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May 18, 2015Editor’s note: If you’re a Mad Men fan who, for some odd reason, decided to not watch the series finale on Sunday night, you’re going to want to skip down to #ActualSportswriting. You’ve been warned.
Happy Monday, kids. Here’s hoping the weekend—one without the Cleveland Cavaliers—treated you well. There was plenty of time to get in some yard work, and do other things while checking the MLB At Bat app to see if the Indians were able to maintain their leads. We’ll have plenty to discuss regarding their three-game slate with the Texas Rangers in the coming hours, but first we discuss what is easily the biggest pop culture story of the last 12 hours…
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Did he or didn’t he? When we last see Don Draper, he’s seated, legs crossed and his arms dangling at his sides. His eyes are closed, he’s humming. He’s surrounded by others on the side of a hill which, by all accounts, is facing the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. His crisp, white collared shirt clashes against the blue water like cumulus clouds in the sky. And then the smirk.
Don Draper is a man who spent much of the last decade—spanning the last seven seasons of television—running away. When we first meet him—Season 1, Episode 1—we are introduced to a handsome, high-level marketing executive with enough panache to light up a few city blocks. From the moment he sold Lucky Strike on his concept of hiding from the alleged unhealthiness of cigarettes, he was off, treading water for much of the time, taking gaping strokes in others. Whether it was Dick Whitman absorbing the persona of a deceased man, sneaking in the back door of the neighbor lady’s apartment, or ditching Miller Lite to pretend he’s delivering a fridge full of it to the server who appears to have one-upped his ability to bounce without any sort of prior announcement, Don has been a world class elusive figure.
Fans of Mad Men should have seen this coming: Matthew Weiner was bound to leave us all talking. As intimated in our roundtable, we knew what future existed ahead of the majority of the cast—though Peggy and Stan’s embrace was a pleasant surprise. (That Stan was not wearing a bolo tie at the time was the only disappointment.) The question remained (and potentially still does) surrounding Don. Weiner stated long ago that he would never give his cast members credit for axis tilting advertisements, but as Draper smirks, the yoga instructor chimes his triangle, we’re suddenly reminded of Peggy’s reminder that he could return to work as if he had never left and nail the Coca-Cola account he was handed when SC&P was absorbed by McCann-Erickson. We’re reminded that it was actually McCann-Erickson who is responsible for the iconic Coke spot with the flower children on the hill—that hill which is eerily similar to the one which Draper was last seated. And we’re reminded of the young, braided-hair lady behind the desk who reminds Don that people do in fact come and go.
So "ding", Don gets an idea and goes back to make the Coke Ad? #MadMadFinale pic.twitter.com/80hBAl5olg
— David Clinch (@DavidClinchNews) May 18, 2015
There is plenty of debate to be had regarding Draper and his potential involvement beyond that morning on the hill. It’s easy to piece it all together—that he used this west-coast moment as inspiration, went back to New York and unlocked Icon Status as one of the most brilliant advertising minds in the history of the art form. He spent his three phone calls on the closest women in his life—Sally, Betty and Peggy, only one of whom made him feel any sort of internal value. Did he take the words shared by the man in the thought circle, the one who explained the feeling of being an unwanted object inside of a refrigerator, synthesize them down into his own life and turn things around for the greater good (at least when it comes to things like personal hygiene and sense of purpose)?
Then again, it can also be argued that Draper stayed out west, ditched the starch and wool for more denim, and spent every last dollar out of that beat up envelope on bottles of whiskey and random blondes in Utah, in the end learning absolutely nothing from his misdeeds. There are fewer places further from New York than the oceanfront hills of southern California. Nothing had changed Don to this point—not loss, not gain, not getting his face beat in with a phone book after a long night with the Veterans—so why now? How poetic would it be that cigarettes, mentally flashing back to Draper’s conversation in that first episode about how he “had heard” that they could potentially lead to death, would be what takes the life of his first wife? That the ad campaign he created—the marketing pitch to get the greater public to think that cigarettes were, despite what people were saying at the time,were not just OK but gave off an effervescence of coolness—would play a role in his wife’s demise, you can’t get much more full circle than that.
What cannot be debated is the place Mad Men will have in the history books of high-end television. And not high end from a social warfare standpoint, but from a show that will never, ever be able to be duplicated or spun off of. Mad Men is over. Seven seasons of nearly flawless television, from the wardrobes and scenery to the social and societal changes that took place during its tenure. The character development, the deaths of key players, the way that Peggy and Joan went from the bottom of the ladder to the top (or in Peggy’s case, by 1980) can’t be overlooked.
