Thoughts, not all that thinky, on Mad Men
May. 23rd, 2015 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatJust finished binge watching the final five episodes of Mad Men, and..well, I have the same reaction that I had to the last season of Breaking Bad, The Wire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, MASH, and Justified, yes, I liked the ending but the middle seasons were better. I don't know what it is about television series and final seasons...but they feel as if the writers have gotten tired? And maybe the series should have ended a year earlier?
That said, they did wrap up all the story arcs rather neatly in the finale, and everyone got a happy ending but Betty Draper Fisher and her kids. (They sort of killed her off - ironically with lung cancer. A final word on all the smoking in the series. I felt a little sorry for Sally, but since I could not stand Betty, it was hard to care. And actually I think everyone is better off without her, especially Sally.)
Loved Joan, Roger, Pete, and Peggy's endings. Those worked for me. And their arcs actually worked throughout the series. The only characters that I had issues with were Don and Betty...I found them sort of boring and a touch cliche. The show worked best when it focused on the AD industry.
But, there are some nifty isolated moments in Don's finale story arc...that sort of save it.
I may have to write a meta on this at a later point. All in all, I enjoyed the final four episodes quite a bit, the first couple were a bit slow. And I will miss the series, it was amongst the few that I felt was well written with consistently strong performances, and production.
And yay, finally, to Stan and Peggy, who I'd been steadily and quietly shipping for the past three years and never thought would actually go anywhere.
They are perfect together.
Vincent Kartheiser amazes me. I saw him in the cast roundtables, after they'd finished filming, and he looks nothing like his character on Mad Men. He's actually attractive. In fact I didn't recognize him. Nor did I recognize Elizabeth Moss. Those two actors are insanely good. You don't recognize them from one role to the next, they disappear into their roles.
Kartheriser who had formerly played Connor in Angel the Series, has impressed me for a while - in that he was riveting as Connor. (At least I found him to be riveting. He upped David Boreanze's acting.) He pulled off the same thing in Mad Men that he did in Angel, for me at any rate, in that he made me care about a very complex and not necessarily likable character.
Overall it was a good finale. Not quite as good as the Justified finale, or the Breaking Bad finale, but close. And definitely better than Battle Star Galatica, Buffy, or Lost.
(I didn't like the finales all that much of BSG, Lost or Buffy - they all felt forced, preachy, and over the top. I prefer subtle endings.)
That said, they did wrap up all the story arcs rather neatly in the finale, and everyone got a happy ending but Betty Draper Fisher and her kids. (They sort of killed her off - ironically with lung cancer. A final word on all the smoking in the series. I felt a little sorry for Sally, but since I could not stand Betty, it was hard to care. And actually I think everyone is better off without her, especially Sally.)
Loved Joan, Roger, Pete, and Peggy's endings. Those worked for me. And their arcs actually worked throughout the series. The only characters that I had issues with were Don and Betty...I found them sort of boring and a touch cliche. The show worked best when it focused on the AD industry.
But, there are some nifty isolated moments in Don's finale story arc...that sort of save it.
I may have to write a meta on this at a later point. All in all, I enjoyed the final four episodes quite a bit, the first couple were a bit slow. And I will miss the series, it was amongst the few that I felt was well written with consistently strong performances, and production.
And yay, finally, to Stan and Peggy, who I'd been steadily and quietly shipping for the past three years and never thought would actually go anywhere.
They are perfect together.
Vincent Kartheiser amazes me. I saw him in the cast roundtables, after they'd finished filming, and he looks nothing like his character on Mad Men. He's actually attractive. In fact I didn't recognize him. Nor did I recognize Elizabeth Moss. Those two actors are insanely good. You don't recognize them from one role to the next, they disappear into their roles.
Kartheriser who had formerly played Connor in Angel the Series, has impressed me for a while - in that he was riveting as Connor. (At least I found him to be riveting. He upped David Boreanze's acting.) He pulled off the same thing in Mad Men that he did in Angel, for me at any rate, in that he made me care about a very complex and not necessarily likable character.
