MAD MEN - The Final 7 — Page 5

I've been struggling with it all morning, and I just have to say that ultimately I'm pretty disappointed with the whole Don Draper aspect of the finale. Basically, after an entire lifetime of angst and more than usually self-destructive behavior, and seven solid years detailing every single bit of that angst and self-destructiveness, all Don Draper needs is a group therapy session and a hug to reach total self-awareness, and it's all wrapped up in less than fifteen minutes of screen time. I'm reminded of Robin Williams banishing all of Matt Damon's personality problems with those four magic words, "It's Not Your Fault."

Updated On: 5/18/15 at 02:05 PM

"Basically, after an entire lifetime of angst and more than usually self-destructive behavior, all Don Draper needs is a group therapy session and a hug to reach total self-awareness."

Is that how you read the ending? I thought it was a little darker than that. I kinda loved the whole bullsh*tty 'I'm on a shelf in the refrigerator' breakdown that caused Don to finally embrace another man in that way. I couldn't help feeling these white, straight male problems are a little hilarious. More than that...luxurious. If that is the crisis you face ('How can I possibly receive love?') then you have a life of luxury and privilege. When shown against a backdrop of women fighting for every last break, for black people just resolving themselves to the fact that it's a white, straight male world, that gay people can be easily dismissed from the mainstream public sphere, all this sturm und drang about the white man's problem looks so friggin selfish and small. Of COURSE the Coke ad would run. I very strongly believed this morning that it indicated he created the Coke ad. But now...I'm having different thoughts. That ad is one of the most famous ever created. It capitalized on the peace movement and the hippie movement and it tried to make us feel good...about soda. Actually, about our lives with soda in it. Don started the series selling poison and he (in one theory) ends it doing the same. After all the angst, it turns out he's as deep as a puddle...or a Coke ad. Only a white man of privilege can have that moment of zen contentment and think it's a real breakthrough. Don Draper will never change cause there's just not enough 'there' to change.

Updated On: 5/18/15 at 02:19 PM

AVClub pointed out that the hippies in the retreat that Don interacted most closely with are "doubles" of figures the camera lingers on in the coke commercial; in particular, a lookalike for the woman with the braids who does not particularly help him with transportation is featured in the video.

Matthew Weiner Explains It All For Us -- and shakes a finger at us mean-spirited cynics.

No one has a higher opinion of Matthew Weiner than he does himself.

For the record, I mostly liked the finale--but I think I like it a little less after reading Weiner's comments on how we should have viewed it. :P (He also either simply is not clear or badly quoted--the implication makes it sound like ultimately he decided that Peggy shouldn't tell Pete about their kid...)

Yeah, that stuck out to me to, but you know, the master has spoken!

Right, which is why I'll give Weiner the benefit of doubt on this one and assume he was badly quoted (or just, as he often does chose his words poorly in the interview.)