What scene?Quoting slqrick (view post)
What scene?
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
He means the last scene. Hamm's wordless acting was indeed a slice of perfection.
I'm not sure I understand Joan's muted hostility toward Don. I do like the Peggy has lightened up in the last few episodes, though. It's interesting that for the majority of the season, Peggy was trying to be Don on her own and became almost unlikably bitter and spiteful. Now that Don himself is helping her to be Don, she's smoothed out some of her rough edges that dominated the first part of the season. I never thought I'd see the day when Don could be a positive therapeutic influence on someone else.
It was very good. It's precisely the kind of thing that Hamm excels at. I liked the way the episode concluded with a scene that is so markedly different from Mad Men's typical narrative and aesthetic tendencies (but without forgoing the usual dollop of pathos that the show so reliably purveys). It also clearly served as an affectionate sendoff for Robert Morse, as it really indulged in the actor's talent and magnetism, which had heretofore been offered in comparatively more measured and tempered forms.
On another note, I think I was more moved by Peggy and Don's exchange during the Burger Chef pitch than their slow dance last week (i.e., Peggy is knocking it out of the park and takes a moment to glance at Don, whose pride and affection is palpable).
I also thought they did a great job with Megan and Don's separation: no heated confrontation, but rather, a weary capitulation to the increasingly apparent fact of their incompatibility. It's certainly an unsurprising, logical conclusion, which was telegraphed as early as the finale of Season 4 (which concluded with a shot of Don in bed with Megan, staring out the window in a gesture of vague discontentment). Still, it's sad to see the characters finally release their grip on any hopeful delusions (i.e., Don to Megan during last season's finale, "We can be happy again"). The formative bliss of their Disney Land sojourn is finally accepted as an irrevocable dream.
Megan's closing words, "you don't owe me anything," were particularly devastating, especially if read in relation to this season's premiere. In that first episode, during the scene with Don and Neve Campbell's character, the latter is discussing her husband and says, "He died of thirst. His company sent him to a hospital. I went with him. I was supposed to part of the cure, somehow...and all I did was observe." Somewhere amidst the discussion and recaps that followed the premiere, someone noted the connection between Campbell's dialogue and Megan's role in Don's life. The line from the finale definitely recalls this dialogue, while also serving as a disheartening epitaph to Don and Megan's relationship. Megan was initially poised as the miraculous antidote to Don's psychic ills back in Season 4, especially during the fleeting utopia they shared in Disney Land. Of course, she could only buoy Don's spirits for so long, and her renewing influence was quickly reduced (as Dr. Faye Miller so shrewdly noted, "I hope she knows you only like the beginnings of things"). Soon enough, she felt alienated from her husband, and could similarly only observe (and, as time went on, she observed with less and less clarity).
In the Season 5 premiere, there was this striking moment when Megan addresses Don as "Dick Whitman," which not only signalled that Weiner et al wouldn't be going back to that dramatic well (i.e., when will she find out about Don's past?), but also suggested that perhaps this relationship will be built on a more secure foundation of actual transparency and intimacy. The friction between these idealistic, romantic beginnings and the resignation of Don and Megan in the finale is heartbreaking. While this isn't a shocking or sudden development, a sense of tragedy is achieved, as the inception of this marriage was presented in such an endearing light (I'm referring specifically to the last few episodes of Season 4) -- it was naive and bizarre, certainly, but there was also a vividly conveyed sense of how these two approached the relationship with earnest affection and hope.
As Bert put it in the finale, "Don cost her a million dollars when we didn't go public." Also, there's the fact that Don summarily fired Herb (and Jaguar), which prompted Joan's understandably furious and indignant reaction, as that move kind of devalued her sacrifice. This recalls another of Bert's lines: "I'm a leader, and a leader is loyal to his team. Don doesn't understand that."
*shrug*
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
I thought this was excellent. The last couple of seasons haven't been too consistent, but when the show is firing on all cylinders it's still quite the narrative punch.
