Call the Midwife is over – ending with the wonderful doctor prescribing thalidomide. :-(
3.
Thoroughly Pizzled
I’ll miss this show a lot.
4.
srv
Well, a TWA 727 is all the hint I need
5.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Remind me: thalidomide turned out to be a useful drug for another condition, in recent years, and I cannot remember what ….
But what a tragedy.
6.
RaflW
I can easily predict that I won’t be watching.
But, and I do mean this, y’all enjoy! I have shows that I really like, this just doesn’t happen to be one of ’em.
7.
the Conster
I know all my female friends would like to see Joan take care of some business with an AK-47.
8.
Elizabelle
@srv: Is that the DB Cooper surmise? Or another incident in unfriendly skies?
I wish for a sunny ending for Don Draper. He deserves it more than some of the others. What lies in store for Pete?
9.
RaflW
@Elizabelle: Thalidomide has been quite useful for treating multiple myeloma. Too late to help my mom, but it was quite effective for my aunt (only related by marriage, and never lived in the same city – so weird to have that connection).
I’m desperately seeking YouTube video clips that illustrate personality traits for my english class — a movie or TV show clip that shows “confidence” or “talkative” or “shy” or “Hardworking” or “generous.” I’m amazed at how hard it is to find such a thing and figure I must be braindead and am not thinking through old Seinfeld episodes or some such.
Can’t be any profanity/vulgarity or sexual content, this is for school. Anything jump out at anyone?
@Elizabelle: actually, it would be improper to use the TWA brand like that, particularly since it’s more like PSA airlines livery, which would be very insensitive for LA viewers who had one fall on them.
Perhaps a prequel to Lost then.
17.
Elizabelle
@Southern Beale: confidence: Don Draper presenting in Mad Men. Bottle it.
Thinking clips from “The Grapes of Wrath”, for a few of the other qualities… shy, thinking on that …
No predictions, because Matt Weiner writes what Matt Weiner wants to write. A fervent hope though… No Diana in the final ep please!!
19.
Smiling Mortician
@Southern Beale: The Harry Potter movies, especially the first 4, have a lot of personality-type scenes with Harry, Hermione, Ron, the various professors, etc.
20.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
I thought that fucking series ended years ago.
Too many assholes in real life to watch em on teevee.
21.
Elizabelle
“I know your life will be an adventure.” — Betty Draper to Sally
Thought that was one of the best blessings a parent can bestow.
I will start watching Mad Men this summer, now that it’s over. I try to do this with good shows, because the waits between episodes just eat me up once I’m hooked.
I started watching Game of Thrones after season three, and I regret it, because NOW I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DRAGONS.
26.
Omnes Omnibus
Meredith amuses me.
27.
Elizabelle
Secretary: “I translated your speech into pig Latin.”
Roger: “That was a joke.”
28.
Belafon
I watched the “Graybles 1000+” episode of Advanture Time for the third time this morning. It sounds cliche, but it does more in 12 minutes than most shows do in an hour. It was another great episode.
I picked up a book called “Adventure Time: The Art.” Guillermo del Toro wrote the introduction, talking about how he and his family are hooked on the show. Part of what was interesting was the story of how Adventure Time became a cartoon.
Thanks I’ll have to look through them. Since my students are learning English the scenes have to be very non-verbally oriented and more visually-oriented.
If found some cute animal videos on YouTube that might work.
I turned wrenches on a shit ton of B727s. Good airplane.
36.
the Conster
Sally needs her own show.
37.
Elizabelle
I feel terribly for Betty. In retrospect, she was smoking in — what — 70% of her scenes? Maybe to stay slim. But I don’t think they could do very much for advanced lung cancer in the early 1970s ….
Aerosmith’s Dream On in an Adobe Photoshop ad. Bet that one was expensive.
Hamm thinks the “Mad Men” book — and all its characters — should end with Sunday night’s episode.
“I think a big part of what I appreciated about the show, and what people will find when they watch tonight’s episode, is the story is complete. And so I think the idea of a spinoff or a sequel or a prequel or origin story or whatever longer time to spend with these characters, i think it would be less fulfilling somehow.”
And then:
“But that said, [a spin-off] would be Sally. We’d watch Sally grow up and cruise through the ’70s and turn into a rock star. Turn into Joan Jett or something. Ride a motorcycle and kill a guy … become Oliver Stone in the ‘80s and then date Kurt Cobain in the ‘90s. She’s cool, she’s just a touchstone for every generation, I don’t know. Yeah, I’d watch that show.”
Then you should look at YouTube videos of silent comedians’ movies: Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton. Even Laurel and Hardy’s stuff is almost completely visual. Also Mack Sennett comedies.
56.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: Something to think about. Sally would be 60 today.
Oh, my baby camera is up on Ebay! I feel ill. I hope it sells to someone who will keep it neat and clean, wipe everything down regularly, put the lenses in nice bags, take the batteries out for long term storage and keep their nasty greasy fingers off the fricking lens. And takes decent shots, please.
@Belafon: That’s a great cartoon with some serious darkness running beneath the surface.
71.
Omnes Omnibus
We don’t find out who does the Coke ad? Cool.
72.
Elizabelle
And we end with “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
But who came up with that? Peggy, Don, or neither? And what’s the final instrumental music?
I think it’s implied, after Don’s sojourn in Kumbayaland.
75.
celticdragonchick
I do have to say that GoT went a bridge too fucking far tonight.
We really did not have to have Sansa Stark getting raped on her wedding night with Theon being made to watch. The show has become sadistic bullshit.
76.
Elizabelle
Now a repeat.
Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in that sneak peak? Hmmm.
77.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: Or was it Peggy who has finally broken free? It could be either. Sexist pig that I am, I agree with you, but the other is a real possibility.
ETA: Maybe Don just found a way to be happy.
78.
Mike in NC
@Elizabelle: I think it’s just a tribute to the mediocrity of Madison Avenue firms circa 1970.
