Mad Men is over, and there is a hole in my life, at least the Sunday evenings. Here is a collection of all my Mad Men musings.
First notice, from the middle of season two, here.
The vantage point from late in season three, here.
The view from season 4, here.
Concerning the double-length opener to season 5, here.
A few weeks into season five, here.
Anticipating season seven, part one, here.
Last week, before the finale, here.
And the last thing I have to say about it:
Some of the happy endings seemed sort of weak, especially the one concerning Peggy and Stan, Joan's not far behind, and even Betty's looming death bringing out the best in her children. Oh, and Pete Campbell acting decent! The more I think about it, the more implausible it seems. People don't generally change much after they're around three, and Pete was irredeemable at 30, so I regard with skepticism the transformation evidenced in, for example, his menschy good-bye to Peggy.
But it's all redeemed by the artful intimation that Don, having reached a point where Peggy fears he might off himself, has the idea that becomes an iconic Coca-Cola ad. I was wrong to think he had walked away from advertising forever and that "the arc of the show is going to be from the Lucky Strike account to death from lung cancer." At the end, lung cancer is pushed out by the World Choir of the Enlightened Young urging the consumption of sugary water. I choose to believe Don's ad is Matthew Weiner's wry comment on all the other sweet endings.
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