Mad Men Finale is The Real Thing

When The Sopranos finale ended, I immediately hated it and everyone involved with it. It felt out of place and pretentious and a slap in the face. Over the next few months, and after catching a few random episodes on re-runs, I came to love that ending. I think I had gotten too caught up in the plot of the show and forgot that it was working a more subtle game of character development that really did make sense to end in a more open way. Yeah, there were many fan theories about whether or not Tony got whacked, but that's all nonsense. That sort of thing misses the point entirely. Having now seen the Mad Men finale, it makes perfect sense that Matthew Weiner worked on the last two seasons of The Sopranos, even if he didn't have a direct hand on the finale.

The Donlightenment?

I don't hate the finale of Mad Men. This ambiguity doesn't feel like it comes from left field. I even hoped it would end ambiguously and at one point, during the last episode I had a sense of what the last thing would be and I'm not even sure why. And really, it may not even be that ambiguous. It's good I never realized until today that there were all these fan theories floating around about who the falling man in the credits was and whether Don would turn out to be D.B. Cooper and whatever else. That's exactly the type of thing that means you wasted your time on this show. It's exactly what Lost did wrong by playing up that whole angle throughout the series, building the entire show on it, only to later tell us all we were being stupid. Fuck Lost. But I digress.

Good times were rare.

No, Mad Men has been about characters from the very first second and I've already talked about it being the most literary thing every put on TV. This ending does have multiple interpretations, but unlike the ending to Lost (fuck that show) the interpretations really are about character. Did Don create that ad? Did Peggy create it? Did Don just dream it in that moment? And what does it mean for Don's arc if he did eventually go back and create that ad? Did he learn anything at all? Is he doomed to be stuck selling false fulfillment? Or is that ad a marked difference in how he sees things? Maybe, the fact that instead of selling something to people, the ad is about buying them something, giving a gift, means something? I don't know. It's one of those things that I think merits discussion and thought and that alone is a sign that it's the right ending. 

Who the fuck knows?

Regardless, Don had a catharsis and came to terms with himself. Whether that ends up being someone we like or not, is completely irrelevant. And the more I think about it, I think I agree with Ryan in that Don essentially just ends up being comfortable with who has been all along, rather than changing into some enlightened hippie. So, yeah, he does just end up using this catharsis as and advertising ploy, selling us more crap, no matter how good that classic ad may make us feel. Too often, I think, audiences believe stories are only successful if you feel good about the characters. The whole criticism of The Wolf of Wall Street as glamorizing the horrendous behavior of the protagonists I think came from the false idea that "protagonist" means the same as "hero." It's a confusion of content and context. And I see a little bit of that in this week's controversy over the latest episode of Game of Thrones, too (I tried to write in depth about this, but it really is too much of a hot button and I do see the other side's points). But, again, I digress, which is a direct result of the thought this finale sparks.

Loaded image, Sally sees all.

But what about the other characters? With Betty dying, Sally has stepped up to take care of her brothers and dying mother. Somehow, though, I don't think this ends there for her. I think Sally has more self awareness than Don can ever hope to find. As for Betty, she at least gets to die on her own terms, even if she apparently never learned anything. Her whole concern with how she will look at the end is who she was brought up to be. Her resignation to her fate just as she had started to go back to school is like she's stared into the abyss and said fuck it. She's unmoved because she sees her prison and how fate just keeps her in it. While this is certainly a sad note to end on for them, I think Sally has more story ahead of her and as much as I hate the idea of spin offs and not letting things end, she is the one character that it would make sense to catch up with again in a few years. 

Roger would have played on the Titanic.

Joan and Roger's scene discussing the future of their "rich bastard" was perfection. Roger was always Roger, though he did seem to find some kind of comfort with his own mortality, which was always his biggest fear. Joan went from being the bombshell not seen for anything else to being the most adamantly feminist, empowered character on the show. That's how you do it. Pete wanted to be Don more than anything and early on found out Don wasn't Don. Little by little, he learned nothing was anything until it all fell apart and he found some kind of redemption, after a time where I was sure he'd blow his brains out. In a way, his ending is frustrating because he's the rich boy that got to destroy lives and then gets his life put back together, but as bad as the things he did along the way were, the thing about Pete is he always had a good heart. He was as much a victim of expectations as anyone and now he's decided to hell with the expectations. So I do think he deserves some happiness, even if he never fully makes amends for his wrongs, but again, that's the tension and complexity of these things. Ultimately, whether he deserves it or not, he's getting something that is likely more complex than he realizes. That's life.

This is how I'll always remember them.