It’s like the opposite of when he came back from Hawaii and horrified the clients and the other partners with the ad for Sheraton that showed someone disappearing into the ocean.
80.
Elizabelle
Do love the “he’s in a better place” — “he’s not dead!” exchange with Don’s kind of simple secretary. A highlight.
81.
Mike in NC
@celticdragonchick: Yes, this season has been very underwhelming so far.
82.
Betty Cracker
Hmmm. I think “Coke” was Peggy’s triumph. Her romance with Stan made her so happy she was capable of that level of sappiness.
Don stayed on the commune and hooked up with the therapist lady. Later, they left Hippieland and started running an EST franchise.
83.
Elizabelle
I think Don came back for his kids, all of them.
I think he was marooned at ESTland until he could get a ride east.
84.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: Meredith is going to be a top interior designer by the early 80s. She became more and more effective, confidant, and assertive as the show went on.
85.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Missed that Sheraton ad. Did catch the TMI during the Hershey’s pitch, that led to the suspension.
86.
Elizabelle
Pete has survived. For now.
87.
the Conster
The story of the original Coke ad – idea was from a guy from McCain Erickson. I think Don goes back like they all thought he would, kills it at work and steps up for his kids.
@Elizabelle: wierdly it was cancer that it helps. The same cell-stunting mechanism that produces horrible birth defects also stunts the growth of tumors.
weak ending. I wanted Don to drive the War Rig into McCann’s offices and defeat Immortan… oh wait, that’s Mad Max. So sorry.
94.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: She’ll do well. and she learned it from Don. The confidence to do what she does well. Ultimately that is Don’s achievement. Peggy and Meredith…. And last but not least his contribution to Sally.
95.
hilts
And we end with “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
The perfect bullshit ending for the ultimate bullshit tv drama series.
Mad Men is the most overrated tv drama series in 30 years. The first 3 seasons were decent, but then the show went right off the fucking cliff and never recovered. The level of idiocy in the plotlines from season 4 – season 7 are unfuckingbelievable.
Good riddance to Mad Men and long live Better Call Saul.
Are you familiar with the concept of a spoiler?! Especially since the show probably hasn’t aired on the West Coast yet.
97.
PurpleGirl
I never got into watching Mad Men. I skipped the marathon and am skipping the final episode.
The most perfect final episode and final scene ever was the one for the second Bob Newhart Show. Really, making the whole run of the second show a bad dream of the first show… brilliant.
I really do want to see Straight Outta Compton. I think I will grab my little brother and make him come with me. We drove down from Wisconsin to the Chicago area for a wedding in his shitty car (I drove, as he was still learning how to drive a manual – I was just back from Europe and the army so I had no car). NWA and Public Enemy were some of the only music we both were okay with.
It doesn’t really make up for it in anyway and is a really odd deviation from the books, but that said I am interested in what Littlefinger’s reaction will be given that protection/lust over Cat/Sansa has basically been his one weak point in an otherwise terrifyingly efficient power accumulating machine– does he just go nuts with the scheming and take everyone out or does he sit back and let horrible stuff continue in order set up his master plan?
I thought the finale was perfect. McCann Erickson produced that iconic 1971 Coke ad, and Don sits meditating while the idea comes to him and he smiles. Perfect. Cynical.
Let’s just hope that Joan’s production company produced it.
The gap between the premise Mad Men and the execution from seasons 4 -7 is bigger than the Grand Canyon.
106.
Betty Cracker
Now that I’ve had a moment to process it, I’ve decided I’m kinda meh about the MM ending. I like the way they sorted Peggy, Joan, Roger and Pete. I’m even okay with the last glimpse we got of Sally, helping her little brothers.
The way they wrapped it up with Don didn’t work, though. All that pointless fucking around out West. It was like the writer tried to split the difference between a super-ambiguous fade to black like The Sopranos and a more conventional ending.
107.
socraticsilence
The ad is an interesting way to do it and its awesome full circle– you can in a lot of ways watch Don’s ad pitch’s and the resulting ads and see his journey from man who desperately wants to be whole in a family (Kodak), to man deconstructed and questioning the meaning of family (Hershey’s), man at peace with himself and finally at home in his own skin (Coke).
108.
Liquid
The problem is, when they get too clever, the series becomes something else. Jorah can take over but their personalities diverge in a yellow wood and now you have something wildly different from the books.
109.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: As noted above, opinions differ. It showed the arc of number of characters and ended slightly ambiguously. It was satisfying for me. It seems you made some decisions around season three; things happened since then.
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m grinning like an idiot. I loved it.
@Betty Cracker: It really wasn’t pointless fucking around out west, though. Turns out, at least to me, that it was writer’s block. It’s all so cynical and delightful and typical Don.
So….I guess we should assume that Benihoff thinks the problem people had last year wasn’t adding/making explicit a rape scene, it was that the rapist was a character people liked? Because otherwise deviating from the books in order to add a rape scene seems fucking moronic.
115.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Golly, that’s seems like a lot of venom for someone who doesn’t care about the show.
116.
Liquid
The best is that after years of suffering/beatings/dreadpirateroberts Sansa is looking pretty Imperial.
Wait..wait….oh man convergence of thread topics idea– a rewrite of “Straight Outta Compton” with Game of Thrones characters.
119.
Keith P.
@PurpleGirl: I read somewhere about having The Big Bang Theory end with Newhart waking up to another dream. That would be a phenomenal ending (I was a big fan of the 2nd Newhart show) IMO
Decades from now, when groups of people are discussing television series, mention of the Mad Men series finale will elicit guffaws and snickering because of its insufferable and unforgettable lameness.
I care when someone squanders an opportunity to achieve artistic greatness like Breaking Bad and instead pollutes the airwaves with nauseating bullshit.
124.
ruemara
Meh, I don’t watch any of these. So, Hellboy it is. Nice capper to watching Mad Max.Which was oddly brilliant.
125.
