I’ll admit I’ve never watched the show, but promos can’t be avoided. What is the significance of the “falling man” logo? Is it maybe preordained that the series is to end with a main character’s suicide? 
I assume part of the symbolism is that the lead is ‘falling’ through life, unable to control events around him to his satisfaction.
I wouldn’t take it too literally.
Yeah, it works on a lot of levels. It is from the opening credits in which a stereotypical American man a suit falls from a great height surrounded by symbols of consumerism. It can be read as a metaphor for America, for the personal life of a character, or a for all of them.
It’s probably foreshadowing of something that will be real obvious later. I don’t see him as someone who’s “falling through life”; he controls his life better than Roger, Pete or any other important character on the show. We’re mainly seeing his rise now in NY society, with hints* that his fortune will reverse dramatically soon.
*Leland Palmer telling him the folks who gave him the award will never do business with him, and the elevator last Sunday, for instance.
If you don’t watch the show you wouldn’t have noticed something in the latest episode where Don Draper is about to enter an elevator and notices that there’s not one. He stares down an open shaft for what looks like a dozen or more stories.
Whether that’s meant as a foreshadowing or just a nod to the credits graphics may become clearer later. Right now, to me, it’s just a sick inside joke.
Professionally, Don was in control, but in his inner life, he was freefalling, a man without a center. While being the envy of everyone, he despised himself – and anyone who admired him, he despised equally, except for one person. He was literally, continuously killing himself with self-hate.
That was certainly the setup in first two seasons. Then a number of things changed and it was hard to tell where they might go with it. Recent episodes imply a complete reversal of that equation may be at hand. That is to say – MAYBE – having made some peace with himself and created relationships based on respect for the first time, ever, he is becoming professionally somewhat passe.
That opening gives me the willies, and a billboard in NY was recently taken down after enough people complained that “umm, you *know *that people tumbling out of skyscrapers has bad associations for us, right?”
And at the same time, Don’s double life, which figured heavily in the first few seasons, has not been mentioned in the current (fifth) season. I’ve been wondering about that, actually, I feel that this’ll return at some point.
As someone just mentioned in the other MAD MEN thread, Don pretty well referenced it with the whole “my 40th birthday was some other date entirely” bit.
I think what Svejk meant was that s/he suspects that Don’s double life will once again be important to the arc of the show at some point in the near future. It has been mentioned from time to time in passing reference but it hasn’t been important lately.
This brings up an interesting question (to me, at least). What risks does Don still have associated w/ his change in identity? Professionally it seems he’s in the clear. I imagine legally he could be in a lot of hot water. Could he end the series behind bars?
Did you see these graffiti hacks to those posters? I like the whale one.
I’m sure the creators didn’t intend the 9/11 connotation, but I find the graffiti alterations to be very moving - the idea of people taking control of the image is very touching.
The most recent episode involved the main character almost falling down an elevator shaft. The falling motif is apparently vital to the creators.
Several message boards have fans theorizing eventually somebody will fall down and go boom from a skyscraper and that it will be revealed the opening was prophetic. Current smart money would probably be on the character Pete or Roger, though really it only works if it’s Roger since he’s clearly the figure who ends up in his chair with a smoke and a drink.