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Mad Men: The Final 7 Episodes

Alkali Ike

Alkali Ike

Gold Supporting Member
Jan 1, 2011
2,854
15,665
Pacific Northwest
www.xdrguy.com
Disclosures
I never actually learned to play very well
#1
Because it deserves its own thread. ;)

Watching the marathon leading up to the finale. Don reporting to Lou, taking orders from Peggy. Writing tag lines, probably the lowest task on an ad team. No drinking at the office. No private meetings with clients.
 
#2
I don't have cable and have never missed it. The one exception is this. New Mad Men seasons don't make it onto Netflix until long after their run. I am anxious to see how it ends. One thing is for sure: The finale is not going to be a purely happy or sad ending affair. Wiener is too smart of a writer for that. I do hope that Don gets some existential resolution. Or maybe he goes to prison for all of the fraud he's committed through identity theft and comes out again as Dick Whitman.
 
#3
LiquidMidnight said:
I don't have cable and have never missed it. The one exception is this. New Mad Men seasons don't make it onto Netflix until long after their run. I am anxious to see how it ends. One thing is for sure: The finale is not going to be a purely happy or sad ending affair. Wiener is too smart of a writer for that. I do hope that Don gets some existential resolution. Or maybe he goes to prison for all of the fraud he's committed through identity theft and comes out again as Dick Whitman.
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You can watch it online here: Watch "Mad Men" (2007) (TV Show) online download MadMen on PrimeWire | 1Channel | Formerly LetMeWatchThis. They usually post episodes shortly after they get done airing EST.
 
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#4
I can totally see Don dying in the end. Jumping off the building like the silhouette in the opening credits. The guy's not mentally stable. Never has been.

Maybe the government will find out he's a deserter. Pete rats him out. Don never really respected him and he'll say something to Pete to piss him off. Pete's always been a vindictive little twerp.
 
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#6
Gorn said:
I can totally see Don dying in the end. Jumping off the building like the silhouette in the opening credits. The guy's not mentally stable. Never has been.

Maybe the government will find out he's a deserter. Pete rats him out. Don never really respected him and he'll say something to Pete to piss him off. Pete's always been a vindictive little twerp.
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I'm hoping it ends with Don in the year 2015. Old, retired and alone with what it all meant... like Vito Coleone in the garden.
 
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#8
It's a quality show. One of the few. I haven't seen the entire run, but my wife has. I avoided it for years because A. I am not much of a TV watcher (although I watch a lot of movies) and B. I just got the impression it was bout a rich a-hole playboy. I didn't think it would be so rich in sub-plots and character development. I've probably seen more episodes than ones I've missed. Oh man...Joan. JOAN!
 
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#9
I've been noticing a disconnect between the audience and the writers/media when it comes to Mad Men's depiction of alcohol. Everyone I know admires the casual drinking on the show. We all love that every character has a bar in their office and client schmoozing is always based around three martini lunches and late night booze filled hospitality. As far as I can tell, that's Roger Sterling's only job. NPR even did a piece about "the Mad Men Effect" on cocktail culture (Drinking With 'Mad Men': Cocktail Culture And The Myth Of Don Draper : The Salt : NPR)

"As a televised advertisement for heavy drinking, this is like The Wire encouraging people to get into drug dealing, or Breaking Bad making meth production seem like a viable, risk-free sideline. (And yes, I'm aware this actually [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].) But it's taken a long time in Mad Men years (six seasons, to be precise) for Don to be truly dislodged from his pedestal as America's Manliest Man."​

Where I'm seeing a disconnect is that the writers and news sources are treating Mad Men as a cautionary tale about the dark side of alcohol. But viewers are clearly treating it as a nostalgic championing of drinking culture and a badge of manliness sorely lost in our PC culture. Me an my friends... We don't want the morality. Spare us. We want the myth. The same way we want Keith Richards to keep on being Keith Richards. We don't want him to have remorse. We want him to lead the debaucherous unrepentant life we all wish we could have. We want his legend intact for the history books.

That's my ¢2, anyway. I was drinking a beer when I wrote it.
 
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#12
Alkali Ike said:
Watching this show is a more voyeuristic experience for the viewer than with most shows. We know these are mostly pathetic terrible empty people. And yet...

The show still has it.
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There's lots of anti-heroes. Tony Soparano, Walter White and Frank Underwood. But IMO people don't want Don Draper to fall. I would actuall compare him to the Sex in the City characters.
 
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#13
The series started off depicting Don as a flawed but still likable and sympathetic character. Then in the middle seasons, he started to drift between unlikeable to sometimes just pathetic. It seems like in the final season he's back to being a flawed but sympathetic character. I think he seems to get his humanity through his interactions with Sally and Peggy. It will definitely be interesting to see where he ends up as a character at the end.
 
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#15
Don is the ultimate product depicted in the show. He is a product of his time, his line of business, and the particular circumstances of his own upbringing. He's never able to quite get his head around this fact or get any leverage against it. That, to me, is what makes it incredibly compelling to watch him as a character.

We can nail down exactly what's going on with all the other characters, and, at one point or another, each of the other characters gets to look what he or she really is right in the face. This is never the case for Don, not even when he ventures out into the Village, jumps into free love in California, struggles to comes to terms with his lies, or is humbled and humiliated re-entering his profession at the copy-writer level.

I can't tell if the finale will be great or awful if he finally gets a chance to put his finger on who and what he is.

I started out absolutely loving the show because of the themes (particularly about sex and gender) and because of all the wardrobe and set design driving this period piece. It wasn't until about halfway through the series that I came to fully appreciate Don Draper as a character study, but now I can't think of a better character in television.
 
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#18
Just watched the episode where Bert Cooper dies. The song and dance number was delightful.

For those of you who weren't aware, Robert Morse (Cooper) was a big star in the 1961 Broadway play "How to succeed in Business without really trying". He won a Tony for his performance in it.

He also starred in the 1967 movie of the same name.
A couple of clips:



 
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