Liquid
The absolute best endorsement for the new Mad Max would be those MRA swine whinging about Charlize Theron.
It’s like everyone forgot that Ripley was supposed to be a male.
126.
Mike J
@ruemara: William Gibson has not shut up about Mad Max since it came out. Still can’t convince me to pay to watch advertisements at 130dB, but I can’t wait until I can watch it at home.
127.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Okay, it appears that a number of people disagree with you. If you lost interest in the show after season 3, why would you be commenting on it here? Why does it matter to you?
Nothing ends like Breaking Bad did, that’s what made it so special– even the freaking Wire had more missteps its last season than Breaking Bad and its basically regarded as the greatest work of televised entertainment of alltime.
129.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: One of the nice things about having basic cable is not having a dog in this fight. I’m spending my time screwing up VM’s.
“Why would you be commenting on it here? Why does it matter to you?”
I’m commenting because Mad Men showed promise and potential to be a very good or possibly even a great show, but then it got bogged down in stupid, nonsensical plotlines and wrote interesting characters off the show while keeping on repulsive characters.
It matters to me because I find it inexplicable that some people think Mad Men actually belongs in the same league as all-time masterpieces like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, Columbo, and House.
Wait, “House”? The show that (a) horribly killed off the one character who could stand up to House and (b) claimed that ending an ectopic pregnancy was some kind of moral dilemma? Or are you referring some other, less morally repugnant show with the same title?
133.
Tenar Darell
@celticdragonchick: Yeah, that was exactly what I was worried about when they decided to have Sansa be the person who married Ramsay. They were going to torture her some more. Not like GRRM doesn’t make it absolutely clear that women had few to no choices in the books; seeing it in color, even with a cutaway is just too much.
yeah, maybe they need to up the ante on the show, but, yeah, that was just ugly. and actually, why up the ante. that bastard is godsawful to begin with?
House remained interesting and entertaining throughout its run unlike Mad Men which insulted the intelligence of viewers by unrelenting and breathtakingly idiotic plotlines.
I kind of wish that Peggy had accepted Joan’s offer, but we couldn’t have everything.
And I do think that the ad at the end was supposed to be Don’s. He couldn’t get in tune with the zeitgeist of the 60s, but he is the perfect spokesman for the “Me Generation” 70s.
140.
Kerry Reid
I confess I haven’t read the other comments — but for me, the really satisfying thing about this episode is that it ultimately was about the decisions the women made.
141.
Mike J
@Liquid: I thought I was Raven. Or was it Little Boots?
I’m beginning to think Hilts is Askew just based on gish gallop style.
“House” glorified a sociopathic asshole and set every episode up so he could do no wrong, to the point of pretending that a goddamned ECTOPIC PREGNANCY would be viable in any way, shape or form.
But at least now I know I don’t have to take your “‘Mad Men” opinion seriously since complex characters who sometimes make bad decisions are difficult for you to deal with.
148.
Tenar Darell
Anyone watching Penny Dreadful? Seriously, how’d they get Patti Lupone?
149.
Mike J
@hilts: After three eps of the first season, House was just “Replace all his blood with bleach! It will either cure him or kill him!”
And you said you didn’t like mad men because of repulsive characters? House and everyone who put up with him should have been kicked in the nads repeatedly.
150.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tenar Darell: No, it did not work for me. And I have a thing for Eva Green.
My number one issue with Mad Men were truly awful and nauseating plot twists. Repulsive characters can be tolerated if the storylines still remain interesting.
For starters, Harry Crane and Ken Cosgrove should have been gone after Season 1. Midge Daniels and Paul Kinsey should lasted through season 7. Michael Ginsberg’s departure was too ridiculous.
160.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tenar Darell: I don’t begrudge Ms. Green a big paycheck. I just don’t really like the show that gets it for her.
In addition to Crane and Cosgrove staying too long, Daniels and Kinsey leaving too soon, Ginsberg’s dopey departure, the writer who stupidly followed Don’s advice and insulted the clients at a followup meeting after making a bad impression at the previous meeting.
Missed opportunities – The Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show was a huge fucking deal. If they didn’t want to pay the rights for the footage, they could have at least made reference to the performance or to their arrival in the US.
No plotline around the 1st Clay Liston fight. The plot around the rematch was okay, but the 1st match was more important.
165.
Liquid
@Steeplejack: Right/right. Misfired jokes aside it’s just nice to have a fun movie with a solid female lead!
but hilt, I think you may be right about paul kinsey.
167.
Tenar Darell
@Omnes Omnibus: I miss Wolf Hall already. I can watch historical drama, and paranormal fantasy, but I can hardly sit through chunks of Game of Thrones. Different things catch us all.
Big Bang Theory is, obviously, about geeks discovering their power in the larger culture. But it’s also about geek culture being ‘invaded’ by geeks who are not straight men whose family/romantic ties are either nonexistent or dysfunctional — it’s the bleed that keeps it interesting.
I felt the ending to the show should have been Don working on a race car in the desert, looking up to see someone else making the Coca Cola ad, and speeding into the horizon.
180.
Betty Cracker
Okay, dead thread, but I watched the last half of the finale again last night because hubby dozed off and missed the second half during its first run, so I watched it again with him. Now I’m convinced those of y’all up-thread who said the Coke ad was Don’s are correct.
After having seen the ad in the first broadcast and then watched the episode again, I noticed many visual cues at the hippie retreat and other of Don’s travels that were echoed in the ad. One example: the cheerful young woman who ran reception at the retreat had red ribbons braided into her hair. So did at least a couple of young women in the Coke ad. It was Don’s ad all right.
181.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: I just made the same argument here at work. No doubt in my mind.
182.
FlipYrWhig
@Manyakitty: @Betty Cracker: Totally. They set it up so that for one fleeting moment Don looks like he’s achieved Zen inner peace or whatnot, but then we realize that his blissful look come from the fact that he’s just hit upon a killer ad concept–selling Coke with hippie-dom, like how Peggy hit upon the idea of selling cigarettes with feminism. He didn’t achieve anything or have an emotional breakthrough. He just got good at his job again (note that he’s been a lousy pitchman for this entire season).
