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

Receptionist at retreat was in commercial---maybe some others too?

That commercial holds up over 40 years on imo. Didn't Coke try to redo it at some point? They should just keep airing the original every once in a while, just a week at a time.

i don't think the receptionist was in it, just a similar outfit wasn't it?

Same or very similar face too!

Maybe he becomes a big benefactor of that place; he's really into that sort of seeding now.

(Eventually meets Jobs & Woz, etc.)

everybody in that ad is 60+ years old if they're alive

Coke has re-cranked the ad at least 3x

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27d_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_%28In_Perfect_Harmony%29#TV_commercial

another one for the conclusion that the Coke ad is Don's: in the meditation scene, he's back to wearing his white work shirt. if there's one thing we know from Mad Style, it's that there are never any accidents in the show's costuming.

I loved that Joan's babysitter was now her secretary.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, May 18, 2015 10:41 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this and meredith's cheerful firing were my favorite random moments of the episode

also nice that they finally mentioned Manson.

Don't forget, the Manson Brothers were immortalized in an earlier episode.

I love the original Coke commercial. I'll admit it--I even love the jingle/song.

"Holloway-Harris" was a nice joke on Joan's contention that you need two names at the top before anyone takes you seriously (dovetailing with all the permutations of SC&P).

Meredith! How did they turn her into a favorite character so quickly? She was kinda the mvp of season 7b, at least among minor characters.

When I'd watched this a few hours ago, I did not know what to think. But I feel better and better thinking back on it. The show ended exactly right, with a mix of genuine emotion and cheeky cynicism. No need for major drama, more death, cliffhangers. It's not the best episode, not even of the season. But I like it more and more as the ending.

Actually, I've begun to think that most series would kinda be better off if they'd just ended with a normal episode instead of trying to tie everything up. Boardwalk Empire is the perfect example: Everything was tied up with a masterful sense of coming full circle, but it happened so quickly and effectively that it felt ridiculous to me. This was much better: A stop, rather than an ending.

Loved Joan using her maiden name as the solution to the "having two names in the title" dilemma.

xp

Weiner said in his NYT interview yesterday that he just treated this like the end of a season... that any season finale could have the same vibe.

I was just generally glad that Joan got so much attention in the final episode. In retrospect, it was probably weird to think (as some of us did) that certain main characters wouldn't show up in the last episode because their story had already been wrapped up--up to and including Don.

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

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 13, 2015

it wasn't quite this, was it? it was more like a recap of this episode itself...

i would have quite like a six feet under style cheesefest outro

it was probably weird to think (as some of us did) that certain main characters wouldn't show up in the last episode because their story had already been wrapped up

I don't think suspecting that was too weird. The show has let characters drop out like that before.

This ep emph Peggy's insecurity, like her previous rollerskating to Roger's phantom-of-the-suite musical direction, and subsequent swagger, emph. that she's still the young 'un--- even if she felt ready for such responsibility, would be *junior* partner to veteran Joan, for sure, and they've never worked together all that smoothly, despite the occasional break for smoke and drink and dish.

they really had to rush joan's relationship out the door didn't they? i mean, i know that it was on/off in these last few eps, but they had like a 2-minute conversation and he was like "well then seeya" and just walked out.

this isn't really a criticism cos i don't watch this show for plot, but overall they could never resist meandering through surreal emotional worlds or portentous brief encounters, even right to the end of the last season they barely left themselves enough time for anything to actually happen.

it's prob an achievement overall to make something so resistant to the need for cliffhangers or big events. i guess this is why some people hate this show.

i feel like they had at least two conversations like that already though

he wanted to control her happiness

i mean he was nice in that he was the nicest guy we've seen her with but he's still a fucking dick

even if she felt ready for such responsibility, would be *junior* partner to veteran Joan, for sure, and they've never worked together all that smoothly, despite the occasional break for smoke and drink and dish.

