NEW YORK (AP) — "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner promised a finale that was "dramatic and appropriate."
He
delivered. This incomparable drama set in the 1960s New York
advertising world concluded its seven-season run Sunday night on AMC
with a resolution that rang true to its spirit and likely left its
devotees satisfied, even as they bade it farewell with regret.
Spoiler alert: Read no further if you don't want to know what happened.
"A
lot has happened," Don Draper (series star Jon Hamm) tells Stephanie, a
damaged young woman from his past, after his wayward odyssey from New
York finally brings him to her doorstep in Los Angeles.
Mainly,
he is distraught after hearing from his daughter Sally, back in New
York, that her mother, his ex, is dying of lung cancer.
He
phoned Betty (January Jones), declaring that he would take their three
kids after she passed. She turned him down. She intends for them to live
with her brother and his wife.
"Please
don't let your pride interfere with my wishes," she said coolly. "I
want to keep things as normal as possible. And your not being here is
part of that."
Stephanie, too, is a woman in need. But she, too, turns down Don's offer to help.
"Mad
Men" traced Draper's journey through the 1960s in his identity as a
successful, charismatic but tormented ad man. The series' end brought
that phase of his life to a close. And it seemed that after a lifetime
of running and shifting identities, he had truly dealt himself out of
any meaningful relationships.
This
image released by AMC shows, from left, John Slattery as Roger
Sterling, Jon Hamm as Don Draper, Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell,
Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris and Kevin Rahm as Ted Chaough, in a
scene from the final season of "Mad Men." The series finale airs on
Sunday. (Justina Mintz/AMC via AP)
Meanwhile,
Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) and his estranged wife reunited, moving to a
new life and his terrific new job in Wichita, Kansas, of all places.
Roger (John Slattery) is making a third try at marriage — tying the knot with Don's second ex-wife's mother, Marie.
Joan
(Christina Hendricks) finds she can't have it all. Her new man,
Richard, a wealthy retiree who adores her, won't accept her decision to
start a promising new venture: a film production studio. He wants her
all to himself. For the second and presumably last time, he walks out.
Joan remains her own woman.
Peggy
(Elisabeth Moss) is settling in at her new workplace, the giant
McCann-Erickson ad agency, where she and Stan (Jay R. Ferguson), her
art-director colleague with whom she has worked and bickered for years,
finally realize what every viewer has long suspected: They're in love.
And what of Don?
Deserted
by Stephanie at a spiritual retreat, he hits rock bottom. Then, in a
last-ditch encounter session, another man's testimony of emptiness and
self-loathing strikes a nerve in him. The man begins to weep. Don hugs
him. They both weep. Through the run of "Mad Men," Don has never been
closer to anyone or tapped into such feelings in himself.
This
image released by AMC shows Jon Hamm as Don Draper in a scene from the
final season of "Mad Men." The series finale airs on Sunday. (Justina
Mintz/AMC via AP)
"The
new day brings new hope," says a leader of a meditation group on a
cliff above the ocean the next morning. "New day. New ideas. A new you."
Don,
in a lotus position and his eyes shut, looks at peace as he is last
glimpsed by viewers. Is this the beginning of a new Don that can bring
him happiness? Ommmm.
And
then there's a coda: In a nod to the series' advertising world, to the
real-life agency McCann-Erickson where several of the characters have
been hired this season, and to its real-life client, Coca-Cola, "Mad
Men" concluded with the classic 1971 peace-and-love Coke commercial
where a hillside collection of young people from all over the world ,
each holding a bottle of Coke, sang the jingle, "I'd Like to Buy the
World a Coke." The jingle carried the reminder that Coke, of course, is
"The Real Thing."
From
its start to Sunday's finale 92 episodes later, "Mad Men" was a series
that, as much as any series ever, helped TV grow up. It remained the
real thing
Post a Comment