183.
KXB
The finale was frustrating. Towards the end, the show was working too hard to have a “deeper meaning” and forgot to come up with interesting storylines (mostly). I always suspected Don would end up in California, and he did, although as many point out it seems he will go back to NY to do the Coke ad. The characters of Joan and Peggy got stronger, more plausible send-offs. Would have like to have seen more of Roger and Pete. It was good to see Pete get out of NY altogether, leaving his family name behind and all the nonsense that comes with it.
184.
Betty Cracker
@KXB: I had a different take on Pete’s fate; I don’t think he was leaving the family name behind at all but rather finding a smaller pond where his eminence would loom larger. One of his big frustrations in NYC was that he couldn’t parlay his lineage into the kind of success that a nobody like Don achieved. Pete resented meritocracy. The Lear Jet people hired Pete specifically because he was a “real Knickerbocker,” which gratified his ego.
The smartest realization the writers of “Big Bang Theory” had was that Penny needed female friends and couldn’t just hang around with the guys all the time. That IMO was what gave she show the longevity it’s had.
To be fair to Pete, though, he also knew that he wanted Trudy back but that getting her out of the social circle where everyone would constantly remind her of his infidelity was the only way to do it.
G says that all of Pete’s worst moments were when he was trying his best to be Don, and I think that’s true. Once Pete realized that what he really wanted was Trudy (and their daughter) back in his life, that was the decision he made.
187.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Good insights. My favorite scene with Pete was when punched out the school admissions director as a continuation of a centuries-old family feud. He couldn’t escape his ancestry.
188.
Cckids
@Southern Beale: I don’t know if you’re a fan, but for a visual on confidence, Doctor Who (Tennant version) would probably be great.
189.
Kerry Reid
I sort of love that Harry Crane’s last moment on the show was getting kicked out of yet another room.
Elizabelle
Someone will enjoy an adult beverage.
the Conster
Call the Midwife is over – ending with the wonderful doctor prescribing thalidomide. :-(
Thoroughly Pizzled
I’ll miss this show a lot.
srv
Well, a TWA 727 is all the hint I need
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Remind me: thalidomide turned out to be a useful drug for another condition, in recent years, and I cannot remember what ….
But what a tragedy.
RaflW
I can easily predict that I won’t be watching.
But, and I do mean this, y’all enjoy! I have shows that I really like, this just doesn’t happen to be one of ’em.
the Conster
I know all my female friends would like to see Joan take care of some business with an AK-47.
Elizabelle
@srv: Is that the DB Cooper surmise? Or another incident in unfriendly skies?
I wish for a sunny ending for Don Draper. He deserves it more than some of the others. What lies in store for Pete?
RaflW
@Elizabelle: Thalidomide has been quite useful for treating multiple myeloma. Too late to help my mom, but it was quite effective for my aunt (only related by marriage, and never lived in the same city – so weird to have that connection).
Howard Beale IV
@Elizabelle: leporosy and a bunch of others.
Elizabelle
@RaflW: @Howard Beale IV:
Good to hear. Thalidomide has a better second act than GW Bush and enablers.
Ohio Mom
@Elizabelle: Wasn’t it leprosy, which isn’t called leprosy anymore. Hansen’s disease, I think.
Omnes Omnibus
Kiernan Shipka is an amazing actress.
Southern Beale
I’m desperately seeking YouTube video clips that illustrate personality traits for my english class — a movie or TV show clip that shows “confidence” or “talkative” or “shy” or “Hardworking” or “generous.” I’m amazed at how hard it is to find such a thing and figure I must be braindead and am not thinking through old Seinfeld episodes or some such.
Can’t be any profanity/vulgarity or sexual content, this is for school. Anything jump out at anyone?
Debbie
@Elizabelle:
It was prescribed for morning sickness.
srv
@Elizabelle: actually, it would be improper to use the TWA brand like that, particularly since it’s more like PSA airlines livery, which would be very insensitive for LA viewers who had one fall on them.
Perhaps a prequel to Lost then.
Elizabelle
@Southern Beale: confidence: Don Draper presenting in Mad Men. Bottle it.
Thinking clips from “The Grapes of Wrath”, for a few of the other qualities… shy, thinking on that …
JenJen
No predictions, because Matt Weiner writes what Matt Weiner wants to write. A fervent hope though… No Diana in the final ep please!!
Smiling Mortician
@Southern Beale: The Harry Potter movies, especially the first 4, have a lot of personality-type scenes with Harry, Hermione, Ron, the various professors, etc.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
I thought that fucking series ended years ago.
Too many assholes in real life to watch em on teevee.
Elizabelle
“I know your life will be an adventure.” — Betty Draper to Sally
Thought that was one of the best blessings a parent can bestow.
Omnes Omnibus
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): Well then, please feel free to continue not watching it.
NotMax
@elizabelle
Shy: Edith Bunker from early seasons of All in the Family. Or some scenes with Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting.
Beatrice
@the Conster: That sent a chill down my spine.
Suzanne
I will start watching Mad Men this summer, now that it’s over. I try to do this with good shows, because the waits between episodes just eat me up once I’m hooked.
I started watching Game of Thrones after season three, and I regret it, because NOW I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DRAGONS.
Omnes Omnibus
Meredith amuses me.
Elizabelle
Secretary: “I translated your speech into pig Latin.”
Roger: “That was a joke.”
Belafon
I watched the “Graybles 1000+” episode of Advanture Time for the third time this morning. It sounds cliche, but it does more in 12 minutes than most shows do in an hour. It was another great episode.
I picked up a book called “Adventure Time: The Art.” Guillermo del Toro wrote the introduction, talking about how he and his family are hooked on the show. Part of what was interesting was the story of how Adventure Time became a cartoon.