My Sunday nights used to be reserved for The Sopranos. It was the first time I can recall having appointment television, and this was during my college years—there were plenty of distractions, but none got in the way of Tony, Christopher and the rest of The Family. I’ll never forget when that light went off and I wondered if my power went out. I’ll never forget that feeling of emptiness that soon washed over, that no television show would ever be able to step in. I’m not ready to crown Mad Men as the replacement, but it was about as close as I can imagine any show getting to the top of that hill.
Moments before Don was in full embrace of his inner yogi, he stood idle and I wondered if he was about to commit suicide. Seconds later, we’re wondering if his experience led to one of the most iconic spots in the history of one-minute television. It would only make sense that that the side of that hill has Don smiling and the rest of us wondering.
The Cavaliers don’t play for a few more days. You should use the downtime to absorb the latest edition of #ActualSportswriting:
“Show of Hands” by Chris Jones (ESPN The Magazine): “His new glove is jet black, with gold stitching. From afar, it looks like any other mitt, but up close, it is unlike any glove you’ve seen. It has six fingers, or four fingers and two thumbs, with a small nest of a pocket in its middle, splitting the half-dozen digits precisely in half. It looks made less for a hand and more for a paw.”1
“The Ewing Conspiracy” by Chris Ballard (Sports Illustrated): “In the beginning, before the talk of frozen envelopes and creased corners and all the rest, the first NBA draft lottery had a simple goal: Stop Donald Sterling. The year was 1984 and NBA teams were tanking with a Hinkie-esque gusto, but none as publicly as the San Diego Clippers, who were owned by Sterling, a 50-year-old real estate magnate who preferred his employees subservient and his shirts open to the navel.”2
“For Lawrence Phillips, a dead cellmate and another day of reckoning” by Lars Anderson (Bleacher Report): “Before death was unleashed in his two-man cell on April 11, inmate No. G31982 led a quiet life inside the stone and concrete walls of California’s Kern Valley State Prison, a haunting, fortress-like structure that rises out of a dusty patch of land in the San Joaquin Valley.”3
How La’el Collins became a Dallas Cowboy by Robert Klemko (MMQB): “In a cramped hotel room the day before the NFL draft, speaking before a dozen of his relatives and close family friends, La’el Collins began to cry as he delivered the news: He wasn’t walking across the stage at the Auditorium Theatre and they weren’t hitting the gold carpet. He was instead flying back home to Baton Rouge, La., to answer questions in a murder investigation.”4
“Inside the meeting that led Charles Barkley to re-sign with TNT” by Richard Deitsch (Sports Illustrated): “How do you convince Charles Barkley to re-sign with your network? Well, $1,700 worth of wine and tequila is a nice place to start.”5
“American Pharaoh wins Preakness, nears Triple Crown” by Tim Layden (Sports Illustrated): “Racing arrives again and ever long past due, at the cusp of history, in a familiar place with a familiar narrative. A racehorse has again won the first two legs of the Triple Crown and again the broader world beyond its tidy borders will put aside other avocations for a few minutes, three weeks from now on the first Saturday in June, and watch to see if, at long last, one of the most famous droughts in sports will be brought to a merciful end. We have been here before and before and before and the story is as recognizable as our reflections in the morning mirror. We no longer trust it, but we surely know what it looks like.”6
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And finally, John Oliver on….CHICKENS!
Have a killer Monday, you guys. Here’s to finding that next great show.
- We haven’t heard from Chris Jones for a while, at least on the sports front, but he made the wait worthwhile. It’s not everyday you read a story about an ambidextrous pitcher looking to work his way into the major leagues. [↩]
- Interestingly retitled from “The Ewing Theory”, this Ballard piece discusses the first NBA Lottery—one which may look a lot like the 30th anniversary, with the New York Knicks back in the fold. [↩]
- As you all know, it takes a lot for a Bleacher Report piece to make this section. Anderson penned a piece on Phillips when he was drafted. Now, he goes back and writes a story on him as he faces yet another chapter in his cautionary tale. [↩]
- Fewer things better than well-reported tick-tocks that tell us not just what happened, but why and how. [↩]
- Ditto. [↩]
- Included here if only for the lede. Layden penned this piece on deadline, for starters, and absolutely killed it with that opening paragraph. If only every piece of recap sportswriting had this much care put into it. [↩]
28 Comments
Didn’t watch Mad Men, but what’s it going to take before Theon inserts something sharp and pointy into Ramsay’s eyesocket.
I don’t think he can, what with Ramsay having cut off the source of Theon’s power and all.
Have never been a fan of Mad Men – always thought that it tipped too far in form over substance, fishing for a “cultural phenomenon” status that, when viewed from a distance, was not that phenomenal – but I LOVED the finale (well, mostly the last 10 minutes). In my mind, based on the ending, the whole series existed simply as back story to that iconic commercial (yes, I was recently promoted from 1LT Obvious to CPT Obvious). This is perfect to me, because it simultaneously acknowledges the frivolity and seriousness, the form and substance, of the human existence. In a lot of ways, it redeemed the whole series for me. Very well done.
