"Mad Men" on AMC (US) - (Spoilers Within)

[The Good]

spoiler! spoiler! I don't want to see that stuff. (not ragging on you...but really, I don't)

I hid the pictures, and put spoilers above the link.

 

[MrBern]

FYI

The Most Memorable Costumes of ‘Mad Men’ Get the Museum Treatment
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/the-most-memorable-costumes-of-mad-men-get-the-museum-treatment/

More than 25 of the ensembles developed by the show’s costume designer, Janie Bryant, will appear alongside props, advertisements and other ephemera from the show’s production department, giving fans the chance to see such garments as Joan’s blood-stained dress from the lawn-mower episode and Sally’s first minidress up close.

 

[The Good]

FYI

The Most Memorable Costumes of ‘Mad Men’ Get the Museum Treatment
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/the-most-memorable-costumes-of-mad-men-get-the-museum-treatment/

Thanks for that post! It was interesting to see these pieces again, and which clothes were chosen for the museum. I wonder what will happen to the clothes that don't get put in? Could they be put for sale at some point after the show?

 

[MrBern]

Seems Hamm went to Rehab...

http://gawker.com/report-jon-hamm-just-got-out-of-rehab-1693472313

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/24/jon-hamm-rehab-alcohol-abuse-mad-men/

 

[MrBern]

Slideshow : On Sunday night, the stars of “Mad Men” celebrated the show’s final season with a party at the Museum of Modern Art.

Jon Hamm said. “Yeah, I will definitely miss it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/03/23/fashion/20150323SCENE.html

 

[MrBern]

Plenty of interviews!

As ‘Mad Men’ Comes to an End, Jon Hamm Reflects on Don Draper
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/arts/television/as-mad-men-comes-to-an-end-jon-hamm-reflects-on-don-draper.html

And

Growing Up on ‘Mad Men’: A Conversation With Matthew Weiner and Kiernan Shipka

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/fashion/growing-up-on-mad-men-a-conversation-with-matthew-weiner-and-kiernan-shipka.html

 

[HudsonHawk]

I had completely forgotten Mad Men wasn't over. It's been too long, and I simply have no interest in watching it anymore. The producers blew their chance with me by dragging out the final "season" over several years.

 

[Doctor Strange]

There are tons of Mad Men interviews and articles posted everywhere in the run-up to the final episodes:

http://www.lippsisters.com/2015/03/27/basket-of-news-mar-21-27-2015/

And Hawk, NOBODY'S happy about the split final season... except perhaps the actors, who get another chance at winning some Emmys. It's downright shameful that Hamm, Moss, Slattery, Hendricks, etc., haven't ever been recognized for their consistently solid work on this series.

 

[Fading Fast]

I had completely forgotten Mad Men wasn't over. It's been too long, and I simply have no interest in watching it anymore. The producers blew their chance with me by dragging out the final "season" over several years.

While I will watch it, I respect your sentiment as it is obnoxious the way they have been, effectively, taking a two-year victory lap.

 

[MrBern]

Must admit I was also disgusted that they split the final season's 14 episodes over two years as well.
Shrewdly, AMC didnt want Mad Men & Breaking Bad to end on the same year & compete for the same Emmys.
But it really killed my enthusiasm.
Also, pulliing Mad Men from its Summer premieres to the April premieres also slowed down its momentum.
Again, losing that summer spot to Breaking Bad.

Im only curious to see what the grand finale is.
Will Dick Whitman finally go to jail for desertion & identity theft of Don Draper?

 

[Fading Fast]

Must admit I was also disgusted that they split the final season's 14 episodes over two years as well.
Shrewdly, AMC didnt want Mad Men & Breaking Bad to end on the same year & compete for the same Emmys.
But it really killed my enthusiasm.
Also, pulliing Mad Men from its Summer premieres to the April premieres also slowed down its momentum.
Again, losing that summer spot to Breaking Bad.

Im only curious to see what the grand finale is.
Will Dick Whitman finally go to jail for desertion & identity theft of Don Draper?

It would seem so beside the point if he did go to jail. The entire identity theft thing always struck me as a metaphor for the conformity of the '50s / pre-hippies '60s - where "everyone" assumed the identity expected of them. Also, it gave his character incredible internal conflict, etc., all good plot device tactics, which also echoed the internal conflict everyone had in conforming to the expected identity of the times versus who they really wanted to be.

 

[MrBern]

I find it interesting that viewers seem done.
I dont hear any call for a sequel or prequel the way Breaking Bad fostered Better Call Saul.
Even Weiner seems very done with the characters.
Im just looking forward to the finale.

 

[The Good]

I think Mad Men has a lot less mainstream appeal, compared to a show like Breaking Bad, because Mad Men is firmly a period piece set decades ago. The show's seasons and their output may also have much to do with the lack of enthusiasm or interest. It could also be the advertising agency aspect that doesn't appeal to as many, so I think Mad Men is pretty close to what we'd see referred to as a cult classic or a show with a cult following. I'm very sorry that Mad Men did not get more exposure and popularity than it has, however. It deserved more popularity. Now, I wonder when the next big 1960s-set period piece will come around?