Southern Beale
@Smiling Mortician:
Thanks I’ll have to look through them. Since my students are learning English the scenes have to be very non-verbally oriented and more visually-oriented.
If found some cute animal videos on YouTube that might work.
Southern Beale
@Elizabelle:
Too verbal. Needs to be almost 100% visual. My students are learning English so they don’t have the language skills to understand a Mad Men episode.
Omnes Omnibus
@Southern Beale: They just need to see a clip of him walking into a room.
Omnes Omnibus
Fuck. That phone conversation. I think I got a piece of dust in my eye.
FourTen
What’s Mad Men? The Royals is on!
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Truly. I wish I had DD’s confidence.
celticdragonchick
@srv:
I turned wrenches on a shit ton of B727s. Good airplane.
the Conster
Sally needs her own show.
Elizabelle
I feel terribly for Betty. In retrospect, she was smoking in — what — 70% of her scenes? Maybe to stay slim. But I don’t think they could do very much for advanced lung cancer in the early 1970s ….
Aerosmith’s Dream On in an Adobe Photoshop ad. Bet that one was expensive.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: No shit.
Mike in NC
@FourTen: Royals was initially pitched as a comedy, but it’s really a soapy drama. Still not bad and has the awesome Elizabeth Hurley.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: I watched the first episode and bailed.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Yeah, Sally/Kiernan is amazing.
Growing Up on ‘Mad Men’: A Conversation With Matthew Weiner and Kiernan Shipka
New York Times link.
danielx
In other news, stay tuned for a very important update on 2016 plans from Huckleberry Graham…presumably another passenger in the GOP clown car.
I can’t wait.
Omnes Omnibus
Roger does get the best lines. “All I got was suitcase. Yell slower or do it in English.”
Mike J
I predict that between now and November 2016, John will front page every republican hit piece and shriek, “surely she’s done for now!”
Botsplainer
@Southern Beale:
You can pull lot of those themes from episodes of The Andy Griffith show, Barney Miller and the like.
Mike J
@the Conster:
If only they’d had the iron heel of the FDA grinding them down, those children would have been able to applaud big government.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, I want to see Straight Outta Compton.
Elizabelle
Roger’s marrying Megan Draper’s mere? Quel horreur.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah. That looked good. August, which seems a long way away. But is not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: I think it is awesome, but then I have a finely tuned sense of the absurd.
Davis X. Machina
In that picture I’m not sure it’s not Amy Sedaris, from Strangers With Candy, on the left.
Elizabelle
Guru: Look at the person next to you. How does that person make you feel?
Don hides his junk, and the white haired woman pushes at him, kind of hostilely. LOL.
Elizabelle
LA Times: Jon Hamm sees sequel potential in Sally/Kiernan too.
Omnes Omnibus
“I am happy just being very good at my job.”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Southern Beale:
Then you should look at YouTube videos of silent comedians’ movies: Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton. Even Laurel and Hardy’s stuff is almost completely visual. Also Mack Sennett comedies.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: Something to think about. Sally would be 60 today.
the Conster
Harris Olson Productions. Me likey.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Roger.
You’re awfully shirty tonight.
Betty Cracker
These tequila ads are strange.
Betty Cracker
Joan’s fella ain’t gonna work out.
Omnes Omnibus
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): I avoid gaming threads because I am not a gamer. And so on.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Yep. But then he is kind of a tool.
gogol's wife
Selfridge was excellent tonight. I wish the whole season had been like this. Great moments for Ron Cook and Amanda Abbingdon.
ETA: Abbington, sorry.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: Another show that never caught me.
Omnes Omnibus
Holy fuck! Stan, FTW!
Betty Cracker
Stan and Peggy? Peggy and STAN? Well, it kinda works.
the Conster
Happy Peggy is happy!! Finally!!!
PurpleGirl
@Ohio Mom: Yes, it’s now called Hansen’s Disease.
Doug R
@Elizabelle: I like the db Cooper theory.
ruemara
Oh, my baby camera is up on Ebay! I feel ill. I hope it sells to someone who will keep it neat and clean, wipe everything down regularly, put the lenses in nice bags, take the batteries out for long term storage and keep their nasty greasy fingers off the fricking lens. And takes decent shots, please.
@Belafon: That’s a great cartoon with some serious darkness running beneath the surface.
Omnes Omnibus
We don’t find out who does the Coke ad? Cool.
Elizabelle
And we end with “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
But who came up with that? Peggy, Don, or neither? And what’s the final instrumental music?
Feeling kind of meh about the finale …
the Conster
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don does. He’s got his mojo back.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: I like to think that.
I think it’s implied, after Don’s sojourn in Kumbayaland.
celticdragonchick
I do have to say that GoT went a bridge too fucking far tonight.
We really did not have to have Sansa Stark getting raped on her wedding night with Theon being made to watch. The show has become sadistic bullshit.
Elizabelle
Now a repeat.
Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in that sneak peak? Hmmm.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: Or was it Peggy who has finally broken free? It could be either. Sexist pig that I am, I agree with you, but the other is a real possibility.
ETA: Maybe Don just found a way to be happy.
Mike in NC
@Elizabelle: I think it’s just a tribute to the mediocrity of Madison Avenue firms circa 1970.
the Conster
@Elizabelle:
It’s like the opposite of when he came back from Hawaii and horrified the clients and the other partners with the ad for Sheraton that showed someone disappearing into the ocean.
Elizabelle
Do love the “he’s in a better place” — “he’s not dead!” exchange with Don’s kind of simple secretary. A highlight.
Mike in NC
@celticdragonchick: Yes, this season has been very underwhelming so far.
Betty Cracker
Hmmm. I think “Coke” was Peggy’s triumph. Her romance with Stan made her so happy she was capable of that level of sappiness.
Don stayed on the commune and hooked up with the therapist lady. Later, they left Hippieland and started running an EST franchise.