Don's relationships are starting to mirror Roger's in an uncanny way. Married to the mother of his children, habitually unfaithful, bitterly divorced. She remarried quickly. He hops into bed with his much younger secretary, marries her with very little forethought, and then they drift apart until their final separation is nearly bloodless.
Meridith's pathetic attempted seduction scene was hilarious.
Sally Draper is becoming her mother so literally I wonder if she realizes it herself. Look at the way she holds that cigarette. Look at her lacquered blonde hair helmet.
I had wondered if they were ever going to acknowledge that Julio is very close in age to the child Peggy gave up (who would be about 8.) But the scene where she finds herself unexpectedly moved by the information that he is leaving, and her misleading the Burger Chef people into thinking she had a son put a pin in that nicely.
And I for one loved the final song and dance number. It's a nice call-back to other moments of magical realism in the series, like Anna and the suitcase, or the extended dream/drug sequences in The Crash. I was also heavily reminded of the scenes in the middle of the night at Sterling Cooper after Roger had his heart attack, with Peggy coming in and gently taking care of business. I think they even referenced Edna Blankenship's obituary (one of my all-time favorite Roger moments) when he calls her an astronaut.
...and the milk's in me.
Also possibly deliberate: the way the women were dressed and their stiff-armed holding of office supplies reminded me of "A Secretary is Not a Toy" from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying... starring Robert Morse, of course.
...and the milk's in me.
Here's an interesting tidbit that might be news to some of you: Robert Towne joined the show as a consulting producer this season (I found this out shortly before the season began and it amplified my excitement).
The euphoria of the last scene made me forget that the phone call between Don and Megan actually made me tear up a bit.
This season has really nailed those strained phone calls.
I liked the finale a lot. This show continues to be my favorite thing on tv by miles. After last season, I thought it may have repeated the same points too many times and pretty much done everything it could with Don's character arc. But this season pleasantly surprised me with how it handled Don in a totally new position of powerlessness, one he struggled to overcome but sometimes seemed happier with; it was a very different struggle from what's come before, with a lot more acceptance involved, and more of a willingness to take meaningful relationships where he can get them.
And I like how once he's got what he was ostensibly fighting for—his "real" job back—he is depressed by it. In one way, this is kind of disappointingly a retread of what we've seen multiple times before: Don gets what he wants and is still miserable, both because what he wanted isn't the perfect thing he imagined would cure his misery and because no matter what he gets, he still has to live with his past—and worse, he still has to live as himself. But in the last scene of the finale, there's a new slant to it. It's not just that he's been reminded by a song and dance that he lost his marriage, but he's also realized that even though he's constantly driven to gain power and control, he really was happier just doing the work. The devastation of last season seems to have changed the tenor of his conflict with himself. He used to hate himself for always doing wrong, for living a lie, and for alienating himself from everyone around him. But now I think he's started to struggle more with the nature of the lie, with whether he really likes the power that he always fights for and that comes as a part of the Don Draper facade.
Before the season began, I thought that the show was most likely going to end with him totally giving up his powerful-man persona and becoming plain old Dick Whitman (metaphorically speaking). And that still seems likely, but now I'm wondering if it will just end with him more cognizant than ever of wishing he weren't himself.
I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?
lists and reviews
I agree. Season six made me wonder if Weiner had run out of things to say with these characters, but this half-season has reminded me why this is my favorite show on television.
I thought that was a good place to "pause." I was actually surprised that so much of it felt as emotionally cathartic as it did, though I'm sure that will change with Don in perpetual emotional limbo. I'm glad that they didn't end on a more blatant cliff-hanger. This really did feel like a "mini-season." Peggy with her own "Carousal" moment and Pete being intensely loyal to Don are things I especially appreciate. My only major note on the season is that Lou Avery was a disappointingly nothing character. They're usually better about making their antagonists interesting in some way.
Still my favorite thing on TV.
letterboxd.
