Reaction to the Finale

After eight years the audience comes to end of a journey, or really a mis-journey, as Mad Men's final scenes do not suggest complete and utter happiness or conclusions that are stable by being earned or deserved, but on the contrary, happiness is flat lined with fake ambiguity and lessons not learned with just another day in the life of roads the characters have already been down before paving the way that what could of been meaningful connections in life, in which could of translated self awareness through artistic expression, is all shrugged off by the tail-chasing constant of cynical idealism and commercialism.

Either creator Matthew Weiner set out to prove that his audience is just as broken, out of touch, and non complacent as his characters, -and the period from which they derive, by having people respond with remarks like: I liked the ending, but I am not satisfied. or Mad Men could never have a satisfying ending, or I like it, but something doesn't sit with me right, or that the ending was in fact the epitome of happiness and open to interpretation, because the audience is determined to like Mad Men no matter what it's message is, as an iconic part of pop cultural Americana, making Weiner insidious by caring more about the reaction to the work than the work itself or Mr. Weiner is in fact the latest incarnate of Ayn Rand, where I find that promoting romantic realism and cynical idealism does not in fact help a society to become better, but rather offers an excuse to say,  'Do as I say, not as I do." in world where like Roger Sterling proclaims, "Nobody cares", because ultimately nothing means anything. So why did I read or watch these things again? It's an anti-inspiring message that could of been about change being the constant in what has often been coined, "a time of change", but instead said panders to the more depressing, the more things change, the more they stay the same and tells us the truth is that life is a pointless add in which almost no person can truly evolve or progress, which is odd or sadly ironic when one considers how many times the series alludes to more hopeful and socially positive attributing and/or self transforming work like Charles Dickens, Frank L. Baum, Nels Anderson, James Bond, James Hilton, and even Walt Disney, let alone both the promotion and warnings of technological advancement and a fantastic dance number about how the best things in life are free. I personally hope the first suggestion is more accurate and that perhaps Mad Men's ending lacks solidarity or justification in a boring cycle of narcissism for a better reason, because there could be a spin off that acts as a counter agent to cynical idealism, such as humanism or humanitarianism, ---and maybe in the form of Sally Draper...

The Vanishing Act OR A Hitchhiker's Guide To Donald Draper

As we come much closer to the final episodes, Lost Horizon, again may give us some clues as where we are going. There are still some things that support time travel/alternate reality theory.

Again Christmas Day and Ghosts are a topic of conversation ala A Christmas Carol, as Burt appears again to Don driving across the HEARTLAND, and Roger passes Burt's Ancient Japanese Erotic Art piece onto to Peggy, which points out that despite separation of story, the two characters are inextricably linked.

There may also be subtle reference to The Wizard of Oz. Peggy pictured with a basket and she later puts herself in another kind of shoe (rollers kates), talks of non-talking dogs at the Beer Luncheon-Meeting, Diana being refereed to as a Tornado, a Scarecrow in the feild at the side of the road on Don's journey, and the mentioning of HOME SICKNESS along with characters like Joan fighting for what they believe in seems like such a familiar tale...But it's 1939 Film version that must be given credit, since unlike Frank L. Baum's novels, The characters in Oz are visual doppelgangers/counterparts to Dorothy's own family that she is trying to get back to...

Note: The Other Don has the inherent senses to know this change isn't good for her, so goes to a "travel" agency instead---themes of various travels become present with this awareness, as the novel On The Road is referenced and we see Don travel and pick up another traveler...

This also brings me to look at the final three episode titles. Lost Horizon is a film about people who disappear in a mountain town in China after their plane crashes. Much like the TV show LOST, it's a story about starting over and finding oneself on a spiritual level.

The remaining two titles are The Milk And Honey Route and Person To Person. The Milk and Honey Route may refer to the work of Nels Anderson, titled, Milk And Honey Route; A Handbook For Hobos! Anderson was a sociologist trying to find progressive ways to help those in need.

Person to Person could refer to one of the first TV shows that interviewed celebrities, but more over I think it's an unfinished phrase: Person to Person, Place to Place...and the ides of finally getting in touch with oneself. It all plays to communication and travel.