Elizabelle
I think Don came back for his kids, all of them.
I think he was marooned at ESTland until he could get a ride east.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: Meredith is going to be a top interior designer by the early 80s. She became more and more effective, confidant, and assertive as the show went on.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Missed that Sheraton ad. Did catch the TMI during the Hershey’s pitch, that led to the suspension.
Elizabelle
Pete has survived. For now.
the Conster
The story of the original Coke ad – idea was from a guy from McCain Erickson. I think Don goes back like they all thought he would, kills it at work and steps up for his kids.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Meredith?
Linda
@Elizabelle: wierdly it was cancer that it helps. The same cell-stunting mechanism that produces horrible birth defects also stunts the growth of tumors.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: Don’s secretary.
the Conster
@the Conster:
and, someone at Vox nailed it last week. Impressive.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Ahhh. I just knew her by voice and costume.
PaulW
weak ending. I wanted Don to drive the War Rig into McCann’s offices and defeat Immortan… oh wait, that’s Mad Max. So sorry.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: She’ll do well. and she learned it from Don. The confidence to do what she does well. Ultimately that is Don’s achievement. Peggy and Meredith…. And last but not least his contribution to Sally.
hilts
And we end with “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
The perfect bullshit ending for the ultimate bullshit tv drama series.
Mad Men is the most overrated tv drama series in 30 years. The first 3 seasons were decent, but then the show went right off the fucking cliff and never recovered. The level of idiocy in the plotlines from season 4 – season 7 are unfuckingbelievable.
Good riddance to Mad Men and long live Better Call Saul.
Steeplejack (phone)
@celticdragonchick:
Are you familiar with the concept of a spoiler?! Especially since the show probably hasn’t aired on the West Coast yet.
PurpleGirl
I never got into watching Mad Men. I skipped the marathon and am skipping the final episode.
The most perfect final episode and final scene ever was the one for the second Bob Newhart Show. Really, making the whole run of the second show a bad dream of the first show… brilliant.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Tastes differ.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): Ain’t nobody important on the west coast.
Omnes Omnibus
I really do want to see Straight Outta Compton. I think I will grab my little brother and make him come with me. We drove down from Wisconsin to the Chicago area for a wedding in his shitty car (I drove, as he was still learning how to drive a manual – I was just back from Europe and the army so I had no car). NWA and Public Enemy were some of the only music we both were okay with.
hilts
@PurpleGirl:
“am skipping the final episode”
A very wise decision on your part and you’ll never regret it.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: @hilts: Some of us enjoyed it.
socraticsilence
@celticdragonchick:
It doesn’t really make up for it in anyway and is a really odd deviation from the books, but that said I am interested in what Littlefinger’s reaction will be given that protection/lust over Cat/Sansa has basically been his one weak point in an otherwise terrifyingly efficient power accumulating machine– does he just go nuts with the scheming and take everyone out or does he sit back and let horrible stuff continue in order set up his master plan?
JenJen
I thought the finale was perfect. McCann Erickson produced that iconic 1971 Coke ad, and Don sits meditating while the idea comes to him and he smiles. Perfect. Cynical.
Let’s just hope that Joan’s production company produced it.
hilts
@Omnes Omnibus:
The gap between the premise Mad Men and the execution from seasons 4 -7 is bigger than the Grand Canyon.
Betty Cracker
Now that I’ve had a moment to process it, I’ve decided I’m kinda meh about the MM ending. I like the way they sorted Peggy, Joan, Roger and Pete. I’m even okay with the last glimpse we got of Sally, helping her little brothers.
The way they wrapped it up with Don didn’t work, though. All that pointless fucking around out West. It was like the writer tried to split the difference between a super-ambiguous fade to black like The Sopranos and a more conventional ending.
socraticsilence
The ad is an interesting way to do it and its awesome full circle– you can in a lot of ways watch Don’s ad pitch’s and the resulting ads and see his journey from man who desperately wants to be whole in a family (Kodak), to man deconstructed and questioning the meaning of family (Hershey’s), man at peace with himself and finally at home in his own skin (Coke).
Liquid
The problem is, when they get too clever, the series becomes something else. Jorah can take over but their personalities diverge in a yellow wood and now you have something wildly different from the books.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: As noted above, opinions differ. It showed the arc of number of characters and ended slightly ambiguously. It was satisfying for me. It seems you made some decisions around season three; things happened since then.
JenJen
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m grinning like an idiot. I loved it.
@Betty Cracker: It really wasn’t pointless fucking around out west, though. Turns out, at least to me, that it was writer’s block. It’s all so cynical and delightful and typical Don.
hilts
@celticdragonchick:
“The show has become sadistic bullshit.”
Mad Men from season 4 -7 was nauseating bullshit and the series finale was the cherry on top of a sundae overflowing with bullshit.
When you turn on your tv, you need to choose wisely to avoid bullshit.
hilts
@Omnes Omnibus:
“Things happened since then.”
Yes, they just forgot how to make interesting and plausible plots.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Okay. You don’t like the show. Noted.
socraticsilence
So….I guess we should assume that Benihoff thinks the problem people had last year wasn’t adding/making explicit a rape scene, it was that the rapist was a character people liked? Because otherwise deviating from the books in order to add a rape scene seems fucking moronic.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Golly, that’s seems like a lot of venom for someone who doesn’t care about the show.
Liquid
The best is that after years of suffering/beatings/dreadpirateroberts Sansa is looking pretty Imperial.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Where’d you get that idea?
socraticsilence
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wait..wait….oh man convergence of thread topics idea– a rewrite of “Straight Outta Compton” with Game of Thrones characters.
Keith P.
@PurpleGirl: I read somewhere about having The Big Bang Theory end with Newhart waking up to another dream. That would be a phenomenal ending (I was a big fan of the 2nd Newhart show) IMO
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ads during the show. Don Draper wins.
hilts
“Any predictions?’