A Star is Born (2018) **1/2
Unforgiven (1992) ***1/2
The Sisters Brothers (2018) **
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) ***
The Informant! (2009) ***1/2
BlacKkKlansman (2018) ***1/2
Sorry to Bother You (2018) **1/2
Eighth Grade (2018) ***
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) ***
Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018) **1/2
I agree with you wholeheartedly about Peggy's Burger Chef pitch and Pete's loyalty to Don; the bond between those three characters is interesting. I liked Pete's line about Don from the finale: "That's a very sensitive piece of horseflesh. He shouldn't be rattled!"
Based on some of the discussions I've perused, Lou inspired a lot of ire in the fan base, which says a lot about Allan Havey's very good performance (he does a great job of capturing a man who is cantankerous, supercilious and, above all, aggressively bland). I agree that more could be done with him (he's not necessarily gone, though, is he?). The "Scout's Honor" revelation was interesting, as it suggested that Lou's bland competence is not only unpleasant for viewers, but that Lou himself feels stifled by his own dull efficiency, as he's a man who is quietly haunted by unfulfilled dreams.
Also, he was interesting as a journeyman variation on the creative director role, which Don obviously inflected with considerably more passion and theatricality. In "The Monolith," Bert spares Don no quarter, telling him, "you thought there'd be a great creative crisis and we'd pull you off the bench, but in fact, we've been doing just fine." While this is technically true, Don's absence is most keenly felt in Lou's scenes, as the latter's workmanlike competence is so uninspired and vanilla. Don's contributions came from personal aches and unchecked egocentricity, but this also granted him access to a level of temerity and insight that Lou could never offer. This is not to say that Lou's own personal aches and egocentricity didn't inform his character, but they certainly didn't yield anything comparable to Don's creative, persuasive talents.
This also reminds me of one my favourite, smaller moments from the season. In "The Runaways," when Lou asks Don if he would just let everyone go home early, Don replies, with a perfect look of muted resentment, "No, I'd let you go, Lou." I love the way that this scene so quietly conveys the very ample animosity shared between these two characters. It's also a very interesting beat in Don's arc as a humbled, diminished figure: he's no longer afforded the luxury of exploiting his "indispensable" authority in order to settle scores (i.e., humiliating Ted, firing Herb, etc.). Don's strained, "No, I'd let you go, Lou" are the words of a man who is admirably learning to discipline so many of the urges that he once embraced with total abandon. Also, Hamm's delivery is such a great mixture of resigned powerlessness and seething contempt. So, on the one hand, it inspires our sympathy and admiration, but it's also a surprisingly electric confrontation, albeit in miniature form. Don comes the closest to voicing the dislike that certain fans harbour against Lou, and the latter's response is brutal: "Well, I'm afraid it's too late for that. I'm going to do you the courtesy of reading these, so that you can continue to work on them instead of coming up with new things...because I'm going to tuck you in tonight."
Agree with both these points. The little moments that carry so much weight (Peggy's delivery of the 10-year-old line followed by Pete's confused look, the mutual apology between Don and Megan, Betty's description of her relationship with Don, etc.) are what set this show apart. It's respect for the characters and depth of storytelling is something perhaps unique on network television- maybe television in general. After revisiting the first two seasons, it's astounding how increasingly rich the dialogue gets with the distance of time.
In other news, I thought Sally's move was more Don than Betty. First, that she even responded to her dad's admonition of "don't be so cynical" and that she then used her sexuality to utterly intimidate someone of the opposite sex. Then smoked a cigarette. Shit, she might as well be the silhouette from the title sequence. Also, after discussing the why-the-fuck-is-Joan-so-pissed-at-Don question with my wife, it seems like it started with Jaguar (where Don's arrogance ruined the sacrifice Joan made) and the pitch to Hershey added insult to injury. Thus, clear animosity that (hopefully) will be fleshed out next half-season.
It's a shame that Elizabeth Moss won't get the Emmy this year because she's a shoe-in next year. It will be hard for her to top this last stretch- the scenes between Peggy and Don are consistently the most rewarding for me, on top of which she's had the most challenging role this season (because, unlike everyone else pretty much, she still really gives a shit about advertising).
Stuff I've Watched out of *****
The Last Duel - ***
Only Murders in the Building: **
Squid Games: **.5
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