Then there's Peggy. Her ending could be seen as cheesy and that's because it is in a way. But let's think about this. She turns down Joan's offer to go be badass female producers, running their own business. That's not her thing. If Joan is the most adamantly feminist character, Peggy is the most adamantly human. Peggy wants to succeed in her way, not because she is a woman and wants to defy expectations and show them what she is made of. She wants it because it's what she wants. There's no agenda for her beyond wanting to create. And I don't say that to diminish Joan's agenda either. But there is a very big difference in motivation between these two awesome women. Peggy's talent has never really been in question and because she wasn't the bombshell, she was able to overcome societies views of her gender and sexuality in a way that Joan never could. But if we're being honest, Joan's looks did provide an advantage for her to a point, where Peggy never had that. She had the luck to come across Don and have him give her a chance, but other than that, she worked for what she has and was never afraid of it. And if her ending includes a cheesy romantic revelation, seemingly out of the blue, what better character to have that happen to? And, by the way, if you look back at this series moment by moment, I'm willing to bet you'll realize Elisabeth Moss is a HIGHLY underrated actress with a range that boggles the mind. Everyone on the show was great, but to me, she stands out. And that's saying something when you consider the caliber of the entire cast.

Mad Women. 

Anyway, I don't know what I'll think of this show after a re-watch. I'm sure I'll uncover things I missed and I look forward to it, soon. To answer the question, yes. This is definitely now in my top 5 shows of all time. I'm still not sure where I place this ending, but then I'm not sure this is the type of thing where you can single out the ending that way. It's not Six Feet Under or even Breaking Bad. It's not even The Sopranos, really. This was a much more subdued and subtle finale and that's OK. 

Mad Men's March Toward my Top 5 Shows of All Time

As it winds down with only 2 more episodes left, Mad Men is setting the masses up for something they may not like, I think. I'm not so sure this show was ever meant to be as popular as it became and I have feeling the majority of the people watching are not used to the complex and/or dark ending we might be getting. From the very first episode it plays like a very direct yet subtle version of a classic American novel of some sort. It's easy to see how everyone got caught up in the period accurate clothing, style and general references, but it's never really been about that. Well, not just that, anyway. On some level, those things serve to get into what has been one of the biggest themes of the series so far, which is the false surface of the American dream. But of course, like all great literature, it's not as simple as that either. The word a couple of my favorite professors would use was tension. There should always be tension between ideas, characters, concepts, themes. Great literature is not about direct symbols that can easily be deciphered like some code. And with every episode, even in the final stretch, I think Mad Men fits more and more into that category. The show just never tries to be "clever" and you never feel like the writers are showing off or winking at you. I don't think that alone necessarily makes it better than any other show, but it certainly makes it different.

Don's a reader.

One example of this is the way they handled the waitress, Diana in these last few episodes. When Don first sees her he's taken by her, but you aren't entirely sure why that is, only that he finds her familiar. Then we get the whole piece about one of his great loves from early on in the series, Rachel, who he has a dream about before finding out she died. He's deeply affected by this and she bares some resemblance to Diana, though it's never explicitly stated he's making that connection. But then, if you think back on the series, he's had affairs with mostly brunettes and we've seen flashbacks of his childhood to a mysterious brunette that showed him kindness and he eventually lost his virginity to. And at the same time, the fact that Diana is running from something also makes her a reflection of Don himself. None of this is ever tied together for us. It's all there, in the mix, floating around and existing in this rich narrative, but never in a neat 1 to 1 ratio. Will it come together in the end? I hope not. This is the type of thing that will make this a re-watchable/re- readable and infinitely discuss-able masterpiece.

Watching the Fall of Don Draper

Still, there are things that are pointing to a possible ending that may or may not be too on the nose. This week's episode, had several scenes that might point to the ending being connected to the opening credits imagery. At one point, Don, in his new office which might as well be a prison on top of the world, looks out the window and seems to be pushing against it to see if it opens. Later, he's at a meeting and before walking away from it to "ride the rails" like Sal Paradise in On The Road, he stares at an airplane flying high above. Then, we get Roger telling Peggy the story about a time he had to jump out of a boat, 20 feet into the water and how he was scared, but eventually did it. I don't think I have to paint the rest of that picture to say what this could lead to, and it may not necessarily be a bad ending, but it might be too telegraphed if I'm not reading this too literally. Again, it's about tension, so it's entirely possible these ideas are there only to suggest an option that may or may not be taken. And even if it does lead to that very literal fall of Draper, it might still be the right ending.

Perfectly safe.

