Some Final Mad Men Thoughts

After having thought about it for a few days, I have a few thoughts on the end (and ending) of Mad Men.

Initially I was disappointed, for a couple of reasons. I had really wanted to see Don return to New York, if not necessarily to return to work (I didn't want to see him submit to McCann). I didn't need to see Stephanie again, and I felt that the whole retreat thing was a long, slow diversion from the events I hoped to see, even if Don's time there did provide a couple of genuinely wonderful moments. And I though the whole Coke thing was a little too pat and a fairly cynical move even for this show. (I have never cared for Coke, and I admit this may be coloring my opinion somewhat.) But as I turned everything over in my mind, I eventually reconciled with all of it.

I didn't want Don and Peggy's last interaction of the series to be over the phone, but in reflecting on it, I now realize that the separation, the physical distance between them at that moment, is symbolic of what Don had been struggling with and what caused him to walk out of that meeting and go off wandering. It also occurred to me that, since the show chronicled how society changed during the 1960s, it's a nod to how the pace of life had begun to accelerate by the point in time at which the show ends. Outside of the business world, long-distance phone calls were a luxury for a long time for many people, but that changed along with almost every other aspect of our lives. And Peggy's concern for Don's well-being at that point, her saying to him "you can come home," spoke to the length and depth of their personal connection.

The fictional idea that the experience at the retreat could lead Don to come up with the Coke ad was admittedly clever, and the bit of foreshadowing with the Coke machine in the previous episode enhanced it. We didn't get to see Don back in New York, but we are given an indication that it did happen and are left to fill in the blanks ourselves. I happen to think that series finales tend to benefit from some degree of ambiguity, and that's true here.

Elsewhere, I did not need to see the reunited Campbell family boarding a LearJet for Wichita, but I didn't mind either. For a brief moment I had the awful thought, "Oh no, are they going to die in a plane crash?" but I dismissed it just as quickly. Likewise, I was not in the camp of those fans who had been wishing that Peggy and Stan would get together, but I felt the show had been aiming them at each other for some time, lining them up for an eventual pairing, and I like the idea of them becoming some sort of Madison Avenue power couple.

Joan? Joan is going to rule the world, or at least the industrial film industry. Richard wasn't good enough for her, and I'm glad she didn't have to invest a lot of years in the relationship to learn that. After what she went through I really wanted to see a bright future for her, and I was very happy with where her story was left. I don't know if things will work out with Roger and Marie, but she's definitely a better match for him than Jane was.

I mentioned to a friend that I had to chuckle a bit when we got the shot of Betty sitting in the kitchen smoking, because my own grandfather had lung cancer at around the same time period (a couple of years earlier, but close) and he too continued smoking during his illness; the doctor said there wasn't any point to making him stop. I doubt that attitude prevails today, but I also imagine that the survival rate is higher today than 45 years ago.

My main issues with the final half-season were that I didn't like seeing the agency cease to exist, but the reality is that such things happen all the time, and I definitely had no objections to how the stories were conveyed. Mad Men will always be a special experience to me, and I'm sure I will revisit it down the road.