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

tbf I didn't entirely understand the other guy's anecdote either

That clip clarifies something I was confused about the other night too (when Don told the Legion guys he killed his C.O., for a second I wondered if that meant he intentionally killed Draper precisely so he could steal his identity--had I forgotten that?). Totally an accident. But interesting, in retrospect, that it's again predicated upon cigarettes.

Pete was such a little weasel ratting him out. Surprised Don ever forgave him.

lotta water under that bridge

will never forget cracking up at bert's reaction when pete came to him w/that

it was one of bert's most ayn randish moments

"a man is the room he is in" is so perfect

Check out the kiss Sal plants on Joan earlier in the episode (2:00).

Wow. Don, Peggy, and Pete's voices have changed since 2007.

I'm looking forward to re-watching this entire series tbh

Starting tomorrow night at 6, AMC is running the entire series from the beginning.

(of course, it's already on Netflix, so...)

tbf I didn't entirely understand the other guy's anecdote either

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 5:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think it was written to be more than a bit elliptical and open to interpretation. that said, if you ate a bunch of german dudes, would you really tell anyone about it, even your VFW buddies after a few whiskeys? i suspect it's more that they just shot the krauts rather than take them prisoner. which is bad enough.

the scene in the last episode that got to me (emotionally) was when henry told sally it was OK to cry, and then proceeded to break down in tears. poor guy.

btw i have a terrible memory and it's been so long between season. can someone remind me of the circumstances by which McCann bought out SCDP? obviously a major plot point many seasons ago was the main characters breaking away to avoid being swallowed up by McCann, so their eventually absorption by the larger company is supposed to have a huge ironic resonance. but since, like I said, i tend to forget these long-term plot developments, I think some of that has been lost on me...

Bert dies and rather than let Harry Hamlin force Don out, Roger engineers a deal to sell SCDP to McCann making the partners mostly rich.

so basically he appeals to Harry Hamlin character's greed over his vanity?

whatever happened to that character, then?

Fairly recent, so I think I remember it well enough. It was basically Roger going to McCann so he could save Don's job via a buyout--Jim Cutler wanted Don out, and figured he could make that happen because of Don violating his contract. It's more involved than that, but I think that's the basic outline. (Still no explanation of what happened to Cutler, who in the end did vote in favour of the buyout. Great line: "It's a lot of money!")

btw who was the other Korean War vet in that last episode--I mean who was the actor? he looks/sounds crazy familiar.

hankies out gang

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8593701/mad-men-finale-trailer

it's interesting how for a long-running show like this there are such intense expectations built up for the ending.

whereas for a 120-minute movie, we're perfectly content with a "good" ending, whether that be a conventional ending that's well-prepared-for, or a unconventional ending that seems apt somehow. but because we see it all in one go, we don't have quite the same intense set of expectations.

weiner has so many choices. he can do a kind of in-medias-res thing (a la sopranos), or he can try to have things "settled" in a contingent way, or he can have a balls-to-the-wall conflagration a la breaking bad (which i doubt, given the kind of show it is). in fact, the recent history of long-running "quality" cable TV endings itself weighs heavily on expectations for the show.

anyway i'm not saying anything interesting sorry.

Hamlin got bought out but mccann didnt want him - mccann wanted (primarily) draper and chough

by the way for anyone still confused over the business dealings side, this is an amazing rundown of all the buyouts, mergers, partnerships hoo ha since the beginning of the show. and it's more fun than it sounds.
http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/history-of-mad-mens-sterling-cooper.html?mid=twitter_vulture

(xpost) When was that actually clarified? I believe you, I just must have missed it altogether. (Probably something Roger said in passing--he says a lot of stuff about the company's inner workings that I sometimes miss.)

btw i have never watched breaking bad and have no interest in doing so so take this with a few hunks of salt but someone showed me the cataclysmic ending on youtubes and it seemed really embarrassingly cheesy to me, everything from editing to camerawork to musical choices was like a parody of what i imagine really macho "quality" cable to be like.

xp this was all right at the end of 7a, right? hamlin eventually agrees because "it's a lot of money"

my thoughts exactly re the ending of The Magnificent Ambersons

xpost

One of the vets was David Denman (Roy from The Office).

my thoughts exactly re the ending of The Magnificent Ambersons

xpost

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 7:18 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have you ever read v.f. perkins's book on t hat film? if not, i'd recommend it.

https://twitter.com/NickPinkerton/status/598192618439319553

With all due respect, stfu about Breaking Bad unless you're willing to actually watch it.

