Amph [MAD MEN] Guy walks into an advertising agency...

Yeah, I've been thinking of that with the show's imminent end on my mind. I want to see Mad Men do Watergate. I want to know what Don's response is to watching The Godfather. I want to know what Don's like at fifty, what Pete's like in 1980, where Peggy's career ultimately goes. I want to know what Joan thinks of her life when she's looking back on it. I want to know how Sally turns out. It's a testament to how rich and compelling the characters are that their lives seem so endlessly interesting, that I can't imagine ever being bored of them.

 

What's with Bob and Joan anyway? Is he her gay best friend and she knows it? Is she his beard? Is he really bisexaual or straight?

 

I still hope with my heart of hearts that the last ep ends with a flashforward to 2014 and elderly Don.

 

He'd be in his late 80's at least. They said his birth year, but I don't remember exactly.

 

It'd better be Jon Hamm in old man makeup. The boy they got to play Dick Whitman looks nothing like him.

 

It's the same kid who played his younger self the whole time, apparently. Got hit with the ugly stick. No way he grows up to look anything like Jon Hamm, that's for sure.

 

He is, what, 41 or so in 68? So he'd be about 86 now.

 

Don turned forty in the season five premiere, which was set in summer '66, wasn't it? And he'd already had his real Dick Whitman birthday a couple months before. So he would have been born in '26. He'd be eight-eight by 2014. Possible, but unlikely given Don's habits.

But I really doubt Weiner would do a flash-forward anyway.

 

I didn't see them firing Don coming. And it was totally a firing, they didn't give him a return date and they did the same to Freddy Rumsen before.

Is Megan sticking around or are they going to get divorced?

 

I'm starting to think that Pete is gay given how Bob is screwing him.

 

Yeah I loved that finale.

 

To answer the question about Don's age, yes he's supposed to have been born in 1926, officially.

I just presume he dodged being drafted for WWII (which he would have been old enough to fight in at the end there) because he was an itinerant orphan who just hadn't registered, and maybe he didn't have a birth certificate stating he was that old and got around that.

That's how I felt. I mean, I have always thought Don was an ass, because he is, and I don't really think they ever tried to hide it. Yet that scene literally made me cry. Because I mean, even with how horrible he is, I don't hate him. I just can't. Matt and Jon do too good a job with the character for that. And yeah, damned if the man doesn't deserve the Emmy this year. Come on. The honesty in that scene literally made me sit up out of bed (just had surgery) and gape at the TV.

I'm annoyed because I want to watch the final season now. I kind of see it going one of two ways:

1) Don tries, but like with Megan in season 5, his honesty doesn't pay off, he's still a son of a bitch deep down, he collapses and probably dies in some way.

2) It works. He starts admitting to who he is, caring about his kids, stops drinking himself into a stupor, starts living and enjoying a life that is imperfect but honest rather than outwardly looking perfect but inwardly being hell.

To put it another way... either Don dies and takes Dick with him, or Dick kills off Don and keeps on living. Either way, Don Draper is dead.

 

My sense was more that it was a fight than a breakup. Megan was upset and left the apartment, but I don't think she's been pushed all the way to divorce. It's always possible Weiner starts the next season six months later and they're divorced in the interim, but if it's going to happen I feel like Weiner would want to play out more onscreen next season. That's just a hunch.

 

That really was a great finale. I suspect they'll be separated with Megan moving on with her life in LA at the start of next season.

I seem to remember an interview with Weiner (or maybe it was Hamm?) that I read a year or so ago where he wanted to do a flash-forward to see Don as an old man at the end of the series.

 

That scene where Don got put on "administrative leave" was as bitchy as we have ever seen Bert Cooper. "Right on time."

 

But he was so badass!

 

Cooper is always badass.

 

I dunno, she called his kids screwed up and stuff. Also I guess there's nothing stopping Don from going to California with her while she works and he doesn't, except for his kids. Something tells me Megan's just going to go and follow her dreams because she's sick of waiting around for Don.

 

Bert Cooper is the ultimate voice of authority. He's the only man on the planet who can just flat-out chew Don out and have Don take it. I always wish we saw more of him, but whenever he does get used, it's with precision effect.

 

this is actually pretty funny.

If the season finale of "Mad Men" took place entirely on Facebook.

 

So, now that we have the entire season to look back on, what do you think? My opinion might change once I marathon the entire series on Blu-ray and see it all at once, but I still think it was the weakest season -- too much mopey Don and not enough to say about how he was breaking down, unimpressive handling of Bob Benson, and not quite as much of the usual magic -- the show didn't feel as fresh anymore, or like it had quite as much to say. I also wish they'd followed up some of the non-Don characters some more -- the premiere dangled the idea of Roger in crisis as a plot seed, but that didn't really go anywhere all season. That said, it was still Mad Men, and still good. The unexpected merger and the plots spinning out of that were a highlight, and the way Don's hitting bottom was used as an impetus to push him off firmly off in a new, unexpected direction did something to redeem the extensive focus on Don's issues. In some ways it felt like the series spent too much time on just building up to the premise for the seventh season, but I'm excited for the next season, so it worked.

 

I'm not sure if I have a favourite season, which I guess shows how consistently good the show is. There are certain epsiodes and moments that stand out to me but not any particular season. I think I enjoyed this one as much the others.

 

Here we go again....

At least I know now that they'll probably do the same for Walking Dead. Honestly, I actually wouldn't mind this too much if the wait wasn't a freakin' year long. Six months at the most and I could live with it.