I also like your avatar, Mr. Bern! Kirk and Spock looked good in 20th century suits.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Amid the dozens of articles about Mad Men I've read this week, this one stands out as being REALLY perceptive:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/mad-men-doesnt-believe-in-love.html

 

[Fading Fast]

Amid the dozens of articles about Mad Men I've read this week, this one stands out as being REALLY perceptive:

http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/mad-men-doesnt-believe-in-love.html

While expressed and thought out much better than I ever could, this article echoes my view that "Mad Men" has a dystopic view of humans and human relationships. There are almost no consistently decent people in caring relationships on the show.

Think about that for a moment. In your own life, don't you know some truly decent people? Don't you have some friends or relatives (and hopefully yourself) in good, caring, loving relationships?

I know I do. Yes, I know mean, manipulative people and, yes, I know people in some ugly, dysfunctional relationships, but my God, that is only part of the real world, but it is almost all of the "Mad Men" world.

I enjoy "Mad Men" for the writing, the style and the time travel, but I almost always feel mentally exhausted at the end of an episode because almost everyone is angry, manipulative and unhappy - a world of only that wears one down.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Honestly, I've run across a lot more venal, selfish, broken people of the Mad Men stripe than "consistently decent people" in my life.

Sure, I have some friends who are aces, but even they have their dysfunctions, and my observation at age 60 is that - despite our society's endlessly shouted mantra of change and self-improvement - people don't change as they age, they just become purer examples of what they always were. Their circumstances may change, but they are essentially the same. The ones who never moved out their parents' houses in their twenties are still largely arrested cases in their fifties/sixties. Ones that were driven to seek social status, sexual conquests, success... they are mostly the same... unsatisfied. Ones that were overly sensitive and lacking in self-confidence remain lost and confused decades later...

Most of the marriages of my friends that began back in the 80s, particularly the ones that included raising children - including mine - fell apart: I only know a couple of people who've managed to keep it together through the decades, and even fewer who handled the stresses of children on top of financial issues, medical concerns, and the social confusion of a society that's evolving quickly in some ways, but not at all in others.

Okay, I freely admit that I have always had a very low opinion of humanity in general. And I've always been an oddball, favoring stuff far from the popular or "normal", and drawn to examinations of darkness. To me, the dysfunctional, destructive, self-defeating characters of Mad Men ring all too true. Perhaps I've just been unlucky in the friends and family I've encountered, but I see a distressing, fairly accurate depiction of how people wreak havoc when they make decisions based on selfish desires and emotions in the show's stories.

Sorry to be a bringdown, but you asked. I'm just calling it as I see it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Doctor Strange - I appreciate your comments and respect your experiences.

I have seen all the ugliness, pathology and brokenness that you have seen (I'm 50), but I have also seen my best friend's 25 years successful marriage, my parents 30+ year successful marriage (until my father passed away), my girlfriend's parents 59 year successful marriage and many others. I have had "friends" sell me out for reasons to this day I don't understand, but I have also had people I only knew a bit go out of their way to help me at times.

To be fair, the above presents it as a balance and it isn't - the bad does outweigh he good in pure number of occurrences - but the good isn't dust in the corner, it's been a meaningful minority in my life.

I see "Mad Men" as a representation of only part of what I've experienced in life - the bad is there, but my experience has had good occur more than the few times something good happens on "Mad Men." Hence, for me, "Mad Men" is too much of an extreme to fully reflect the complexity of life.

But it sounds as if it is closer to your experience - hopefully, that ratio will shift a little to the better in your world going forward.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Think about that for a moment. In your own life, don't you know some truly decent people? Don't you have some friends or relatives (and hopefully yourself) in good, caring, loving relationships?

Far more than the Mad Men type. I was thinking about this the other day when reading about divorce statistics. I know that there was a time when half of marriages ended in divorce, but is that still true? I started thinking about friends, family and co-workers of mine, and was kind of surprised that there are very, very few divorces. My parents are still married, both of my sisters have been married for 20+ years, all three of my wife's siblings have been married 10+ years, I cannot think of a single friend who's been divorced, on my baseball team...15 guys around my age...none divorced...not a single person in my office has been divorced...hell even *I've* been married for almost 15 years now, and many folks probably only gave us five years tops. All I could think of is my wife's parents, who divorced in the 70s. Seriously, divorce, at least in my world, just seems to be exceedingly rare for people my age. I guess that's an anomaly based on statistics, but my world certainly isn't like Mad Men.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Well, we all have our own experiences. And we move in different circles, live in different places, were raised with different values and parenting, etc.

My own Mad Men-generation parents were married from 1948 until they died: they ran a business together too and were always loving, efficient partners. A few of their contemporaries made it for the long haul too... though there was serious dysfunction evident in some of those couples. My sister's been married since 1987... but I'd be kidding if I didn't admit that there's plenty of dysfunction and cross-purposes there, and that I hadn't thought they were at the breakup point more than once. (It could still happen.) I have no extended family worth mentioning. (My ex-wife's family are virtually all female: every marriage there in the last three generations ended in divorce. Often with two divorces per woman.) Only four of the dozen couples that were married back when I was are still together. So in my little world, divorce and dysfunction far outweigh happy marriages.

It's gratifying to hear that some of you have seen more happiness and successfully high-functioning marriages. I'd like nothing more than to discover that my low opinion of humanity is wrong... but I don't expect that at this point.

 

[AmateisGal]

So who is watching tonight? I can't decide...I usually watch "The Ten Commandments" every Easter, so I'm torn...

Don Draper or Charlton Heston?