Mad Men Finale Thoughts
May. 18th, 2015 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightNot a review, really, just... thoughts.
- Loved Joan's reaction to Roger getting married to Megan's mother. They get each other. (Also liked Joan's "no, he's just a terrible person" regarding Greg forgetting all about about Kevin.)
- Preferred Betty's final scene last episode. Oh well. i did like seeing Sally stepping up to take care of her brothers, but I really hope she's not essentially becoming a mother at seventeen. i don't want her to turn into Betty 2.0. (Though really, I don't think she will.) Didn't get Betty wanting the kids with their brother though - didn't he screw over their father? Unless he had a major personality change, from what I remember of him, I don't see him having the children's best interests at heart.
- No idea what to think of Don'sweird hippie commune thing (ETA: I take it back - apparently it's a real place, and an actual spiritual/healing center...), except I didn't like it. Did he go back and come up with the coke ad? That seems to be the general consensus.
- In a way I wish Peggy and Joan had joined forces, but... in all honesty? While that was even a very popular fan theory (and certainly something I was more than in favor of myself), Joan and Peggy never worked well together. They weren't enemies, but unfortunately they were put in a situation where they found themselves in constant competition, and I'm not sure whether they would've been able to surpass that.
- Peggy and Stan were cute - it was alllmost a bit too rom com, but to heck with it, they deserve happiness. Plus, I think they're the only people who've been able to be 100% straight with each other and still stay standing the next day. (Besides Don and Peggy, maybe.) Peggy pisses Stan off sometimes, but she's never pushed him away, and vice versa.
I don't think this episode was good as a series finale. It wasn't terrible, but... it reminds me of some of the fanfics I've written, where eventually I ran out of steam and just sort of tacked on an ending. That's how this felt, even if it's not what MW intended. (Wonder if some of the writers and other people involved felt that way, though.)
I think the other problem with the past few seasons is that we got way too much late sixties/early seventies stuff - for obvious reasons, that's when they took place, but media's already covered the late sixties and early seventies so much, not a lot really felt new. It was more... Mad Men characters in scenarios we'd already seen before, whereas the earlier seasons really covered less explored ground.
In any case, I think the show ending after season five would've been perfect, or even the first half of season seven. The whole world watches man walk the moon, Cooper dies, etc.
I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts. Making this public so anyone can contribute. :)
- Loved Joan's reaction to Roger getting married to Megan's mother. They get each other. (Also liked Joan's "no, he's just a terrible person" regarding Greg forgetting all about about Kevin.)
- Preferred Betty's final scene last episode. Oh well. i did like seeing Sally stepping up to take care of her brothers, but I really hope she's not essentially becoming a mother at seventeen. i don't want her to turn into Betty 2.0. (Though really, I don't think she will.) Didn't get Betty wanting the kids with their brother though - didn't he screw over their father? Unless he had a major personality change, from what I remember of him, I don't see him having the children's best interests at heart.
- No idea what to think of Don's
- In a way I wish Peggy and Joan had joined forces, but... in all honesty? While that was even a very popular fan theory (and certainly something I was more than in favor of myself), Joan and Peggy never worked well together. They weren't enemies, but unfortunately they were put in a situation where they found themselves in constant competition, and I'm not sure whether they would've been able to surpass that.
- Peggy and Stan were cute - it was alllmost a bit too rom com, but to heck with it, they deserve happiness. Plus, I think they're the only people who've been able to be 100% straight with each other and still stay standing the next day. (Besides Don and Peggy, maybe.) Peggy pisses Stan off sometimes, but she's never pushed him away, and vice versa.
I don't think this episode was good as a series finale. It wasn't terrible, but... it reminds me of some of the fanfics I've written, where eventually I ran out of steam and just sort of tacked on an ending. That's how this felt, even if it's not what MW intended. (Wonder if some of the writers and other people involved felt that way, though.)
I think the other problem with the past few seasons is that we got way too much late sixties/early seventies stuff - for obvious reasons, that's when they took place, but media's already covered the late sixties and early seventies so much, not a lot really felt new. It was more... Mad Men characters in scenarios we'd already seen before, whereas the earlier seasons really covered less explored ground.
In any case, I think the show ending after season five would've been perfect, or even the first half of season seven. The whole world watches man walk the moon, Cooper dies, etc.
I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts. Making this public so anyone can contribute. :)
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Date: 2015-05-18 04:29 pm (UTC)Ohh, so it was the real McCann too. That actually answers questions a lot of people were asking about the fact that they used a real ad! Though the concern was more claiming/implying Don did it - honestly, I'm fine with that. It's obviously not the real McCann anyway, so that's obviously not the real ad anyway. It's always been clear to me that the companies are meant to be stand-ins so they can use the names of actual brands, as well as their advertisements. Otherwise the real Lucky Strike people and Jaguar people would probably have a case for libel...
I know Betty wanted them to have maternal influence, and it also makes sense to me that she may have wanted to avoid Sally having to fall into that role - as she said in her letter to Sally, Betty knows Sally's meant for more than that. I just remember Betty's brother being very selfish, though IIRC his wife was okay, even apologetic of her husband. And it'd be good for them not to lose their only connection to Betty, too.
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Date: 2015-05-18 04:43 pm (UTC)Quite a few of the products were real products. Conrad Hilton was a real, historic person, for instance. The real McCann twitter feed actually reposted the commercial last night congratulating Don for finally coming up with a good idea for McCann (that coke commercial).
Betty's brother wasn't loaded and wanted to live in the house. People get crazy when family members die/are dying. I've witnessed similar fights over who-gets-what once the parents are dead before.
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Date: 2015-05-18 04:51 pm (UTC)Yeah, like I said I think I was so focused on "but what about everyone else?" I may actually go back and rewatch, because spiritual healing type of things are normally right up my alley.
Quite a few of the products were real products. Conrad Hilton was a real, historic person, for instance. The real McCann twitter feed actually reposted the commercial last night congratulating Don for finally coming up with a good idea for McCann (that coke commercial).
Yeah, that was what I was trying to say. Maybe I need to back up - I was reading posts worrying that the show "stole" the coke ad, since it was real. My point was that most of the figures and companies we've seen on the show have been based on real people and agencies, probably intended more as stand-ins. Or the show is supposed to be an alternate history of sorts. Either or.
Betty's brother wasn't loaded and wanted to live in the house. People get crazy when family members die/are dying. I've witnessed similar fights over who-gets-what once the parents are dead before.
I may be remembering wrong anyway. I hope you're right. (But I also know families can get pretty intense in bad times. I've witnessed it in my own, unfortunately.)