"Love was invented by guys like me. To sell nylons."

[falafel_musings]

Anyone want to talk about the end of Mad Men?

I've had my fair share of issues with this show and I've steadily become a lesser fan from S5 onwards. But I mostly like the way they've ended it. With the Coke advert especially. Perfect really. Like, look at all the progress we've made in the last decade. Progress for women, progress for ethnic

Comments

[ever_neutral]

PETE CAMPBELL IS THE LIGHT. THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT.

But also Peggy said "A thing like that" to Pete. And melted into a puddle of purest delight.

If they couldn't give me my implausible Peggy/Pete endgame then this was the next best thing.

But also...poor Betty Draper. Of course she's the only character to be punished for their smoking habit.

SMH!!!! SMH SMH SMH. Everyone else got their happy ending! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE??

[falafel_musings]

SMH SMH SMH. Everyone else got their happy ending!

Agreed. The imbalance between everyone else's fate Vs Betty's fate was galling. If they were going to punish a character with an early grave due to poor treatment of their bodies, surely Roger was the more likely casualty? You know, Roger who had almost died of a heartattack 10 years ago and hadn't stopped drinking, smoking, taking drugs since that near death experience?

Well Weiner gave us implausible Pete/Trudy and Stan/Peggy happy endings instead. Even though I rather like both those alt Pete/Peggy pairings, those happy endings felt contrived to me. But Pete and Peggy just having that little moment, that was precious. And YES! Pete is the LIGHT!!

[hollywoodlawn]

Ah, I didn't see this until now. I loved the ending, sobbed my way through Don and Betty's phone call, sobbed my way through Don and Peggy's phone call, sobbed my way through Don hugging Leonard and breaking down. However, I don't see the ending quite as cynically as many have who think that Don coming up with the Coke ad meant that he hadn't changed at all. I think Don was profoundly changed, and while the symbol of that Hilltop ad could be construed as an absorption of the counterculture to simply sell syrupy water, I don't think that the idea, like the inspiration, had to come from a cynical place

[falafel_musings]

while the symbol of that Hilltop ad could be construed as an absorption of the counterculture to simply sell syrupy water, I don't think that the idea, like the inspiration, had to come from a cynical place.

Even if that's the case and Don was having another Hershey bar moment of emotive inspiration, it still stands that Don will happily hijack a popular counterculture movement and use it to create enormous profits for an industry still largely governed by rich white men. He's still a capitalist vulture by nature. Which isn't to say that Don has no empathy with the hippies, but that almost makes it a worse betrayal of 60s idealism - that Don understands the spiritual message and yet will still use it for corporate financial gain.

I never really liked Betty. Someone had to get cancer with all that smoking. Why not Betty? You're not in a minority there. It's been pretty clear, especially in the later seasons of MM, that fans aren't supposed to like Betty at all. So finishing Betty off with a terminal illness while everyone else

[hollywoodlawn]

What Matthew Weiner said about Betty in last night's post-series discussion at the NY Library with A.M. Homes:

Weiner knew the series’ ending while wrapping season four. It’s well known that Weiner disclosed Don’s inspired idea to Hamm early on, but he also knew Betty’s fate at that point too. “People die of cancer in the US. It’s up there. I knew very early on. Her mother had just died in the pilot, and I knew this woman wasn’t going to live long, and we love the idea of her realizing her purpose in life right when she ran out of time. … I think there’s a lesson to be learned about the randomness of things, and also she has some predisposition and some fairly seriously cancer-causing behavior.”As for it being a 'punishment' to that character, it was a gift to January Jones! What actor doesn't wish for a great death scene? And look at how it turned opinion on Betty, now forever after referred to as, "poor, poor Betty". Thematically and significantly, it played more as a reward. The fact that Betty stuck around the entire series,

[falafel_musings]

i The fact that Betty stuck around the entire series, considering she wasn't part of the office environment and was no longer part of Don's life, is a testament, I think, to how much the writers wanted that character around.

Maybe. Personally I felt that after Don/Betty divorced, Betty more often featured as a supporting character in Sally's story than the central character in her own plotline.

I just felt that the way he treated her was a sign of the times, and it was a story worth telling. Don wanted Betty as part of his slick package, and for much of the early seasons, Betty had no depth. She was absolutely fine with being a housewife and all the surface benefits that entailed. You said "but just Don's lack of support for Betty having any interests outside being a housewife. - what interests? Betty was working as a model when she met Don and in 'Shoot' she wants to go back into modelling but Don tells her she already has 'a job' being a mother. Then in S3 she got involved in local politics saving the reservoir, another thing