Decades from now, when groups of people are discussing television series, mention of the Mad Men series finale will elicit guffaws and snickering because of its insufferable and unforgettable lameness.
Betty Cracker
@JenJen: Maybe you’re right about Don.
hilts
@Omnes Omnibus:
I care when someone squanders an opportunity to achieve artistic greatness like Breaking Bad and instead pollutes the airwaves with nauseating bullshit.
ruemara
Meh, I don’t watch any of these. So, Hellboy it is. Nice capper to watching Mad Max.Which was oddly brilliant.
Liquid
The absolute best endorsement for the new Mad Max would be those MRA swine whinging about Charlize Theron.
It’s like everyone forgot that Ripley was supposed to be a male.
Mike J
@ruemara: William Gibson has not shut up about Mad Max since it came out. Still can’t convince me to pay to watch advertisements at 130dB, but I can’t wait until I can watch it at home.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Okay, it appears that a number of people disagree with you. If you lost interest in the show after season 3, why would you be commenting on it here? Why does it matter to you?
socraticsilence
@hilts:
Nothing ends like Breaking Bad did, that’s what made it so special– even the freaking Wire had more missteps its last season than Breaking Bad and its basically regarded as the greatest work of televised entertainment of alltime.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: One of the nice things about having basic cable is not having a dog in this fight. I’m spending my time screwing up VM’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: My basic cable includes AMC.
hilts
@Omnes Omnibus:
“Why would you be commenting on it here? Why does it matter to you?”
I’m commenting because Mad Men showed promise and potential to be a very good or possibly even a great show, but then it got bogged down in stupid, nonsensical plotlines and wrote interesting characters off the show while keeping on repulsive characters.
It matters to me because I find it inexplicable that some people think Mad Men actually belongs in the same league as all-time masterpieces like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, Columbo, and House.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@hilts:
Wait, “House”? The show that (a) horribly killed off the one character who could stand up to House and (b) claimed that ending an ectopic pregnancy was some kind of moral dilemma? Or are you referring some other, less morally repugnant show with the same title?
Tenar Darell
@celticdragonchick: Yeah, that was exactly what I was worried about when they decided to have Sansa be the person who married Ramsay. They were going to torture her some more. Not like GRRM doesn’t make it absolutely clear that women had few to no choices in the books; seeing it in color, even with a cutaway is just too much.
hilts
@socraticsilence:
Mad Men falls light years short of deserving mention in the same breath as Breaking Bad and The Wire.
Liquid
@hilts: You know that Omnes and Raven are the same person right? It was funny a year ago but now Not. So. Much.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: I will leave you alone in your sadness and disappointment.
@Liquid: Quoi?
Little Boots
@Tenar Darell:
yeah, maybe they need to up the ante on the show, but, yeah, that was just ugly. and actually, why up the ante. that bastard is godsawful to begin with?
hilts
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
House remained interesting and entertaining throughout its run unlike Mad Men which insulted the intelligence of viewers by unrelenting and breathtakingly idiotic plotlines.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Betty Cracker:
I kind of wish that Peggy had accepted Joan’s offer, but we couldn’t have everything.
And I do think that the ad at the end was supposed to be Don’s. He couldn’t get in tune with the zeitgeist of the 60s, but he is the perfect spokesman for the “Me Generation” 70s.
Kerry Reid
I confess I haven’t read the other comments — but for me, the really satisfying thing about this episode is that it ultimately was about the decisions the women made.
Mike J
@Liquid: I thought I was Raven. Or was it Little Boots?
I’m beginning to think Hilts is Askew just based on gish gallop style.
Steeplejack
@Liquid:
Oh, fuck right off and take that bullshit with you.
Is there a full moon tonight? The crazies are out in force.
hilts
@Omnes Omnibus:
Good Riddance to Mad Men!
Little Boots
Am I raven? Am I omnes? Am I here? it’s all so confusing.
it’s like … MAD MEN!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@celticdragonchick: Maybe some of us watched the final episode of Mad Men live, because it was a cultural event. But fuck us anyway, right?
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: Just a joke. One of the few beaches of sanity upon which the unwashed might…like wash up or some junk?
When the first and only comment on a local news blog, about a lost cat, is like “good %$*!’em!” where do you go?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@hilts:
“House” glorified a sociopathic asshole and set every episode up so he could do no wrong, to the point of pretending that a goddamned ECTOPIC PREGNANCY would be viable in any way, shape or form.
But at least now I know I don’t have to take your “‘Mad Men” opinion seriously since complex characters who sometimes make bad decisions are difficult for you to deal with.
Tenar Darell
Anyone watching Penny Dreadful? Seriously, how’d they get Patti Lupone?
Mike J
@hilts: After three eps of the first season, House was just “Replace all his blood with bleach! It will either cure him or kill him!”
And you said you didn’t like mad men because of repulsive characters? House and everyone who put up with him should have been kicked in the nads repeatedly.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tenar Darell: No, it did not work for me. And I have a thing for Eva Green.
hilts
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Complex characters who sometimes make bad decisions are not difficult for me to deal with.
Atrociously bad writing and inept, silly plot twists are what ruined Mad Men for me.
Little Boots
@hilts:
okay, this is all pretty abstract. what did you hate specifically?
Liquid
@Steeplejack: Hey, I can only respond when the satellite is over head!1
hilts
@Mike J:
My number one issue with Mad Men were truly awful and nauseating plot twists. Repulsive characters can be tolerated if the storylines still remain interesting.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@hilts:
Such as? I brought up two specific plot twists that made me stop watching “House.” Give specific plots in “Mad Men” that turned you off that show.
Tenar Darell
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too. But the draw really is that I’m a sucker for literary mashups like this.
Little Boots
exactly, what are these nauseating plot twists?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Little Boots: All of it Katie.
hilts
@Little Boots:
For starters, Harry Crane and Ken Cosgrove should have been gone after Season 1. Midge Daniels and Paul Kinsey should lasted through season 7. Michael Ginsberg’s departure was too ridiculous.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tenar Darell: I don’t begrudge Ms. Green a big paycheck. I just don’t really like the show that gets it for her.
