MAD MEN on AMC - Seasons 7(a) & & 7(b)

i heard 65 minutes somewhere

wow duh the irony of Pete going to work for an airline totally eluded me until just now

DEADLINE: Is there a special song at the end?
WEINER: I can’t tell you that. There’s music in the whole show. There always is. It is a Mad Men episode, the finale. That’s all I can tell you, and it’s a little bit longer.

DEADLINE: Really?
WEINER: It’s about 10 minutes longer than a regular episode. The last two have longer running times. Number 13 is about five minutes long and 14 is 10 minutes long.

Man, it would have been awesome if the finale was literally ten minutes long.

just a montage set to American Pie

slow-mo shots of people drinking + smoking

Roger = the father, Don = the son, Bert = the holy ghost. Lots of candidates for the Jester--Pete, Duck, Stan, too many (including Roger).

i think another way to look at betty accepting death is that her character has always been, at least in part, about self-denial -- from her giving up a modeling career to marry don, to her denying herself multiple affairs that she was well entitled to, she's frequently come close to freeing herself but has always at the very end re-chained herself to her husband or her family or the morals of the time. so now she is accepting death as a way of finally giving herself permission to act selfishly (slash freely) for once, i.e. henry being surprised that she's happily bouncing off to school because he expects her to be wallowing in her fate.

like the last shot -- she's happier wheezing her way up the school steps, knowing she's gonna die, then she's practically ever been at any other point in the show?

the fact that she had to die at all was unnecessary; it's become all too common a cliche in television insofar as last seasons are concerned

gimme a break

I doubt we're going to see her actually die

she could live forever WHO KNOWS

this show has what, 15-20 regular characters? having one of em shuffle of fis entirely reasonable.

yeah idk why betty of all characters had to die but no death in mad men -- a show about upper/middle class people who live exceedingly normal lives -- was ever going to be necessary. in that it feels wantonly sad is not unlike life itself!

cancer does not pick its victims reasonably

otm

surprised they don't all have lung cancer frankly

^^^^

last episode could always be more of a bloodbath than the breaking bad finale

if they do have her die it will clearly be for narrative/dramatic reasons connected to don being the main character; deaths of others have usually been a big thing for him and this would be up there with anna, burt, and rachel

it would be sorta weird if the finale skipped ahead 9 months tho

I'm picturing Don settling down somewhere in California, then seeing everyone one last time when he flies back for Betty's funeral.

Don looked so hot last night.

the one shot of him inside the car looking up from the passenger seat was incredible

can't imagine Don will leave his sons w Henry tbh

xp

from the AV club recap. i didn't catch this so I have no idea if it's true or not

Betty’s letter to Sally is dated October 3, 1970.

I dunno if anyone agrees, but Draper dresses too fucking awesome for 1970 (the sunglasses bother me). Campbell's combover and bloated face and lazily cut suits reflect the times.

Well Don is receding further and further into the past. That's why "Everyday" was apt closing music, his road trip has taken him back to 1950s small-town America (and reminded him why he got the hell out). I don't know if that trajectory ultimately takes him all the way back to his own actual origins, or if he kind of breaks free of all of it and charges off into the future. Maybe lands in early Silicon Valley, meets some kids tinkering with computers in their garage.

or he just goes from town to town, pulling small cons and fixing soda machines

Betty’s letter to Sally is dated October 3, 1970.

Read that piece this morning. Was curious, so I checked a couple of dates: Joplin died Oct. 4, 1970, Hendrix on Sept. 18. Both have had end-credit songs. Not reading any significance into that, although Weiner has had interviews where he called "Piece of My Heart" the song that sums up 1968 best.

in any case, the constant lip-service of weiner to Peggy as the secret lead character makes me think this is mostly gonna be her and don's (separate) story
but i really am holding out hope for mutant alligators or some other spectacular fuck you

Like #2 here?

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/may/11/how-will-mad-men-end-four-best-theories

Was this an actual theory, or are they just making that up?

Betty’s letter to Sally is dated October 3, 1970.

Read that piece this morning. Was curious, so I checked a couple of dates: Joplin died Oct. 4, 1970,

The Wichita State University plane crash that Easy linked to upthread happened on October 2, 1970.

It's all a rich tapestry.

surprised to see all the complaints about Trudy+Pete reconciliation upthread - this was pretty clearly telegraphed in the past few episodes, and yes while Pete was a horrible douchebag to Trudy for several seasons, let's not forget all the pre-Cos Cob seasons, where they were shown to be one of the few (only?) functional relationships where it seemed like a partnership of equals with genuine affection for each other. (they were both still horrible wasp-y douchebags, obviously, but they complimented each other perfectly)

It's all a rich tapestry.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

Could easily be the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDm1xD_Kwyc

god that was sad.

somehow the adults still relying on sally way too much.

That was an incredible episode, all my doubts about the show have disappeared, its had rough patches but its still something I will think about and refer to for the rest of my life and the last few episodes have done it justice, give or take a misstep or two. I was in tears several times during that episode. You hear about ideas such as "A woman's medical problems would be dealt with through her husband" and it sounds appalling, of course, but to see it in action is something else entirely different and something I'll never forget.

― .robin., Monday, May 11, 2015 7:26 AM

otm. I loved everything about this episode. Except, maybe, the Duck stuff. That was just okay.

yeah the stuff with the doctor talking to henry while betty just stood there was p hard. and the letter just tore me to shreds.

saw a pic of the pete combover, that is some 1989 Rudy Giuliani shit

duck stuff was just okay (i kind of didn't understand it, what exactly is pete's new job?), but duck glancing around to figure out where he was while pete closes the door on his face was great

Yeah, the Duck subplot was kind of cloudy. It seemed like he was working about three different angles to put himself in a better position and if Pete Campbell benefited it was just a byproduct. It is funny, though, because Pete always fancied himself as enlightened and metropolitan when really he's been a displaced midwesterner all along.

I hope they spin the show off. Better Call Sal, anyone?

From what I gather, Pete:LearJet::Ken:Dow (he's the guy they have to deal with ad agencies)

That makes sense. Duck must have really worked that deal hard, though, for Pete to get roughly the same compensation he'd be getting for serving his sentence at McCann.

I think they were saying 100k a year...which in todays' money is like, $600k a year, which seems preposterous

I'd love it if he remarries Trudy and they buy a house in Wichita and then he finds out they've rescinded the offer.

But the McCann main man *really* has the hots for Lear Jet (maybe more as service for fellow CEOs than celebs, but serious opportunities for main man networking and/or social climbing either way)(and remember McCann big dudes expressed butthurtness by Cosgrove's quite open snobbery re Black Irishness of McCann). At least, Duck said etc. had the hots for Lear. We'll see.
Pete & Trudy really happy in early 70s Wichita, even with big money? What will they spend it on, the biggest house in Flatland?

"open snobbery re Black Irishness": so social-climbing might be an interest!

so I have a friend who works as a producer on the show and I guess she jumped out of some stars and stripes cake this weekend?

#namedropping

Can't find a video clip, but here's the ending to a Sept. 12, 1970 release that I think provides an excellent possible ending for Don (even if his differences with Bobby Dupea far outnumber their similarities).

http://www.isleyunruh.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/5-easy-pieces-ending.jpg

Don falls in love w/waitress who refuses to sell him toast