Mad Men

I expect Don's life to come crashing down in the next few episodes.

Harmsway wrote:

I expect Don's life to come crashing down in the next few episodes.

I really hope so. That'll be good television.

Season 7: Paying for Sins and Making Amends.

Great episode tonight, really felt like a classic Mad Men with things actually happening instead of stylistic contrivances passing as symbolism. This show always works best when concentrated in the office setting and around the business, and the success of tonight's show was merging the business concerns with the personal stories that have been floating around all season.

If there was anything wrong with tonight, it was that this is where we should have been three episodes ago in this season. I certainly can't say this felt like a climax or even something leading to a climax. Compare that to the penultimate episode of every previous season. I had no clue where they are going with this, and I have a hard time believing they can stick the landing they have to make with only an episode to go. If this had been the third last episode of the season or fourth, I think we'd be in better shape. Unfortunate to say but there was a lot of filler this season.

Yeah, not quite as sharp this season.  I thought Weiner said we'd go inside Draper's head.  Well, I'm still geared up for next week.  Let's see what happens.

Boy, that new SC&P logo looks like it belongs on the set of THE PRICE IS RIGHT.

is that something real from the show or did a fan make that?

Got it from my Facebook feed, it's from the official Mad Men page.

Forgot there was another episode to go. Finished watching Ep 12 and for a sec I was all like that's how the season fucking ends!?

Decent enough episode though.

Yeah it was the best all season in terms of shit actually happening, but I'm not sure how we're going to get from there to a satisfying finish in one episode. Last season it more or less climaxed in the penultimate episode and then did denouement in the finale, but we're nowhere near climax yet it seems.

Still waiting for the Season 6 climax.

If you come too late you'll have to wait to get that good sensation.

It's funny, I had thought about Don looking up places he'd grown up in S7.

I really liked the finale.  I thought it had an energy that much of S6 lacked.  I'll collect my thoughts, but I'll say it's creepy to have Bob Benson with cutting tools in front of a pink wall to that cover of Moon River.

I liked it a lot more than "The Phantom".  Of course, I prefered S5 to S6 most everywhere else.   Though I like "The Doorway" more than "A Little Kiss".
 
Glad to see Duck back.

There was a transcendent quality to a lot of the episode I thought.  And we really see how far down Don is.  He's piled the shit on top of him this season, but there seems to be sunlight.  And Now we wait 9 or 10 months.

The last few episodes really kicked things up a notch, and the finale was absolute dynamite.

I gotta say, as the finale sinks it, I find it profoundly moving.  My own circumstances aren't anything like Don's, but there are elements of where I am that make me identify with this episode.

I just wish the whole season had this kind of energy and vitality.

I wish the finale, which had so much going on to the point where I felt we where getting a point form version of the story,  had been90 minutes instead of the premiere which was packed with so much filler as was most of the season. Because the finale was really great stuff. There were moments where the only thing keeping me from thinking Don was gonna kill himself was the knowledge that he's the main character and there is a whole season to go.

The last two episodes felt like Mad Men, whereas a lot of the season as a whole felt like it was journeying through 60s tropes in a way that the show never stooped to before. I have a lot of unresolved questions to the finale's story and ultimately my main season six disappointment is that it felt like Season 7, Part I instead of telling it's own story. There was a lot of wheel spinning.

Fairbairn-Skyes wrote:

I wish the finale, which had so much going on to the point where I felt we where getting a point form version of the story,  had been90 minutes instead of the premiere which was packed with so much filler as was most of the season.

Agree with this sentiment.The finale was OK, but could've done with another half hour.

Disappointing season overall. They should wrap things up in S7 before the show dies of dullness.

EDIT: Oops, just read somewhere that it's already been confirmed that S7 will be the last one. Must've either forgotten that tidbit or missed it.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I gotta say, as the finale sinks it, I find it profoundly moving.  My own circumstances aren't anything like Don's, but there are elements of where I am that make me identify with this episode.

I just wish the whole season had this kind of energy and vitality.

I found it very moving, too.

Two questions.

Why is Pete going to LA?  Is it related to Sunkist?

Is anyone else seriously creeped out by Bob Benson with cutting tools at Thanksgiving?  Jesus, it felt like a black comedy horror film.  He's going to kill them, cook them, and then Manolo will come over to join Bob for dinner.

Seriously, where do things stand with Benson?  I had the thought during the episode that a funny final moment would be Bob and Manolo laying on the beach in Central America doing a toast*.  But then I was like, "Oh yeah, Pete's mom has no money."

*A coffee toast of course.  Bob could come into the shot and sit next to his lover having brought an extra cup.

One of my favourite moments last night was the meeting with Don, particularly Bert Cooper in it. usually once a season and usually in the finale there 's a moment I like to call "Bert Cooper  still has teeth", and I always love em.

I think he trained Palpatine.

Don Draper has become such an irredeemable asshole that I really don't give a shit about him returning to alcohol, or his shitty childhood. Maybe it's because some idiots who watch the show thinks he's finally solved his problems, that he's turning a new leaf (after this finale), and the fact that they're idiots, that is affecting my ability to enjoy the show. 

Dude meets all the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder and its varients/equivalents, no 'fresh' starts or new focuses within his life are going to actually change the fact that he's an a broken, manipulative asshole.  

So unless Weiner's building to some final build up about this with some profound point, I'm really not interested anymore. This story never ends well.

Manolo killing Dotty was just bizarre. I really don't buy a man of Don's generation would have had that kind of breakdown/confession in a boardroom unless they were severely drunk.

I have not yet caught up on this last season, but I have read accounts that suggest the Roger Sterling character has been thoroughly ruined this year. Your thoughts on that?

"I really don't buy a man of Don's generation would have had that kind of breakdown/confession in a boardroom unless they were severely drunk."

Alcoholics often display "dry drunk" behavior even after years of being sober.

Salomé wrote:

I have not yet caught up on this last season, but I have read accounts that suggest the Roger Sterling character has been thoroughly ruined this year. Your thoughts on that?

That's nonsense. Roger hasn't had much to do, but when he does show up he's been in good form.

I liked the finale well enough but I wanted (expected?) a real gut punch. I got a few jabs but nothing that amounted to a KO.

At least this season turned it around in the back half. I found myself caring a lot about this show for the first time about four episodes back. I guess that's what happens when you stop loading the show up with filler and callbacks to every passe historical landmark of 1968.

I do hope Bob Benson ends up being a serial killer or something. I want the payoff for this character to be worth the two seasons he's going to get.

But I digress. So we go into season seven rather predictably: Don is on the verge of total self-destruction. That's the course this ship has been set on since the beginning but I was hoping for something a little more out there. I almost wanted Duck to offer him a job there at the end.