Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Mister Tee wrote:

Reza wrote:Nobody here commented on Season 7. Did everyone skip it?

We made a new thread, Mad Men's Final Season:

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=9410

Oh I see.

Will check it out now since I'm now on episode 11 of the final season.

Reza wrote:Nobody here commented on Season 7. Did everyone skip it?

We made a new thread, Mad Men's Final Season:

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=9410

There are comments posted in other threads. There was a big discussion about the finale.

Try a search on Mad Men.

Nobody here commented on Season 7. Did everyone skip it?

I started watching the first season in 2008 but gave up after 2 or 3 episodes. Have started again and am on Season 4 and really enjoying it.

It's also interesting to read all the comments here on each episode through the years.

I think Kiernan Shipka really needs to be nominated for an Emmy this year. She was just phenomenal this season.

Next season will be Mad Men's last one. Creator Matthew Weiner has stated that even with several of the characters located in California, everyone will get the spotlight at some point.
This past season seemed to fulfill the Mad Men opening credit sequence. It wasn't as much fun as other years, but it stayed consistent with reflecting the time period, and continued to surprise.
Bob Benson is turning out to be the Tom Ripley of the show.
Kiernan Shipka has really evolved as an actress. She's getting some sex education - walking in on Roger and Megan's mom last year at the restaurant's ladies room and her father and Sylvia Rosen this year.

Does anyone know if next season will be Mad Men's last? The way the last episode of this season ended, particularly at its last moment, implied to me that they are preparing to wrap everything up next season.

Two primary things to say about this season of Mad Men:

1) It wasn't as consistently wonderful as previous seasons -- in the same way Yesterday and Today wasn't up to the standard of Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul or Abbey Road. But, you know, I played Yesterday and Today about 1000 times and love most of it.

2) The season ended with best foot forward -- the last couple of episodes got better and better, and last night's finale was mostly terrific.

Matthew Weiner teased us a week ago that Don might collapse in a pitch session -- "Ted, why don't you tell them?" brought him fighteningly close to the edge. Last night, in the Hershey meeting, he fell over. And yet...you have the sense he was not only telling the truth about himself in that session, but about a deeper aspect of advertising: ads aren't selling (as in the initial pitch) to the kid who had all the Norman Rockwell parental love he could ever want; they sell to the universal craving for that feeling among those who were in any way deprived of it. (And not just Don, but almost every character in last night's show, falls into the second category; it was a show dominantly about how parents and children fail to measure up to one another's hopes)

Pete Campbell has become an unexpectedly steady source of humor. His pratfall down the stairs a few weeks ago won't be topped, but his "NOT GREAT, Bob" was also hilarious. He remains the Eddie Haskell of the show, but has also somehow emerged as a sympathetic figure.

And speaking of surprisingly sympathetic...Betty Draper has become a far more interesting character this year, culminating in that beautiful phone call last night. It's no wonder Don was moved to call her by a pet name; she now seems like someone a guy could fall in love with.

And, Sally. How great is Kiernan Shipka, that she can have only two short scenes and yet make such an impression? Her line-reading on "Why don't you tell them what I saw?" was bone-cuttingly precise. And the look on her face in that closing moment...you can't write or direct something like that; you just trust that the actor can find a way to give it to you. And give it she did: with barely a muscle move she infused the scene with irrational hope. (Of course, it didn't hurt that Judy Collins -- a perfect/time-appropriate song choice -- was on the soundtrack)

This is "Mad Men", not "ER". Matthew Weiner doesn't typically do cliffhanging surprise endings.

I thought this past episode was excellent. From Don suffering the fallout from him being revealed to Sally in the previous episode to taking it out on his "work daughter" Peggy. The scene at the end when she called him a monster was incredibly well-wrought and reduced him into the same fetal position the audience found him in at the beginning of the episode.

Don's point to Ted was that they weren't fooling anyone, and it was affecting the account. Don has his "moments of clarity" where he's the Don Draper of old, and yes, it may seem ruthless, but it was appropriate. Peggy was angry, not only because she was protective of Ted, but because Don embarrassed her. Not to mention her ego was bruised and it was all wrapped up in the "Clio potential" for this genius idea she just had. Peggy can be just a ruthless as Don when you get down to it. She's found a "boss" she can run circles around in Ted, and she wants/needs someone to blow smoke up her ass and tell her how great she is, which Ted does, but Don rarely did.

The fact that Bob Benson was formerly a servant suggests some interesting possibilities. For example, part of the Bob/Manolo backstory could be that they met when they both worked for the same wealthy family. Perhaps they were fired because they were caught fucking each other, or because they were a couple of grifters who got caught ripping off their employer?

It also makes Bob's crush on Pete on a bit more plausible. He must have immediately sensed that Pete was a blueblood, and maybe Pete reminded him of a former employer he'd been in love with. Also, keep in mind that Bob doesn't know all the shitty things Pete has done over the years, which we viewers know all too well. Bob Benson as a kind of Don Draper mystery man in training is a brilliant idea. I thought James Wolk did a masterful job of letting the "Bob Benson" façade drop at moments to see the darker side of his character come out. I very much see this character sticking around and serving as a tour guide for Stonewall/gay liberation movement that occurs in '69.

There have been references to violence all season that I expect will play out in the season finale (and could deliver the surprise you've been waiting for, Greg).

Fun fact: Liam Aiken, who played Susan Sarandon's son in Stepmom, appeared as "Rolo" in the last episode, Glenn Bishop's friend who make an unwelcome advance on Sally.

Considering that last night was the next-to-last episode, if there is not a huge surprise next week, this season will turn into the drama series equivalent of a joke without a punch line.

That's exactly what I thought watching it. I said to my wife: "Is this a David Lynch episode?". I was expecting the log lady to stroll in. Don Draper is in meltdown this year, and John Hamm had his best acted segment. Nice to see January Jones looking more like her old self, and still dishing out the nasty quips. Peggy seems to be trying out replacements for Abe, and Stan always appeared to be her kindred spirit, but after his tryst with Wendy, she may be better off sticking with Abe.

So...was this episode directed (under a pseudonym) by David Lynch?

Ken Cosgrove's tap dance was one for the ages.

Again, an interesting use of music -- Mama Cass closing the show with Words of Love, an indirect reminder that her recording of Dream a Little Dream of Me -- the song we heard in another version during the Dick Whitman flashback -- was on the radio right about that time in 1968. Goin' Out of My Head was also a cover version (by Brazil '66, I believe) of the Little Anthony hit.

Substitutes seemed to be a running theme, whether the surrogate mothering Dick was receiving in the whorehouse, the pretend black grandmother (a really creepy/scary segment -- reminiscent of Michael C. Hall's car-jacking on Six Feet Under), or Harry Hamlin's horrible fathering-in-absentia for his dead compatriot's daughter.

Greg wrote:

flipp525 wrote:I think the "Man with a Plan" in that last episode was actually Bob Benson, who's been creeping around in this season far too conspicuously not to play some kind of bigger role in its latter half.

Was he the one who took Joan to the hospital?

Yes, and I meant to say, I saw that actor in a play a couple years ago and he was outstanding. I'm glad he's landed a plum gig like this.

flipp525 wrote:I think the "Man with a Plan" in that last episode was actually Bob Benson, who's been creeping around in this season far too conspicuously not to play some kind of bigger role in its latter half.

Was he the one who took Joan to the hospital?