Steeplejack
@Liquid:
Adjust your tinfoil hat and you might get better reception.
I see that your previous comment was a misfired joke. Still fuck off, but you don’t have to fuck right off.
Omnes Omnibus
@hilts: Aha, the show developed in a way that you would not have written. Well, the cure for that is to write a show that someone wants.
@Steeplejack: Leave it. Please. No possible good will come from arguing with an idiot. Right?
Little Boots
I just don’t want omnes to get the last word.
so this.
hilts
@Mnemosyne (tablet): @Little Boots:
In addition to Crane and Cosgrove staying too long, Daniels and Kinsey leaving too soon, Ginsberg’s dopey departure, the writer who stupidly followed Don’s advice and insulted the clients at a followup meeting after making a bad impression at the previous meeting.
Missed opportunities – The Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show was a huge fucking deal. If they didn’t want to pay the rights for the footage, they could have at least made reference to the performance or to their arrival in the US.
No plotline around the 1st Clay Liston fight. The plot around the rematch was okay, but the 1st match was more important.
Liquid
@Steeplejack: Right/right. Misfired jokes aside it’s just nice to have a fun movie with a solid female lead!
Little Boots
@BillinGlendaleCA:
wait, am I katie, too.
but hilt, I think you may be right about paul kinsey.
Tenar Darell
@Omnes Omnibus: I miss Wolf Hall already. I can watch historical drama, and paranormal fantasy, but I can hardly sit through chunks of Game of Thrones. Different things catch us all.
Little Boots
@Tenar Darell:
really? okay, guess you’re right.
Tenar Darell
@Little Boots: I’m usually not.
Little Boots
there’s an upstairs.
sharl
Anyone here read this Clickhole oral history of Mad Men that was posted last month?
YOWZA, indeed!
Liquid
@Little Boots: Forgive them. They hate that.
hilts
@Tenar Darell:
Wolf Hall completely kicked ass. Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis were at the top of their game and the supporting cast was great as well.
Anne Laurie
@Keith P.:
Not Newhart — Penny.
In the last episode, her surname is finally revealed: Buffett.
YellowJournalism
@Anne Laurie: I would love to see it be a dream of Blossom’s.
Anne Laurie
@YellowJournalism: That would work, too.
Big Bang Theory is, obviously, about geeks discovering their power in the larger culture. But it’s also about geek culture being ‘invaded’ by geeks who are not straight men whose family/romantic ties are either nonexistent or dysfunctional — it’s the bleed that keeps it interesting.
Linnaeus
I’ll miss the show.
Sherparick
@Elizabelle: They can’t do to much for it now.
PaulW
I felt the ending to the show should have been Don working on a race car in the desert, looking up to see someone else making the Coca Cola ad, and speeding into the horizon.
Betty Cracker
Okay, dead thread, but I watched the last half of the finale again last night because hubby dozed off and missed the second half during its first run, so I watched it again with him. Now I’m convinced those of y’all up-thread who said the Coke ad was Don’s are correct.
After having seen the ad in the first broadcast and then watched the episode again, I noticed many visual cues at the hippie retreat and other of Don’s travels that were echoed in the ad. One example: the cheerful young woman who ran reception at the retreat had red ribbons braided into her hair. So did at least a couple of young women in the Coke ad. It was Don’s ad all right.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: I just made the same argument here at work. No doubt in my mind.
FlipYrWhig
@Manyakitty: @Betty Cracker: Totally. They set it up so that for one fleeting moment Don looks like he’s achieved Zen inner peace or whatnot, but then we realize that his blissful look come from the fact that he’s just hit upon a killer ad concept–selling Coke with hippie-dom, like how Peggy hit upon the idea of selling cigarettes with feminism. He didn’t achieve anything or have an emotional breakthrough. He just got good at his job again (note that he’s been a lousy pitchman for this entire season).
KXB
The finale was frustrating. Towards the end, the show was working too hard to have a “deeper meaning” and forgot to come up with interesting storylines (mostly). I always suspected Don would end up in California, and he did, although as many point out it seems he will go back to NY to do the Coke ad. The characters of Joan and Peggy got stronger, more plausible send-offs. Would have like to have seen more of Roger and Pete. It was good to see Pete get out of NY altogether, leaving his family name behind and all the nonsense that comes with it.
Betty Cracker
@KXB: I had a different take on Pete’s fate; I don’t think he was leaving the family name behind at all but rather finding a smaller pond where his eminence would loom larger. One of his big frustrations in NYC was that he couldn’t parlay his lineage into the kind of success that a nobody like Don achieved. Pete resented meritocracy. The Lear Jet people hired Pete specifically because he was a “real Knickerbocker,” which gratified his ego.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Anne Laurie:
The smartest realization the writers of “Big Bang Theory” had was that Penny needed female friends and couldn’t just hang around with the guys all the time. That IMO was what gave she show the longevity it’s had.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Betty Cracker:
To be fair to Pete, though, he also knew that he wanted Trudy back but that getting her out of the social circle where everyone would constantly remind her of his infidelity was the only way to do it.
G says that all of Pete’s worst moments were when he was trying his best to be Don, and I think that’s true. Once Pete realized that what he really wanted was Trudy (and their daughter) back in his life, that was the decision he made.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Good insights. My favorite scene with Pete was when punched out the school admissions director as a continuation of a centuries-old family feud. He couldn’t escape his ancestry.
Cckids
@Southern Beale: I don’t know if you’re a fan, but for a visual on confidence, Doctor Who (Tennant version) would probably be great.
Kerry Reid
I sort of love that Harry Crane’s last moment on the show was getting kicked out of yet another room.
mclaren
@hilts:
Yeah, I won’t hold my breath waiting for Don to explain a “Chicago sunroof” to a bunch of old people in a rest home.