I've watched Mad Men from day one, and constantly list it amongst my favorites.
However, I've always felt like I wasn't catching at least 30% of the subtext, themes, etc.
Tonight was no different. Enjoyed the episode and all of the wrapping up, but will look forward to one of he episode recaps I follow to have it explained to me.
I think that Stan/Peggy scene was the happiest this show has ever made me. Happy endings all around. Show went a little astray in seasons 5/6, but 7 was really good.
I'm a little sad. I'm really going to miss a lot of these characters.
There are multiple ways to interpret the ending (Wiener Soprano'd us again) but I like to think Don used his hippie experience to go create possibly the most famous ad ever.
The rest of the episode was pretty anticlimactic. I didn't care about Stan and Peggy getting together. I wanted Sally to grow up and be someone awesome but the last shot was her washing dishes, like her mother. At least Joan will be successful (and do a lot of coke in the 80's).
There are multiple ways to interpret the ending (Wiener Soprano'd us again) but I like to think Don used his hippie experience to go create possibly the most famous ad ever.
Yeah that's what I took from that too. McCann-Erickson did make that ad (thanks, Wikipedia!).
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Originally Posted by DownInFlames
The rest of the episode was pretty anticlimactic. I didn't care about Stan and Peggy getting together. I wanted Sally to grow up and be someone awesome but the last shot was her washing dishes, like her mother. At least Joan will be successful (and do a lot of coke in the 80's).
I thought the Stan/Peggy thing was kind of lame. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention or missed something, but did that come right out of the blue? It seemed like they were thinking "everyone loves Peggy, so let's do something nice for her at the end. What about her and Stan!?!".
I always rooted for Don, ####### that he was and all, but at the end I was thinking "come on man, the mother of your children is dying, quit whining and go home!".
Joan seemed to have "won" three or four times too. She's rich, now she's richer, now she has a rich boyfriend, now she doesn't have a rich boyfriend but she's better off for it, now she has a successful business... I know she had it rough sometimes, but come on!
"Wrapped up" in terms of the time frame they're going to end in. I mean who knows what happens in her life ...
... but
That's a pretty amazing way to see a character for the last time. Especially with the knowledge of her journey and growth for context.
Damn how I wish this had been Peggy's last scene. The Peggy/Stan thing felt really tacked on, like it was something they had set up a few years ago, and forgot about until the very end.
Yes fine, they end up together, it's believable enough. But man Peggy rolling down the hall like a boss with the sunglasses on and the cigarette was just so much cooler then "aww, here's a tender kiss on the forehead"
Sally's ending actually felt like a nice closure to the beginning of the season (including the first half of season 7 here) with her attempting to branch out and away from her mother, but struggling to really gain any ground, then ending up exactly where her Mom was.
As for Don... by the end of it, I'd lost some interest. Ever since he came back to the agency after his suspension the character felt slightly dulled in my eyes.
Sure he still stirred the pot from time to time, but the fire in his eyes, the "don't **** with me" attitude seemed to be gone. So even walking out of the Miller meeting was like "Eh whatever, Ted's got it."
Don't get me wrong, the ending was decent enough and I'm glad I stuck with it. But if we call Six Feet Under the best TV show ending, and The Sopranos the worse TV ending... Mad Men falls damn near in the middle of those extremes. Closer to Six Feet Under then The Sopranos, but nothing earth shattering.
There are multiple ways to interpret the ending (Wiener Soprano'd us again) but I like to think Don used his hippie experience to go create possibly the most famous ad ever..
Honestly, I think that's the only way to interpret that ending. Don is Don, he's an ad-man, he's tried to be other things but he is what he is. He used that hippie experience to create one of the more famous and influential advertisements, for the company he always wanted to work for, Coke.
It was a great ending to just an okay episode. Though Roger as always kills it with great lines in every scene he was in.
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Well I misinterpreted the end until I read this thread... I thought Peggy might of wrote the Coke ad and Don transformed himself again into someone else - leaving advertising behind and his old life behind. But now that I think about it, even though he recreates himself he never completely abandons his old lives so that makes sense. He runs away but comes back and this was just another excursion. Peggy writing the coke ad didn't tie in other than she mentioned Coke to Don and she was typing away at the end.
My prediction from a few years ago was that Don would jump from a high rise building and the ending would be like the intro to all the episodes. Then a couple episodes ago he's looking out the window at the Empire State Building with the sound of wind and totally thought it was foreshadowing. I thought it would be smart if the ending was there the whole time in plain site, but maybe it was too obvious and drastic.
I like the ending better now that I understand it and think about it a little more. There is so much critical thinking behind every episode and that is one thing that made it so great, and at the same time you can take everything at face value and it is still good. It was my favourite show and I will miss it.
Well I misinterpreted the end until I read this thread... I thought Peggy might of wrote the Coke ad and Don transformed himself again into someone else - leaving advertising behind and his old life behind. But now that I think about it, even though he recreates himself he never completely abandons his old lives so that makes sense. He runs away but comes back and this was just another excursion. Peggy writing the coke ad didn't tie in other than she mentioned Coke to Don and she was typing away at the end.
My prediction from a few years ago was that Don would jump from a high rise building and the ending would be like the intro to all the episodes. Then a couple episodes ago he's looking out the window at the Empire State Building with the sound of wind and totally thought it was foreshadowing. I thought it would be smart if the ending was there the whole time in plain site, but maybe it was too obvious and drastic.
I like the ending better now that I understand it and think about it a little more. There is so much critical thinking behind every episode and that is one thing that made it so great, and at the same time you can take everything at face value and it is still good. It was my favourite show and I will miss it.
I always thought that too. Then when Don was in the office at McCann, he went over to the window that appeared to be loose and pushed on it, I thought here we go!
I hated the ending when I first watched it but after some reflection, it's grown on me. Gonna miss that show.
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He kind of did mimic the opening credits though ... just in totality and not so literally. He was a man in the high office tower, the world around him comes apart, he falls and in the end ends up right back where he started. The man in the credits doesn't die, he ends up back in the chair, in his suit, smoking his cigarette.
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Johnny eats garbage and isn’t 100% committed.
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