Overall it was a good finale. Not quite as good as the Justified finale, or the Breaking Bad finale, but close. And definitely better than Battle Star Galatica, Buffy, or Lost.
(I didn't like the finales all that much of BSG, Lost or Buffy - they all felt forced, preachy, and over the top. I prefer subtle endings.)
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no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 01:34 pm (UTC)At first I really didn't like the finale and thought the show should have ended with the next to last episode, where all these things are hinted at in a more interesting way. I read Matt Weinberg's discussion of what he intended in the final (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mad-men-series-finale-matthew-797302) and liked it a little better after that.
If I hadn't read the Weinberg piece, I'd be tempted to argue that the finale scene might be read as Don's new life being a fake guru, but all the stuff about Coke in the episode and others, and Weinberg's view, convince me that that it's really meant to suggest that he goes back and creates that ad.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 02:12 pm (UTC)I figured out that Don returned to McAnn Erickson and created the Coke ad...
that worked for me, perfectly. It's actually amongst my favorite bits in the episode. I thought that was hilarious. Don Draper's brilliance as a creative director was being able to twist those deep meaningful emotional moments into an ad. To turn an advertisement into a beautiful piece of art. The con artist as ad man, although as Mad Men points out they are the same. It's that complexity - that made Mad Men interesting. The famous Coke Ad is revolutionary in a way - because it has all these people of different races, classes, etc standing on a hill singing about piece and tranquility, hope, love, etc...but it's selling coke, consumerism, competition.
Reminds me of another AD for Android...with different species of animals playing and loving each other, to the song Robin Hood and Little John. Great ad, selling loving those who are different from you, but at the same time selling a product.
That's advertising - the whole season, various characters ask if there is any point to advertising? Is this pointless? Are they creating anything? Peggy tells Don she wants to create something - that's her dream. And he basically says -- it's pointless, and shits on it. Joan wants to create a business, do advertising, she loves it -- Richard tells her it's pointless and she should just play with him. Don leaves the ad game for a bit...because it feels hollow to him, then somehow in the final four episodes, he realizes that everyone feels that way to some extent. Hunting something more. Pete realizes it -- how destructive that can be, needing something looking for something more, not grateful for what he has. So he wisely decides to become a big fish in a smaller pond, and take Judy and his family with him. In Witchita, he can be wealthy, important, and successful, instead of invisible in New York.
Like last season, the last four episodes worked for me. The beginning ones..fell flat.
And in this season, like last one, my favorite episodes were the last two. Mad Men is odd that way - the first few episodes drag, and it picks up as it goes.
What didn't work for me...was the long trudge to that ending. It was uneven, I think.
But to be fair, all television shows are uneven, it's the nature of television.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 02:38 pm (UTC)There are some even bigger questions about the whole nature of truth that I think that show handled really well by never talking about them directly, but always focusing on advertising.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 06:13 pm (UTC)I mean, think of it, the coke commercial promises this amazing beverage that provides a happiness. (And back in the day when it contained "cocaine" prior to the 1950s...it did provide that for a while. But cocaine is a false high, just as the sugar and caffeine in coke are.) We live in a world in which we are constantly being shown the carrot only to have it yanked from our grasp...and when we finally get it, as Don Draper did, he realizes...it just isn't what he thought it would be and is somewhat disappointed.
Yep, worthy of a lengthy meta.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-24 09:10 pm (UTC)It took me a while to get into it. I gave up on it, but my brother and various friends were raving about it -- so I gave it another try. It does get better as it goes. The beginning of each season drags, then it picks up speed at the end. For some reason, the last five-four episodes of each season are the best, the first two-four are rather weak and drag.
And, it does do a great job of showing how things changed, how people struggled with those changes in the 1960s, and holds up a mirror to the culture wars going on today.
There's how homosexuality was handled in 1960, and in 1973, how women's rights was handled, and race. Subtly describes the changes. It's worth watching for that alone. And well, Vincent Karthesier and Elizabeth Moss...although everyone in this series is really good.