is, and spins it into a Coke commercial sending out a bland message of compassion to the anonymous masses. Maybe he won't be the same, maybe he's settled on his limits, and maybe he's content in that. I think this is suggested at the end, but I think it's a cynical comment on the 60s hippy stuff more than anything uplifting- inner peace through resignation, "whatever you're doing is ok."

[Blaine]

Really good NYT interview with Jon Hamm. I particularly liked his take on Don's ending.

We see him in an incredibly vulnerable place, surrounded by strangers, and he reaches out to the only person he can at that moment, and it’s this stranger.

My take is that, the next day, he wakes up in this beautiful place, and has this serene moment of understanding, and realizes who he is. And who he is, is an advertising man. And so, this thing comes to him. There’s a way to see it in a completely cynical way, and say, “Wow, that’s awful.” But I think that for Don, it represents some kind of understanding and comfort in this incredibly unquiet, uncomfortable life that he has led.

[Relic]

anyone catch the matt weiner cameo, or am I hallucinating?

[Spring Bass]

I missed it. Where was he?

Also, the Mad Men thread is going to disappear forever! No more Mad Men, boo! I want a prequel series with Sterling Cooper set in the Great Depression!

[Relic]

I missed it. Where was he?

Also, the Mad Men thread is going to disappear forever! No more Mad Men, boo! I want a prequel series with Sterling Cooper set in the Great Depression!

The guy in the red jump suit thingy in Don's last group session, i think.

[smegma]

The guy in the red jump suit thingy in Don's last group session, i think.

Wasn't him.

But Leonard was a regular on Just the Ten of Us. My 12-year-old self squealed when I saw him.

[Rhom]

Hearing John Hamm do a voiceover for a Mercedes Benz radio commercial makes me feel wistful and nostalgic... :(

[Rhom]

Matthew Weiner actually explains Mad Men finale.

Bottom line... yes, Don went back to McCann and yes, he did create the Coke ad.

Some other good stuff in there as well:

I didn’t realize until the end that Don likes strangers. He likes seducing strangers, which is just like advertising...And once he gets to know you, he doesn’t like you. It’s gonna turn once they feel exposed. That’s why he picked Megan over Faye. He just tells Peggy, just move forward—that’s his philosophy in life.

He also had to be "sold" on Peggy and Stan; and he originally really didn't expect the Joan character to become a strong feminist working woman.

Its a great read and much more open than I generally expect someone in his position to be. :thumbsup:

[Iskaral Pust]

Only just watched the finale last night, so I had to avoid spoilers here until now. Pretty good ending. It felt a tad sentimental toward some of the characters, Pete and Peggy especially, but did at least provide a resolution for Don.

Some highlights that stood out for me:

- Our last glimpse of Betty is sitting at the kitchen table reading and smoking while someone else washes the dishes behind her. Now it's Sally but in early seasons it was an African American housemaid. Betty resisted change all these years but in the background the era of African American domestic service has wound down.

- The telephone was huge in this episode. Don/Peggy, Peggy/Stan, Don/Sally, Don/Betty and Joan choosing the telephone over her lover. People dialing their own telephones, and calling collect, and having meaningful conversations, not just having a secretary dial someone and then just arrange when to meet to really talk (as in the first couple of seasons). The medium of communication is changing. Even in the boozy lunches - Joan/Ken, Joan/Peggy - they get to business very quickly.

- Roger and Pete both find domestic happiness again, contrasting with Don, but are opting out of the fast track. Stan tells Peggy that there is more to life than work just as Joan makes the opposite decision. No-one wants Don to be a father but he will redeem himself in his career. The tension between career and family continues.

- Color palette domination. Red tones surrounded Joan: her wall color at home, her dress, her hair, even the tan of her lover. Don was surrounded by golden/sandy tones: the sun-drenched retreat, light tan pants and light shirt, racing on the salt flats, the blonde girl and his blonde "niece", the couch he slept on and hotel room bed cover (when he was drunk).

- Segue shots. Several times we saw jumps from one character to another in the middle of similar actions, e.g. jump to Ken drinking. It added energy to the jumps but also felt like a trick from a Soderbergh movie.

- Camera work. Lots of intimate close up shots of faces. It felt like Joan, Peggy and Stan especially had the kind of close-up shots of facial expression that are mostly used only for Don. The style harks back to "golden-age" movies.

- Contrast in the roles of women. Joan and Peggy as career women contrasted sharply with Marie manipulating Roger for a commitment for her financial security.

- Ken changed. He completed his conversion into a soulless corporate drone, fully disqualifying him from the moral high ground he previously held in the show. At lunch with Joan, he immediately launched into what he wanted without small talk, courtesy or any real interest in her. And his driving motivation was some petty internal competition without reference to artistic merit or value.

- Harry is still the same.

[Le Cygne]

I finally saw the ending, I liked the second half of the season, and thought the ending was pretty good.

I liked the Peggy and Stan scene a lot. Joan was amazing as always. And I just kept wanting Don to hang in there, and he did.

[Le Cygne]

Really good NYT interview with Jon Hamm. I particularly liked his take on Don's ending.

Yes, this was good...

[PetyrPunkinhead]

The more I think about this finale the more I like it. Everyone gets kind of a happy ending except for Don's family. It especially felt sad for Sally, having to watch her family literally disintegrate. Don still didn't really change. I think that peaceful look is more an acceptance of who he really is and always has been--a drifting con-man. I guess technically that acceptance could be called a "breakthrough," but I feel as if he's always known that is who he was, just maybe for now he is okay with it out there on the California coast.

Weiner said the series is meant to reflect an era, the 1960s and that era has now ended. Don no longer needs to pretend he's a family man (white shirt, starched collar, buttoned up, suit and tie). But he is still a con-man, selling gut rotting sugar water instead of cancer causing cigarettes. (Which is something I forgot--the series literally started with Don trying to save the Lucky Strike account for Sterling-Cooper.) Don is still that con-man, ad man, deep down. But now he's altered with the times. He's still got that white shirt, but it's unbuttoned and not starched, worn barefoot with khakis instead of with a suit and tie. So, I guess what the show is trying to ultimately say is that the more things change the more they stay the same.

Really good NYT interview with Jon Hamm. I particularly liked his take on Don's ending.

Agreed, excellent interview. And I'd forgotten about that great line from Ted that foreshadowed the three phone calls Don makes in the finale.