So when we put these things together along with events that occurred in the episode Lost Horizon we get a few notable ideas

Theme of drifters or drifting. Don going place to place to search for Diana, followed by Don picking up a hitchhiker, hobo, or drifter, furthered by David Bowie's Major Tom all point to the idea that Don may be going missing. Perhaps with a group of people  (farming/commune-like people - finding Jesus-esque...Jeremy Bentham: Not Paul, But Jesus) who can't be found, whether because they are nomads or because they are very well hidden.

So I could easily see a plot where everyone is searching for Don years later, but to further his own story, Don changes his identity again...but will it be the one he let go of or has he stolen someone else's???

In some sense the series could easily not end in time travel at all, as this almost points to a Gaius Balter (Battlestar Galactic re-imaged) like ending, where Don goes back to his roots...

On the other hand, maybe the truth is that maybe it wasn't that he wasn't suppose to be Donald Draper, but that he was just suppose to something different and he could still end the series in bed/on the couach, wishing for something more meaningful, (or a tornado comes),  and then waking up elsewhere--landing safely on the couch.

Another thing to point out was the woman that they cast as Diana's "replacement" or "stand in" is none other than Sarah Jane Morris. The reason I find this amusing is because, I had stated before that I thought the Kodak Carousal pitch, having Don refer to it as a "time machine", was such a similar concept of J.J. Abram's Felicity, in which Ben calls the film canister of The Gold Rush, a "time machine", which Felicity's series ends with a time travel!! The one character that proves to Felicity once and for all that she wasn't completely nuts and did time travle was Zoe Webb, Noel's future wife, whom happens to be in the same institution Felicity goes to. Zoe Web is played by Sarah Jane Morris!!

A Christmas Story - Responsibility of Growing Up

Mad Men returns in it's third episode of the second half of the final season with a lot of allusions to a lot works of fiction and continuing to call back to things of Mad Men's Past...

The title of this post is in reference to Don telling Mathis jokingly to go back into negotiations and to bring a bar soap to wash his mouth out four saying a four letter F-word. The Christmas Story is an iconic film based on a series of stories first written by Jean Shepard (In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash), in which the film version, comically explores the life of a family during the depression-era while also more specifically is a moral coming of age story about a boy who wants a Red Riffle BB Gun for Christmas. Ultimately, besides learning responsibility for owning a fire arm, and a mother trying to not let her sons grow up too fast, the story also emphasizes that family and/or human connection is more important than success.

This again could support my time travel theory, as this again could go hand in hand with the likes of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, where Christmas stories are often about spiritual awakenings in the name of changing our ways for the better. The Christmas Story may alsor elate to Mad Men in parallel to Don's own upbringing, being a child of the Depression Era and interestingly, Lucky Strike was also referenced in this episode, which adds featured: The Great American Cowboy. Young Ralphie of the The Christmas Story fantasized himself a cowboy-like hero using his BB Gun to save his family from bandits...


Duncan, Conner, Quinton, James MacLeod. 
Although MacLeod (sounds like Mac-CLOUD) could easily play to a fantasy reference such as Peter Pan (which I will get to after this), it immediately reminded me of television, film, novels, and cartoon series Highlander, in which in all three versions it's Irish MacLeod characters time travel!

Note: Actor Bruce Greenwood is an iconic science fiction actor with works such as Deja Vu, I Robot, and more recently, the new alternate timeline of Star Trek films.

Peter Pan & Neverland:
One of Mad Men's biggest occurring themes is also Mothers and their children and this almost Freudian-esque look at how one's mother or mother figure can play a significant role in one's life and what it means to grow up. In a lot ways, one can argue that Mad Men has been about the anti-adult, the struggle to not grow up, but I think if that's true, then it's not necessarily an add for not growing up, but more over the consequences for not doing so. For me the definition of adulthood is being responsible and so much of the time, the characters constantly cave into irresponsibility. However at the same time, adulthood shouldn't hinder us from childlike sense of wonder, because not only is that where creative thought is often thought to be, but also dreams and ideas is where happiness lies and perhaps the point in being an adult is to find the balance between happiness and responsibility, --and to learn what is really worth fighting for and what isn't!

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The Ghost Of Don-mas Past -You Must Be Mistaken Me For Somebody Else

We return finally for the last batch of episodes (only 6) in Mad Men's journey, one, as I think the episode hinted at, will be bittersweet.

