Mad Men

[Dr. Medulla]

I don't think America got any kind of redemption after the Sixties.

They did. It's called "Flex is born" suuuuuuuckaaaaaas.

Redemption and deserved punishment is not even close to the same thing.

[Dr. Medulla]

The show can end now. We got Japanese tentacle porn.

[daredevil]

The show can end now. We got Japanese tentacle porn.

Loved Peggy's reaction when Roger gave her that picture, and then later she proudly walks the hallways with it.

[Dr. Medulla]

I'm assuming anyone who checks in on this thread either watches the episodes as they air, but speculative spoiler warning.

One of the things I like about this final turn is that it's added an extra fuck you to the tone of the series to the rich white guys. From the moment the series premiered, I was giddy because we all know the massive disruptions that are coming in the next decade for all these assholes whose job it is to claim to know people better than they know themselves and to think they can manipulate. In other words, postwar American hubris on parade, but on Madison Avenue rather than the White House and Saigon. And, yes, civil rights, ant-war protests, second-wave feminism, and counter-cultural mores has disrupted their easy confidence. But what fucks them in the end is the obvious enemy who's been there all along—corporate America. Sure the protesters can remind the Sterlings and Drapers that they aren't all powerful, but it's mostly a symbolic attack. The suits at McCann have the power to eat them up and take away any sense of autonomy and individuality. Don thought he could dominate, but he was a moderately sized fish in a small pond. The shark was waiting on the periphery, waiting to lure him to the sea. I like this very much because it confirms Weiner's harsh and skeptical view of the 60s, but from a narrative sense I think it allows him to make Draper/Whitman's escape—which I assume happens—satisfying for the viewer. Don/Dick is still an asshole, but confronted with an even greater asshole, I can side with that kind of redemption. This entire final season reflects Lennon's line, "The dream is over." Lament, relief, whatever, but so fucking 1969–70, ending in defeat.

[JennyB]

What a difference ten years makes:

[JennyB]

Sorry about the size. I don't know how to do things.

[Flex]

Unfortunately, I'm way behind so I can't really comment on Doc's take on the latest (except to say I assume it to be accurate, as all his takes so far have been), but I can say that is a damn awesome juxtaposition in that pic.

[Dr. Medulla]

Another thought re. Joan's fate. If she doesn't side with the plotters to oust Don (out of the bizarre belief that he's costing her money), Roger doesn't pursue his Hail Mary plan, which she signs on to (again, out of greed). And the end result is her forced out … at a 50% reduction of her share. Without minimizing the dominant sexism in the business culture, she ends up being an active participant in her own undoing. Like Don and Roger, she thinks she can manipulate events to her own benefit, but … nope.

I'd also love for people (none of you; I mean generic online you's) to stop looking for evidence that Don is going to take a header out a window because, duh, that's what happens in the opening credits. It's fucking symbolism about status. The entire series is about the fall of a group of people. For a show built on intricacies and unexpected twists, could there be a dumber ending than some kind of recreation of the opening credits?

And that photo is yet another example of the great callbacks the show employs, all to illustrate Don's fantastic Carousel pitch at the end of season 1. Everything comes around again, not exactly the same, but it all comes back over and over.

[Dr. Medulla]

Well, happy Mother's Day. :(

[daredevil]

1. For a second I thought one of those vets knew Dons real name
2. That stripper was fugly.

[Dr. Medulla]

1. For a second I thought one of those vets knew Dons real name
2. That stripper was fugly.

1. Yeah, that was the set up, and yet another reminder to him that the jig is up, if only in the sense that he can't keep hiding from himself.
2. My take on that was to suggest that "real" America is as ugly as the fantasy one.

Given all the deliberate placements of books in this series, to be used as clues, I'm kinda surprised that they've never used Faulkner's Requiem For a Nun, which contains the brilliant insight that the past isn't dead, it's not even past. That's the lesson that DD/DW has failed to learn until, finally, now.

[tepista]

I watched one minute of it over my wife's shoulder. I asked her if dickhead picked up a hippie to murder him because he hates hippies. She said "We'll see."

[revbob]

I've never watched the show and the only other show I ever saw that was sort of about advertising was Bewitched, so I'll assume it is kind of like that.

[tepista]

I've never watched the show and the only other show I ever saw that was sort of about advertising was Bewitched, so I'll assume it is kind of like that.

It's Bewitched mixed with the Armen Tamzarian episode of the Simpsons.

I watched the first two seasons. It's like a soap opera, but without vampires, if that makes any sense.

[JennyB]

Never in my life would I have thought I would be rooting for Betty and Pete.