Mad Men Season Five Finale Reaction Post

[author_by_night]

Well, here is my review of Mad Men season five: The Phantom.

Most of this review will be in segments, because it's easier.

The Aftermath of Lane's Death: Okay, one of my top pet peeves with character deaths is when in the next episode/chapter/what have you, it's like nothing happened save an obligatory sad scene and an obligatory somber scene and some allusions to the fact that things have changed. Aside from Joan and Don, Rebecca and Don, and "Adam" and Don, we get... nothing. I would have liked to have at least scene an awkward pause between Peggy (who I'm assuming knows) and Don.

Now, I will say on some level it's not that far of a stretch - sometimes when people die at work or school or whatever, nobody really talks about it in the open, but there's still usually private conversations and everything.

Peggy: It was good to see that she'd succeeded so much - I guess this means she's officially done with SCDP, unless somehow it doesn't work out after all. It might be fun to see her as a rival. But somehow I still don't think she's left SCDP for good.

Pete, Beth and Trudy: Tennesse Williams wrote that storyline from his grave.

Seriously though, it was definitely not a... steady resolution. Trudy looked like she was going to kick Pete out, and in all honesty I'm not entirely sure she wasn't half kicking him out. As for Beth, it felt like a cheap way out. Besides, does electric shock therapy actually cause you to forget things? Either way, the whole thing felt more The Yellow Wallpaper or like a Tennessee Williams play than a Mad Men storyline. The Glass House of a Streetcar Named Pete Campbell on a Hot Tin NYC Apartment.

Don: Your wife is happy, so you sleep with other women. Granted, I thought Megan was actually in the wrong here - you can't ask someone to cast a family member in their advertiement. But she didn't deserve that.

Joan and Roger: Oh wait, that was never resolved. Baby? What baby?

As a whole... I don't think this season was bad, and maybe when I rewatch the episode I won't even think it was so bad. But we needed more resolution, and we didn't get it. Nothing came of Dawn, of the whole Kevin thing, and even Betty's whole cancer scare never really went anywhere. I'm glad she wasn't really dying, don't get me wrong, but there needed to be a point and there really wasn't a point. I think the season had way too much going on, and the final episode shows just how much went unresolved.

Comments

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

I THINK Joan and Harry also discussed Lane's office (mostly that neither of them wanted to have it), and I was glad to see Rebecca again, but yeah, otherwise Lane got barely any mention.
I was sad that the company was thriving and now he's dead. :( I'd have liked it if Lane was one of the ghosts Don saw, too.

I loved that Peggy was emulating Don with those two underlings of her. :p She's going to be alright.

I really wished Trudy would go back to the city with Pete. I did like she realised he was unhappy and that she needed to do something about it except ordering him to be happy again. It's just that Mad Men characters have this habit of giving people what they want and then they found out it's not what they wanted at all!
I also liked that Pete disapproved of that guy (eugh, what a creep) cheating on Beth. Pete has sóme morals...

Megan, Megan, Megan... you're such a child. What was UP with stabbing that friend in the back?! SHE was the one who wanted that ad job! Megan's really a nasty piece of work deep down, isn't she? Not saying that Don doesn't deserve that...

The ending was frustrating, although I really liked the song. XD It gave everything such a James Bond feeling. Interesting that Don hesitated when tempted instead of just flat out saying no. Is he going back to his old habits now Megan isn't all about him anymore? Don ís the perpetual runner...

I got to say, the season is better on rewatch, but yeah, there are definitely some loose threads. I didn't even realise the Franceses weren't even in this episode, to be honest! Even though I was thinking of Betty when Don watched that film of Megan - it was such a call-back to the Caroussel scene. :)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I also liked that Pete disapproved of that guy (eugh, what a creep) cheating on Beth. Pete has sóme morals...


I actually wonder if Pete didn't hate a bit of himself, in that moment. Maybe that's what some of his stuff has been leading up to - he realizes that he is more or less at risk of turning into that guy. Pressuring Joan to sleep with that Jaguar guy, cheating on Trudy... he didn't look very happy that he was told to just get the new apartment, and I almost wondered if he wasn't trying to make amends. But maybe I'm giving him too much credit.

Megan, Megan, Megan... you're such a child. What was UP with stabbing that friend in the back?!

Ugh! I thought I'd misunderstood the earlier scene, probably because I'm so used to Megan being written as perfect, heh. Ugh, yeah, that was awful.

it was such a call-back to the Caroussel scene. :)

I know once you reply I'll feel silly for forgetting, but what was the Carousel scene again?

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

I think Pete is involved in some self-hatred there, but he also obviously feels that Beth's husband has done even worse; in addition to cheating on her, it seems that every time he either detects that she's cheated on him, due to her unhappiness in their marriage, or she's confessed to cheating (it's unclear how her husband found out yet didn't know it was Pete until Pete slipped up) he seems to put her in the hospital for shock treatment. It's a pretty horrible punishment for infidelity, especially when he's engaging in exactly the same behavior, even paying for an apartment for his mistress!

I've known a couple of people in my life who've had shock treatment. I don't know much about the first person, who was adult friend of the family when I was a kid, but a guy who went to school with my husband was--different afterward. There were definitely some things that sort of 'fell' out of his head, but I don't think it was as simplistic as a given stretch of time that he lost. He was a brilliant mathematician and he actually seemed to lose the ability to do certain types of functions with numbers. Before treatment he was suffering from some pretty extreme delusions, hallucinations and varied unidentified voices (full-on schizophrenia). It's actually unclear whether the shock treatment or other therapies led to his deteriorating math abilities. He also had a lobotomy at one point. That may not have helped either, and he was on some pretty heavy-duty drugs, post-surgery (and still is).

Beth is merely supposed to be "sad". Shock treatment seems like an extreme reaction to either sadness or infidelity, and perhaps this is supposed to show exactly how much men of the time could still control their wives. :shudder:

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

Peggy can't be done with SCDP - I mean, I didn't think she really was in the first place, but after that scene with the hosiery guys saying that they used to be able to count on a female perspective, I'm pretty sure she's got to be coming back. But triumphantly.

Haha, that was very Tennessee Williams, although it didn't occur to me until you said it. (ECT does have a significant risk of memory loss, according to Wikipedia.) To be honest, I didn't notice that it didn't fit in with the show because I was too busy thinking that it was funny that Pete has been beaten up twice this season.

Don has always been self-destructive (disobeying dentist's orders, too! He's going to get a dry socket!), so I can't say I'm surprised that he's back to his philandering. Actually, I can't help but wonder if the show might not end with Don leaving New York to leave all of his relationships behind and start fresh a second time ... and have Peggy fill his shoes at SCDP.