I briefly had read a Forbes preview article siting the importance of Midge Daniels, the first woman viewers meet of Don's extra marital affairs. I disagree with the article in her being the most important, as almost all characters,including the woman, present a contrast and insight into Donald Draper or Dick Whitman's identity, as this show really is another great character study, but instead, I feel the writer failed to realize that this is about coming full circle to point out Don went down the wrong path yet again. And IMO the most important woman to adult Donald Draper are Anna Draper, Sally, and Peggy Olsen!

The Christmas Carol and Carousal-like-time-machine effects continue to be strong in the first episode of 7B titled "Severance" (to leave/be fired with pay/compensation). We left off last season with Don signing his name over to McCann with a five year contract on the back of the death of Bert, whom Don imagined (or not) seeing, after his death, singing a fabulous dance number, again pointing out the error of the Don's choices, as money is not always the answer to happiness, the best things in life are free----human connections. (Think Burger Chef Pitch!)

The first episode has lots to look at. Bizarrely we do see  an image of a cross between Abigail Whitman and Midge, only she's really not  Midge or Abigail, but Diana. With a nonsensical aspect of very rich men with three very young and attractive woman, it's hard to imagine their attraction to this cheap dinner in the first place, but as far as writing goes, the Mildred Pierce reference, to Don openly telling a story about his step mother and a toaster to leaving behind a 100 dollar bill, and coming back later and having quick degrading sex with Diana out back while he tries to make a connection to her by talking to her about seeing ghosts, all points out Don's past and how he can't put his finger on the eeriness of his surroundings, something that brilliantly Ken Crosgrove always could, as he mentions himself in the episode.

Note: That juxtaposition of rich men eating at a poor dinner is also juxtaposed with the non rich Peggy offering her date to randomly to fly to Paris at a moments notice--something that also may be referencing the film, While We Are Young. There is also this point made with Peggy and Joan being horrifically treated at their Topaz meeting, and despite that maybe Peggy put her foot in her mouth about Joan's appearance, the truth is Peggy is right in that Joan has so much money, she doesn't have to put herself through all the abuse, if she doesn't want to and that makes Peggy's tolerability interesting, when you consider she can't really do what she wants to. And then we see Joan act like Don at the dress shop, denying her past,...

Note: Mildred Pierce, a hard-boiled Depression-Era-set novel, is also a rags to riches cautionary tale in terms of looking at what happiness really is.

The ghost that Don saw was non other than Rachel Menken, another one of Don's early love interests. One who matched him in business, but one who pointed out Don's lack of spirituality or appreciation of heritage and perhaps served as one of Don's first realizations and/or at least the audiences', of how Don had been denying his past, his roots, as he began to admit some of it to her.

Two other interesting aspects of seeing and referencing Rachel come in again dealing with death, which for me and/or this theory may still be about the death of Anna Draper (and perhaps his brother) being one of, if not the main point of, where Don should of jumped off. Also it deals with the unseen--the fur coat modeling connects to Don meeting the young Betty Draper (when selling coats), who does not appear in this episode all again points to Don's choices and identity he stole earlier in life.


The Promotional Videos/Photos For 7B: 

My Sweetest Hangover:
Although the outdoor party montage is a pretty photo shoot of what might be the last party, last call, or a 'last supper' of sorts, the more important message is the concept of the song's refrain, 'My sweetest hangover'. Hangovers are generally not thought of to be sweet, but a painful wake-up call that the dream and/or fantasy you thought you were living [the night before] is over and/or wasn't a fantasy at all, because there are always consequences to our actions or how things look in the sobering light of day. So in a way, one could attribute this to an ironic statement about death or change pointing to painful tragedy, but one could also look at it another way: what if a hangover could be "sweet", because it actually gets you to where you will become most happy? Or what if a hangover is sweet, because you simply wake up the next day with the right person in the right life and that the fantasy you were having was actually a nightmare or fever dream???


Kodak Carousal [Photo Slide Projector Wheel] "Time Machine" Metaphor - Montage
The second video ad, one not played as often as Sweet Hangover, features the beautiful lines of Don's pitch for the Kodak Carousal along with great images showcasing the series and solidifies my Christmas Carol alternate reality/time travel theory arguement in how important that pitch/line of dialogue is to the entire series, because it was saved for last.