I don’t have a problem with Peggy winding up in a good place; my issue is with how her story got her there. Mad Men has never been a rom-com, but now with literally five minutes left in the whole series, for the first time ever, she suddenly turns giggling and breathless and realizes “You were right in front of me and I’ve loved you all along!” That’s not letting her have it all, that’s turning her into a different person for the sake of fanservice, in my view.
Note too that Weiner did the opposite with Joan, giving her an out-of-nowhere love of her life in the last few episodes, basically to force her to have to choose between love and career.
This is part of a larger problem I had with the last few episodes, how so many characters were turned into different people at the last minute. Pete decided to change his whole outlook on life and head off to the heartland, and Trudy immediately decided to trust him and go with him. Roger decided it was time to settle down. Betty became a rock of personal strength. Heck, even comic-relief Meredith revealed hidden competence.
Certainly, it’s plausible that any of this might happen, but all of it at once just feels uncharacteristically tidy. Besides, this show has always sent the message that people don’t change; we’ve always seen everyone doing the same things over and over.
I don’t mean to overstate my feelings. I didn’t hate it; I really didn’t. The acting was stellar as always, and I would have continued to watch these people even if Weiner had sent them all off to run an inn together in Vermont. I’m just trying to articulate why the writing has left me somewhat put off.
I thought they’ve been building a PEggy-Stan romance for quite a while. He was the she kept in touch with when she went to Ted Chaough’s company, she revealed to him about her adopted baby, they spent many long hours together in personal conversation.
While her realization did seem a bit quick, the pairing of those two didn’t seem surprising at all.
I felt the same. The actual moment (who didn’t call “he’s coming down the hall” when his line was dead?) was a bit Hollywood but the build up had been real over the past several years. And Stan was right: Peggy always could talk to him for ages on the phone and then say the shittiest stuff to his face. When he’d be right there and she was forced to confront her feelings with him in person, she’d just short out.
I felt that Trudy had been mourning her marriage for a long time and never really moved on but just soldiered forth. And Pete was always jealous of the idea that she might start dating again and even scuttled his relationship with the LA real estate agent because of his feelings for Trudy. Like Peggy & Stan, it wrapped up in a hurry but I felt like the groundwork was there.
Sepinwall mentions in his review of the finale that Wiener said that he didn’t want to use real life taglines after the Lucky Strike deal so I buy that w/o a fresh cite being provided. However, Sepinwall points out that Weiner also said at the end of season 2 that he wouldn’t do a Kennedy assassination episode but yet he did exactly that the following season. People can change their mind.
I guess he mentions not using real life campaigns in this interview w/ Sepwinall. You’ll have to dig through it though.
I don’t think Sally particularly cares about Henry one way or the other. Nor do I think he particularly cares about the boys, no matter how “decent” he is; after all, they’re not his children.
As indicated above, Sally now sees herself as the family’s anchor and wants to remain in the house for the sake of stability, something neither Don nor Betty (in the end) were able to provide.
Where were the flames coming from if not the internet? TV personalities? Magazines? I’m not trying to press you, I just recall neither any negative reaction or flaming of note nor any article or interview in which he said it was a mistake and wouldn’t appropriate campaigns anymore specifically because of view reaction. If you run across one, please post it.
If he did, in fact, say he wouldn’t appropriate real world campaigns then the ambiguous ending with the Coke commercial means he just trolled everyone. I don’t think that would be the lasting memory he would want to leave for Mad Men.
Sally thought that Don was about to fly in & “rescue” them. Which is not what she or Betty wanted. Once Betty is “in the ground” (as Sally said not so long ago), more permanent plans can be made. Which do not involve Sally ending her education to be surrogate Mom.
Henry truly loves Betty & will probably want to throw himself into his work after she’s gone. Perhaps he could rent the house to Don for a bit?
The continuity Henry will provide is not Henry himself- it’s the same house, school, neighborhood, etc.Which they won’t have if Don swoops in- even if he took all three to live with him, it wouldn’t be the same house, etc.
I imagine Don returning to NYC with a clear head, and hopefully clear lungs, and a new attitude. He’s said goodbye to Dick Whitman and has fully embraced Don Draper. He wants to leave a mark on the world, and the Coke ad was his crowning glory.
If I was the creator of that ad, I’d be tickled to have “Don Draper” usurp my creation. If nothing else, it’s rejuvenated interest in the ad/song, and he’ll presumably be getting a kickback of some sort.
The question I have is, did he change his outlook on using real campaigns because of negative viewer reaction to “It’s toasted.” In those interviews, Weiner doesn’t really mention anything about viewer reaction, so I don’t think my question is answered yet.
He does say he wouldn’t use famous campaigns, though, so maybe that’s an argument for Don didn’t make it.
Henry has a very dutiful side to him and will want to do what is best for the kids. I don’t have a handle on how much of a presence he is in their lives, though, with his own busy career. The house provides continuity for the boys, but if they’ll be largely alone and raised by housekeepers, it may not work long-term.
I may have forgotten something, but I don’t remember Betty’s brother being a bad guy. He didn’t get along with Betty, but who did? His wife was willing to be nursemaid for their father, as I recall; she would take in the kids.
But did we ever see him land safely? I can’t imagine Pete, who couldn’t even stand the suburbs of New York, being happy in Wichita. And both of his parents died in vehicular accidents at sea. I can imagine that it was an unstated off-screen implication that his plane went down (probably in a body of water) with all passengers and crew lost.