Thoughts?? I thought it wrapped up rather nicely. Not the best nor the worst of endings for a popular series. Just felt...satisfactory. Spoiler I guess Don is a hippie now?
There was no "punch". It was just like a regular episode. Nothing wrong with that. This is what I expected because it was clear the show wasn't speeding up to a particularly dynamic closing.
I'm still a little concerned about the Draper children; although Sally seems to be handling the situation pretty well.
So I guess the implication is that Don gets his 'light bulb' moment while he's meditating -- which is to come up with arguably the biggest jingle of the 1970's: the "I'd-like-to-buy-the-world-a-Coke" jingle? He gets reinvigorated at the hippie compound, goes back to New York to restart his career, then comes out of the box swinging with that monster ad campaign. Draper is back. >
This just about sums it up. I was born in the 80s so didn't really understand the coke commercial at the end until I read about the ending. Good ending if u ask me.
Yeah I think that's exactly what they wanted you to think happens. There's been a big emphasis on Coke throughout the season. Peggy mentions that they'd take him back in a second at McCann. I don't think Don found inner happiness, he just got his groove back for the job which is pretty much all he has.....
Don's only solace in life was his skill. He was terrible at being a human being himself but great at manipulation of other people's feelings. He could only define his ego (successes) with his work, not love friends or family. To me the 'Mona Lisa' half smile was him hitting on the hippie ad campaign theme. He knew it was huge. Though in the end, another sad, cheap manipulation to sell sugar water, i.e. the definition of materialism. Weiner has said he always knew the last scene. My guess is the cynicism of using a Peace and Love commercial to sell an essentially worthless products was always his idea for Madmen. Somewhere in the post-war era Americans were conned into a whole false narrative, exploited by greed-centric corporations, to create a whole society devoted to buying crap. We are slaves to stuff. Think about how our whole entertainment system is built on commercials. That is a strange concept that should have never been. We should pay for the content we want instead of being constantly pounded with propaganda. Thanks Harry.
Did it not create a disconnect for anybody else that Weiner was selling us on a fictional character creating a real-life advertisement, when we know that not to be true? I realize there have been other small instances of this on the show, but not as the big reveal for the grand finale. The realism of the show is part of what made it good. Having to suddenly suspend disbelief to that magnitude doesn't jibe with the rest of the series. It just wasn't particularly clever or impactful, especially because of this, imo.
This is what I got out of it, too. Matthew Weiner's cynicism is well documented and the Coke commercial is not meant to represent some sort of "new" Don. Draper finally made peace with himself in California - remember Peggy asking him "What did you ever do that was so bad?" - and returned to McCann to commoditize that feeling of goodwill and harmony. It's what he's good at: corrupting raw human feelings to sell stuff. So, while our "hero" does make peace with himself at the end, that "peace" implies he creates one of the most influential ads of all time that peddles a soda on the back of world peace.
It was the Coke commercial story Weiner was telling all along, a fictionalized backstory of it. How anyone could ever be so soulless to conceive it.
I liked that the last scene was about the work/career. I thought the whole time it would be about meaning and life. For Don it wasn't. I wonder if he went back to McCann or pitched the ad directly... And I don't think he was genuinely "part" of that hippie group the entire time he was there. I think he indirectly used those people to figure out the ad. That ad has a similar feel. Isn't this what Don has always been? Produces great work, goes on a bender or breaks down trying to deal with life, then returns to create something successful at work? It's his cycle, the cycle Mad Men always comes back to. So to me it's fitting. They set the whole thing up nicely. Peggy is like "you can come back, don't you want to work on coke?" and Don responds with "I cant". He smiles and gets it back. Same ending has Ed Norton's Hulk btw.
Except this time they just skipped the middle steps, jumped straight from the end of his turmoil and the aha moment directly to the finished product. I agree with cardpire in principle, kind of cheating, but it was such a good punchline I didn't mind it. As for the rest of it, I didn't care for all the little by the way hokey tie ups just to put a bow on some characters' story lines. Peggy's and pete's were especially groan worthy about-faces.
Meh I actually liked the way Pete's storyline ended. All of them except for Peggy's. Perhaps because I could have predicted Peggy and Stan(as did just about everyone I imagine). Pete's was kinda surprising that they would tie it up nicely.
Thought this was a good read for the non old-timers on here(as in those that weren't teens or older in the 70s). http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-hilltop-story
Not Don Draper <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tSNU1TvF4pc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