One other piece that's important to note about these themes is that Mad Men gives us what I think is a historical but at the same time more modern vision of the realities of the American Dream from the perspective of classic American Literature in that it is careful to give context to issues of sex, race, appearances, socioeconomic status, etc. in ways that I'm not sure I've seen in any other story exploring the era(s). Clearly, the choice to leave a meeting and wander the world is only realistically available to someone like Don and while that is also never directly stated, it is there and obvious. A few episodes back someone said to him to his face that the only reason he was where he was is because he's handsome and he was clearly affected by it, recognizing a hard truth in that. But beyond that, he's white and male and at this point in the show, a millionaire. He doesn't need this job, financially. He's been searching for something else in it and hasn't found it, but still carries some privilege. Privilege he worked for in addition to privilege by gender and appearance. Joan didn't necessarily need the job either, but she needed it more than him in order to feel useful beyond her looks and cultural gender status. He's gotten by on surface masquerading as fulfillment. Then there's that scene where Shirley, one of the black secretaries at SC&P tells Roger she's quitting because going to McCann is not going to work for her. She says advertising is not comfortable for everybody and the implication is that the group she was working for was always more progressive and she's grateful. Her options are limited, but she's more aware of them than anyone else on the show. Again, tensions. These are ideas, moments, threads that are important to the overall but should not be tied into a neat bundle. They should remain in tension.

Peggy Olsen: Badass.

And while all this intellectual stuff is going on, we still get an enjoyable and fun show. A big part of this is because of a character like Peggy, who was always our surrogate in this world. It's through her we first meet everybody and begin to understand the world. It's her that we were supposed to root for and cry with from the start, and we did. Never has this type of character been handled better, in my opinion. I found myself at times wishing the show would just take a turn and focus exclusively on her or hoping she'd get a spin off. Of course, I'd rather just see a good ending now, but Peggy was likely my favorite character overall and I have no shame in admitting that, even though that's the easy answer, given her role. My next favorite is likely Sally, though, and I'm curious where she will end up. Her future in this world is probably the most in jeopardy, in spite of the strong young woman she's grown up to be. She's the only one that fully sees through both her parents' bullshit and isn't afraid to say so. But at the end of the day, the reality of that could lead her to dark places since in many ways, she's a lot like both of them. Tensions.

There's nothing I love more than a good ending and I'm really hoping Mad Men delivers on something I can think about as I re-watch it, which I will likely do very soon after it's done. Unless it ends in a cheesy mess, negating all my good feelings about the show. Somehow, I don't think it's going to miss the landing. There are too many tensions and loose threads right now to tie up and resolve in a simple package and I doubt they would try to do that. This will likely end up being one of my top 5 favorite shows of all time. But we'll see.

Restarting

What's in the box?

So this here used to be the home of my old comics blog, Not Just Otaku. I hadn't posted anything here since 2012, but on a whim checked on it and noticed it was still being viewed by people doing various searches. So I started reading some of the old stuff, and was surprised to see I had gotten fairly ok at writing about comics and other related things before I decided to try merging it all into Tumblr. Anyway, a while back I relaunched the music blog because Tumblr was a waste of time but I keep finding I want to write about other things that don't fit in over at Sound Affects. So I'm relaunching this here thing, but I'm renaming it. I changed the URL and everything, which I'm sure I did wrong and lost like one potential person that may have been watching the old URL, but whatever.

Strange Orphan Boxes is the new name. These are the boxes in which I will put my thoughts on TV, movies, books or whatever doesn't fit into my music blog. I honestly don't have much of a plan for this beyond that. Let's just see what happens. You'll see all my old comics reviews and stuff are still here, because why not. Soon, I'll have a good first post back type thing. So keep an eye out. In the meantime, some quick notes.

If you go back just a couple of posts, you'll see the last official post on here was a review of the first Avengers movie, so it's interesting that Age of Ultron will be out in a few days. We'll see how I feel about it.

I'm on episode 10 of Netflix's Daredevil and it's great.I have to say my only complaint is the guy playing Foggy Nelson. He just sticks out like a sore thumb that can't act.

Probably the best scene of the season.

Mad Men is wrapping up and it looks like it is going to end on a high note so far. I have a feeling most people won't like the ending, but I think they may be missing the point of the show. I'll likely go into detail on this one at some point.

Sexy spy shit that is ultimately not that sexy.

The Americans. You should be watching this show. That is all.

Finally caught up on last season of Louie, and it might be the greatest thing ever. I find myself getting choked up constantly watching this show, instead of laughing but that's exactly why it's so great. On top of everything else, Louie is also an amazing actor. This is the most real show ever made.

I haven't read a comic in almost a year, now. Maybe longer. I just don't have the time or energy to read anymore. If I get a few minutes, I wind up drifting off to sleep mid sentence. I had been reading the Game of Thrones books, but I think I'm ready to admit to myself that I've given up on that. I was halfway through the second book, but that was more than 6 months ago. The show is better anyway (come get me book loyalists!)