More importantly, when is George R.R. going to ship those manuscripts to the publisher?
Shhh!
https://immortaljellies.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/scumbag-george-r-r-martin-meme.jpg
Spoiler alert: There aren’t any Starks left.
I’m kidding.
I hope that at some point Benjen Stark shows up and starts extracting a little payback.
It is sickening in a way that a man’s tortured inner life and fleeing in such pain from the false world he had carefully constructed would result in … another ad, even if one of the most famous in history. That’s the precise “false god” he had mocked Peggy for an episode earlier. But, as the actor who plays Peggy recently said, one thing very apparent from the last season is that no one has fundamentally changed, not even under the pressure of the world-morphing stresses of that decade.
The series vision seems to be: people adapt; they don’t change. Who they are determines how they adapt. Roger was a WWII vet and still hates the Japanese. In these times he shockingly ends up dropping acid. But he’ still the exact same guy with the same selfishness and bad boy charm and weaknesses. Joan and Peggy are the same, Peter will always be only for Peter even if he brings his family with him.
My conclusion was that Don may have a new and grand perspective. But whatever he does, he’s still Don, the ultimate, inscrutable and perfect ad man.
My assumption has always been that Benjen Stark will lead an army of white walkers against Daenerys’s dragon army, with all of the other Westeros kingdoms rendered irrelevant.
Never got into Mad Men but I thought Draper became DB Cooper
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83487824/
tried many times to watch Mad Men. Bored me to death.
GOT is moving a bit too slow for me. So many good storylines that it’s hard to fit them all in. We didn’t even get Jon Snow this week. Love me some Dinklage, and want more. And how in the hell can we all be rooting for Jamie Lannister? Great character.
Can someone kill Cersei, please?
In my mind, we are all living in the moment before death. You know how people say your life “flashes before your eyes?” Well, we’re living (or re-living) in that flash. And then, one moment, it’ll be gone.
The Sparrows are going to have a field day if they find out Cersei slept with her brother.
No, Don does not return, although a few cues tease it (Harry and Roger dismissively saying that that’s what Don does–and he comes back; Peggy saying that he can return, etc). Not only did Weiner say in an interview that he wasn’t going to leave you wondering and wanted to tie up everything, it wouldn’t fit Don’s arc if he returned. He tries to give advice in the Big Sur healing center that you can move on from anything. He’s said that before to her and to Peggy and has told himself that a thousand times. And he might not be able to do it himself—but after he breaks down, he finally realizes he can move on (freed.from his job, Betty and even his kids)–from his former life.
Now we know why he’s called RAMsay!!!
Welcome back.
Me too.
Is that the “literal-police”?
“To Swerve and Project.”
Yes, I find myself wrestling with whether the Coke ad represents a sort of rebirth for Don, or whether it should be seen as part of his tragic arc. I lean towards the latter interpretation, because it is abjectly depressing to think of such a vacuous corporate production as representing the pinnacle of one’s professional accomplishments.
Either way, I was – perhaps selfishly – disappointed in Don’s storyline. He is much more interesting as an inescapably flawed and irredeemable character, and the new age awakening seemed a bit unbecoming. It’s like if Arthur Miller had ended Death of a Salesman with Willy Loman having a spiritual revelation that led him to forego suicide and invent the Pet Rock. Would have much preferred the DB Cooper storyline, or Don wading off, Edna Pontellier-style, into the ocean as was presaged in the Season 6 ad about the Hawaii resort.
Generally, the culminating storylines felt a bit too clean and unambiguous to me, but I still honor the show as one of the best I’ve seen.
A few episodes ago, the masses were chanting that Tomen was illegitimate so surely they must already know?
I suspect Grandma Tyrell won’t get outflanked again. 😉
Oh just great…Willy Loman dies?! How about a spoiler alert next time for a Death of Salesman mention!
Just wondering if you knew how the DB Cooper storyline developed? Was reading about it today, and I can’t figure out how that would have made sense…other than the historical timeline.
I believe the original source of the DB Cooper story is this article: https://medium.com/thelist/where-don-draper-ends-d-b-cooper-begins-e96804523838
It was utterly fantastical conjecture, but a pretty compelling case is made for how the show could have been feinting at this sort of outcome for Don.
I think I may patent the “spoiler alert spoiler alert” for people who want to find out what happens but don’t want to be distracted by disclaimers in italics at the top of articles 😉
Another great female character in the series/ books . I just loved the scenes she had going head to head with Tywin Lannister. She’ll eat Cersei for breakfast.
He did say on his website that he has stopped making a lot of public appearances so he can concentrate on the novel. I’m guessing 2020 will be the year 🙂