But it meant a lot to Peggy that Joan asked her -- and Joan liked that Peggy found it flattering to be asked. So it was a mutual validation, even though she turned it down.

i guess so, yeah - it just felt kinda odd, like were they back together for a few months at this point - they were really struggling to have the time to tell stories by this last ep - like you would have some fight or some reconcilation or something, in most relationships. i know "but he's a dick" might explain this but the real reason was just "but we only have 50 mins of this show left".

xpost

His only real role was to make it clear to Joan that what she really wants is success on her own terms. She was suddenly in a position to do that, and it was much more exciting to her than riding along as his eye candy.

xpost very true, Tipsy, thanks. We don't really know that Joan's geezer is gone for good; the relationship is yet another opportunity for beyond-the-end dreamz. He's thought about all this---"I know when he starts school, you've got to stay (live?) in one place," what was the rest of that?--but c'mon, he's gonna be jonesing so bad for **Joan**, if he really does walk away for more than five minutes.

ahem.

yes I rolled my eyes at it when it happened :(

Thought this was p good overall - I didn't really immediately conclude "Don buys the world a coke!", kinda preferred to read it as Don has nullified himself/become nobody and thereby is one with the zeitgeist of the times, which is a hippy-dippy coke ad.

The one thing I really didn't like was Stan+Peggy's "I love you too!" exchange scene, just felt very false and contrived to me. Not the characters getting together - that makes total sense - just the hamhanded way it was handled.
xxxp

xpost Nevertheless, like I said about Don and new wife Megan, Geezer knows where Joan's going; he's been there too.

Hey I was there in the 70s, it was not a Coke ad, well not always.

i feel like they had at least two conversations like that already though

he wanted to control her happiness

― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Monday, May 18, 2015 11:28 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and that was his point too at the end right? dude said something like "if something's wrong, it's always going to be wrong." he might have been a nice guy, he just wasn't the -right- guy for Joan. it's basically the contrast to Peggy's story, who actually found someone who liked her just the way she was - annoying stubbornness, workaholic tendencies and all.

anyway, so much for my theory that Stan is to Peggy as Peggy is to Don. I had the same reaction as Peggy did to Stan's confession - incredulity (need a .gif of her saying "What?" on the phone) followed by "please let this not be another Stan joke" to "yay!" I know there was plenty of foreshadowing, I just didn't think it would actually happen - almost seems like a storyline that belonged on a different show somehow.

kinda preferred to read it as Don has nullified himself/become nobody and thereby is one with the zeitgeist of the times, which is a hippy-dippy coke ad.

my preferred reading too.

yeah peggy and stan was rushed as well - most of this ep was p badly tacked together but the show has built the characters well enough to get away with it

feel like the joan coke scene carried over into a lot of the rest of the episode! esp peggy and stan.

I find the conclusion that Don goes back to work at McCann and makes an awesome coke ad to be pretty depressing as a second (third? fourth?) act for him. He seemed so much happier being hobo-benefactor-Don

xp

"If something's wrong, it's always going to be wrong"---or maybe even, "it's always wrong"---either way, great throwaway line, like this show did so well.

I know there was plenty of foreshadowing

If there was, I probably willfully missed it. I loved that scene specifically because it came as a surprise to me.

He seemed so much happier being hobo-benefactor-Don

Huh? He was miserable spending that much time with just himself.

it was fragile, that's for sure

xxpost Geezer's throwaway diagnosis could apply to Draper's Fate, before or after the credits roll.

kinda preferred to read it as Don has nullified himself/become nobody and thereby is one with the zeitgeist of the times, which is a hippy-dippy coke ad

Even though I'm 99% on the side of Don goes back and creates the Coke ad, I think this is a valid interpretation.

The show's richest ambiguity for me is in the guy's fridge monologue. It was serious and credibly painful, and at the same time it completely sounded like a Don Draper pitch. Where is the line between one and the other? (Dammit, I want my ambiguity.)

Huh? He was miserable spending that much time with just himself.

he seemed to be doing pretty great until he got the news from Sally

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/249014/don-draper-maverick-ad-man-dead-at-88.html

The most cynical reading of all (which I don't at all believe, but it just crossed my mind): Don's embrace of the fridge guy, and the reason he's so shattered and overwhelmed by the guy's story, is that the advertising part of him knows he's just heard the single greatest pitch of his life.

That obit is excellent.

Draper was married and divorced five times. His daughter, socialite Sally Draper, and another son, Gene, predeceased him.

doing pretty great, other than the fact he's just wandering around getting shithammered by himself in cheap motel rooms

loved that Gene finally got a line

booze-sweat makeup artist deserves an award for the series, a+ work

Didnt realize til he spoke that Gene was the same actor as Jax's creepy kid Abel in Sons of Anarchy, i hate that kid

so does Don!