Forreals. Heisenberg 4 Lyfe.

this last ep seemed a throwback to the early seasons -- fast moving and "writerly" like a compendium of miniature short stories/character studies, all disintegrated and diffuse. the betty and don plots especially so -- set pieces with a sort of "people acting particularly in the face of adversity" vibe -- in keeping with the fiction of the time even.

I didn't think the old vet's story was ambiguous at all - they shot the Germans even though they were surrendering because they didn't have enough food for themselves as it was. The dialogue is something like "We made them dig a big hole, it took them all day. They were so thin, you could see their bones. They were crying..." then he gets cut off when someone shouts for more whiskey.

Anyway, I'm really satisfied with the way this is coming to an end. There was always a big ensemble cast and them getting their closing stories was never going to happen in one, or even two episodes. I think the only people not closed out are Roger and maybe Peggy - although tbh her owning the new job in McCann and reinventing herself as the hot independent woman is arguably enough. I don't think they'll resist revisiting Don though; my guess is right at the end we'll see him get off a bus and walk into a diner with Diane behind the counter. Fade to black. "The Long And Winding Road" plays.

I enjoyed reading this:

http://fashionandgrammargripes.blogspot.co.uk/

Obviously some of the points (notably Betty) ruled out after E13, this was written after E12. But weirdly prescient tying the conclusion into The Hobo Code, which others didn't do until after E13:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/mad-mens-hobo-callback.html

it's interesting how for a long-running show like this there are such intense expectations built up for the ending.

whereas for a 120-minute movie, we're perfectly content with a "good" ending, whether that be a conventional ending that's well-prepared-for, or a unconventional ending that seems apt somehow. but because we see it all in one go, we don't have quite the same intense set of expectations.

this is exactly the opposite of how i feel

I go back and forth on what kind of ending I'd prefer. I suggested above I want some kind of closure, or implied closure, for the main characters. I'm again not sure. The one quibble I have with Betty's diagnosis--which, again, I thought was handled beautifully, was fully justified, had a historical point to make about women circa 1970, and even circled back artfully to the first episode--was that it also felt conventional. I'm sure we all love the weirder Mad Men detours, and it didn't have any of that.

I think I'd like the Boyhood/No Country for Old Men non-ending best, if that makes sense. That often works really well for me with movies, and I think it would work well here.

as noted, i want non-sequitur but i bet we get a THE WIRE style lope through everyone's life for a few second peek in

I think I'd like the Boyhood/No Country for Old Men non-ending best, if that makes sense.

same

Head-scratching non-sequitur, preferably with some humour, could work for me too.

About the only thing I remember five years later from Jacques Rivette's 12-hour Out 1 was its head-scratching non-sequitur of an ending--loved that.

a THE WIRE style lope through everyone's life for a few second peek in

there's no way they'll close with this imo

maybe it'll end like resnais's wild grass

feel like there's two broad types of ending that the show has been building towards: california or new york? that's don's central dilemma, isn't it? and it would certainly make a lot of sense to either choose one or for don to find some way to integrate them. my guess is on the latter because i dont think the show has ever posited "california" as a real solution for don, and we know "new york" isn't working--on the other hand maybe california works this time because don seems more in command of himself than ever before, less running away than setting out on a journey.

how does On the Road end? embarrassed to say i've never read it.

it just sort of stops

the road ends

feel like there's two broad types of ending that the show has been building towards: california or new york? that's don's central dilemma, isn't it? and it would certainly make a lot of sense to either choose one or for don to find some way to integrate them. my guess is on the latter because i dont think the show has ever posited "california" as a real solution for don, and we know "new york" isn't working--on the other hand maybe california works this time because don seems more in command of himself than ever before, less running away than setting out on a journey.

― ryan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015 10:32 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

clearly the answer is... illinois.

don settles in st Louis and becomes....jon hamm

how does On the Road end? embarrassed to say i've never read it.

― ryan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015 11:33 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"And that's when I knew that the time had come for me to get off.. the road."

In one of the Molly Lambert pieces she makes a case for Don to set up in Las Vegas.

xxp final shot is him sitting alone at a cardinals game

on the road sucks