Mad Men

[Kraven]

breaking up shows into 2 halves REALLY SUCKS!

 

[dfergie]

 

[satjay]

Looking forward to the start of the season

 

[Zookster]

Yowza! Jessica Paré.
I think I just saw every hairstyle my mom wore when I was growing up in the 70s. lol
Can't wait.

 

[dfergie]

Final Season Premiere tonight ... Doh, last week ...

 

[Zookster]

Second half of the final season premiered on Sunday. I'm still in denial that these are the final seven episodes.

 

[Zookster]

Series finale aired last Sunday. We got quite a bit of closure on the main characters' story arcs, though I'm very sad to see one of my all-time favorite shows end.
But since it's been on a bit of a decline the past few seasons, I guess it had run its course.
"All good things ..."

Time to change my avatar.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I Felt the finale was rushed to tie up everything quickly ,especially for Don /Dick and his poor, soon to be motherless children. Don going to the commune in California and hugging a man he barely knows, to share their mutual grief,over different ,but similar ,issues seemed out of place. I expected him to share that grief with old Betty- dieing of cancer ,while she continued to smoke. But everyone else kind of got their own happy endings. They should of spent longer on this finale and made it a two hour movie to tie up Don and his family ,instead of showing him phoning his ex and his daughter for their final scenes together.

 

[Zookster]

I agree. A lot of the storylines felt rushed and perfunctory. We somehow went from Roger being thrown out of bed in one scene, to him announcing they were getting married in the next one he appeared in.

The Peggy/Stan revelation about their love for one another actually worked for me. They were like best friends who finally own up to their deeper feelings for one another. But such a big moment certainly merited more development. Instead, we just see him looking over her shoulder as she was typing something.

Joan's closing story arc got the best development out of all of them I thought.

Don's big revelation also worked for me. As I read it, Don "found himself" (beyond his Dick Whitman/Don Draper personnas) at the New Age-y retreat by getting in touch with and releasing some of his pain of feeling abandoned and unloved as a child that he carried with him into adulthood. Because he was always disconnected from his feelings, in order to avoid that pain, he had trouble connecting with anyone on a deeper level to create a lasting relationship (just like he was doing when he first arrived at the retreat). He was a stranger to his kids, his wives, his girlfriends, his co-workers, and more importantly, himself; and like a milk bottle sitting on the shelf in the frige, he felt like someone who people liked having around, but not necessarily something they wanted or loved as much as say a bottle of coke or a beer. I guess I've been in enough situations like at that retreat to understand how two complete strangers can form an immediate bond over the disclosure of such intensely emotional experiences.

I wasn't sure if Don had created the Coke ad at the end, but upon further reflection, I think it makes the most sense that he did. After his experience at the retreat, he is in a better position to create an ad about a feeling, which is something he always endeavored to do, but now with feeling. The ending did seem a bit abrupt however.