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Novara

(5,853 posts)
Mon Apr 13, 2015, 07:59 AM Apr 2015

Who is watching Mad Men?

This final half-season makes me think the series should have ended last season. I have no interest in following Don's continued sexual exploits and angst about the past anymore (are we to see each of his past flings in some farewell tour?). And I was hoping Weiner would explore the Women's Lib movement but it appears he'll ignore it. Joan and Peggy are two characters approaching feminist issues from different perspectives; it would be fantastic to explore them.

Last night's episode makes it look like the series has just gone on too long.

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Novara

(5,853 posts)
4. Me too. Bored.
Mon Apr 13, 2015, 10:28 AM
Apr 2015

It looks like this season so far (granted, it's only two episodes, but there aren't many left) is a parade of saying goodbye to Don's paramours. It was Rachel Menken in the first episode, now Betty, Megan, and Sylvia appear in this episode. Who else is left? Faye? The schoolteacher? Yawn.

I'd rather see Sal again.

dr.strangelove

(4,851 posts)
2. I disagree 100%
Mon Apr 13, 2015, 08:07 AM
Apr 2015

I am watching it and hanging on every word of incredible writing and masterful acting. I only am sad that this is the FINAL half-season. Don's continued sexual exploits have little to do with the show, other than that they accurately portray the era and how an aging 2 time divorcee man deals with his feelings. Instead, I was amazed by Meagan's comments on don's aging, his attempt to buy himself peace with her, the reaction of Don in Diana's apartment, Peggy's best acting to date standing over a photo machine and realizing her own issues with being a feminist and an "Don" type of advertiser. This show makes me want to embrace all of humanity, yet hate everyone at the same time. I hope it never ends, but am happy for the next 5 times I get to feel these feelings.

mainstreetonce

(4,178 posts)
3. I'm starting
Mon Apr 13, 2015, 10:15 AM
Apr 2015

from the beginning and binge watching. Up to season three.

The end better be worth this. A lot of episodes are just filler.

Sheldon Cooper

(3,724 posts)
5. Mad Men always starts out really slow and boring, and then gets cooking
Mon Apr 13, 2015, 09:23 PM
Apr 2015

by mid-season. We probably have at least one more episode of wandering nonsense, and then shit will start to happen.

I'm not sure how this will all play out, but I think each week is bringing us the end of the story line for different characters. We've probably seen the last of Ken, Megan, and the really creepy Harry Crane.

The only people I'm curious about are Don, Peggy, and Sally. I'd like to see Peggy end up with Stan, and I'd like to see Sally finally have a mature relationship with Don. Speaking of Don - he is not likely to have some sort of epiphany and change his ways, so what's left? Die? Take off for Cali and live on the beach? Or continue on his path to becoming the drunk creepy old guy at the office who hits on all the secretaries and makes everyone uncomfortable?

I don't care much what happens to Betty, Joan, Pete and Roger.

Novara

(5,853 posts)
8. Finally, a little bit more of Joan and Peggy
Mon Apr 20, 2015, 07:23 AM
Apr 2015

Joan is unwittingly turning into quite the feminist, isn't she?

Nice to hear about Peggy's career aspirations.

Jeebus, Matt Weiner's son can't act. Those scenes with Glenn were painful to watch.

SoCalDem

(103,856 posts)
10. That was the whole point. He was an awkward/troubled young kid
Tue Apr 21, 2015, 07:53 PM
Apr 2015

and he grew into a troubled / awkward young man

Novara

(5,853 posts)
12. ...who has no acting skills.
Tue Apr 21, 2015, 08:23 PM
Apr 2015

Jeez, if January Jones is the best actor in a scene, we've got trouble.

Phentex

(16,334 posts)
9. I think we are all going to be disappointed...
Tue Apr 21, 2015, 04:26 PM
Apr 2015

not sure how they can really end it. Doesn't seem like the kind of show that will wrap everything up in a pretty bow. I expect I'll be left with as many questions as when I started and will spend some time in my head writing my own endings.

SoCalDem

(103,856 posts)
11. I think they will just end it...and let us all guess what happens next
Tue Apr 21, 2015, 08:03 PM
Apr 2015

If you look at the arc of the show, they have already "ended it"..

Don has morphed from the hunky man with a deep dark secret, and charm-galore into a middle aged, creepy womanizer who trashes everything he touches...even his secret turned out to be not as important as he thought it would be.

Sally has grown from an impetuous child into a thoughtful young woman

Betty is what she always was..shallow, vapid and unhappy..but even she apparently plans to go back to school, so maybe she will end up in a better place

Joan transformed from the va-va-voom dish/secretary who was a joke, into a woman with power..and she had a child she loves....

Peggy also moved up the ladder and wants to become "Donna Draper". She was a timid mousy little character, but she's definitely not that any more.

All the other characters were always peripheral, so their changes are not all that much.

Mad Men (to me) was always a trip though a life..our own

We all make changes that, when we look back, seem huge, but since they happen a day/.a person at a time, we don't even notice them

Phentex

(16,334 posts)
15. Great assessment!
Wed Apr 22, 2015, 05:08 PM
Apr 2015

I am most curious about Peggy I think. And I'd like to know what happens to Peter. I think they wrote off his marriage to Trudy too soon for the times.

What happened to Joan's mother?

mainstreetonce

(4,178 posts)
16. 1973?
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 06:21 PM
Apr 2015

I am not sure what year they are up to.

Don opens his own office in the new World Trade Center .....maybe not advertising......

We are left to wonder if he was still there in 93 or 01 ( very old)

They have a way of always tying in real events.

There also may have been a plane crash in the seventies that will tie into the last episode.

We almost have to be left wondering if Don lived or died.

valerief

(53,235 posts)
17. I want to see Don fall out the window of a tall building in the final episode.
Mon May 4, 2015, 08:33 PM
May 2015

Did you see him tap the glass in the 5/3/15 episode? Foreshadowing. That and the opening credits, of course.

They might 9-11 the series. Not the real 9-11 but this is fiction, so they could do it. Joan will be the only one who survives, because she's been canned.

Sheldon Cooper

(3,724 posts)
18. None of my predictions about Mad Men have come true so far.
Mon May 11, 2015, 08:21 AM
May 2015

Which doesn't surprise me - I'm terrible with predictions! But last night's episode: wow.

SPOILER ALERT!!!





Such sad news about Betty. I loved her letter to Sally. I assumed if someone ended up dead it'd be Roger. And how about Pete? If anyone would thrive at McCann, I thought it would be him. Now he's going to Wichita???

Don's definitely not going to McCann. I still think he ends up in Cali, maybe bringing his now motherless kids with him, but that seems too simplistic and since I'm always wrong, we'll find out next week.

Peggy? I'm stumped.

Novara

(5,853 posts)
19. I think I'd rather take in what's happening now rather than make predictions
Mon May 11, 2015, 08:33 AM
May 2015

I'm surprised that Betty is accepting this with so much grace and class. She's really grown.

But I'm not buying Trudy's acceptance of letting Pete back in her life. In one breath she talks of never forgetting the past, then she's agreeing to move with him to Wichita? Hm.

As for Don, it must be freeing to finally drop the pretenses. Hence, his lecture to the kid who stole the money.

Response to sophia ellison (Reply #20)

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