The End of Mad Men: "New Business"

[Chris]

The End of Mad Men 2:

New Business

Don's life is emptying out as quickly as his apartment, and just like him we're left wondering where everything's going to end up. The end of Mad Men has just begun and its final trajectory is unknown; join us as we discuss "New Business," and try to figure it out ourselves.

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[Argobot]

So far this show is really not selling me on the Diane character. She's so underwritten and exists soley for Don to cast his own marital problems against. It's frustrating to watch, especially in a episode with so many of Don's other women who have actual personalities and agency.

I have no idea what the take away from Pima is meant to be. Peggy is still idealistic about romance? We learned that in the previous episode with the impromptu Paris plans, so it felt redundant this week. I'm fine with Mad Men introducing new characters in its final episodes, but not ones who are so incredibly unformed.

If this was meant as a place-setting episode it was a really poorly executed one.

[Mangela Lansbury]

The constant "Sorry, I was lying" from Diana just made me roll my eyes. She just doesn't seem like a fully realized person who does things for internally consistent reasons.

I liked a lot of this episode, but I hope we've seen the last of Diana.

[Woodfella]

Deleted

[Gormongous]

I liked the episode. We don't see Diana as a fully realized person because Don refuses to let her be one. He wants her to be a one-size-fits-all cipher for all the women that failed to put up with him, so he never goes below the surface. That projection is represented in one way by his constant efforts to give Diana something (a drink, some water, a book) and thereby make her happy, even though he always misjudges it himself. In the end, when he has the chance actually to learn something about her, he bluntly refuses and leaves without a word after she's said her piece.

 

Honestly, the stuff with Megan's family worked less for me, although it fit into the themes of the episode about projecting expectations onto people and then being disappointed by them. I'm really just surprised that Megan had any illusions left about her mother Marie and that she took it out on Don. Still, as one review I read put it, I like that Megan brought in her family for moral support and they ended up making it exponentially worse than it would have been with just her and Don.

 

I know it's a bunch of stuff that's typical to the show, but it all felt consonant.

[Woodfella]

Deleted

[Jake]

The podcast episode is up!

[Cordeos]

The conservatism of Megan's family is classic catholic, not European specifically. (French Canadians have a complex relationship with their European heritage, many feel that they were abandoned to the British and got little support of their attempts at independence.) I agree this episode had lots of moments that felt like filler considering how little time is left in the show. Maybe things will matter later, but so far there seems like no real storyline to this half-season, each episode so far has felt self contained. This could also change, but again we are running out of time. I am worried that they will spend the whole rest of the season giving each minor character enough screen time to tie off their life and as a result make the final episodes very scattered.

[Chris]

The conservatism of Megan's family is classic catholic, not European specifically. (French Canadians have a complex relationship with their European heritage, many feel that they were abandoned to the British and got little support of their attempts at independence.)

Totally but what I meant was also the urbane/cosmopolitan air they (especially Megan and her mother) carry, not just the conservatism. That's why I said French specifically, the combination of Catholic heritage and appreciation of elegance and cosmopolitanism. I'm sure it's still not uniquely French but I think it's a particular combination of values that isn't universal among all Catholics.

[Woodfella]

This is nice. Weiner talks about 7 key moments from the entire run. http://www.empireonline.com/features/matthew-weiner-mad-men-secrets

[Xtanstic]

Not sure if this merited an email so I'll post it here. Regarding Megan's family:

 

I'm not sure to what extent the writers intended to allude to Quebec's situation at the time. I always assumed that making Megan a French-Canadian was a wink to Jessica Paré's own nationality but after Chris voiced his thoughts on the episode, it does seem more deliberate. From what I remember from my high school history classes, basically Quebec following the confederation of Canada remained a fierce conservative and catholic province up until the end of the 50s. During the 60s and 70s, the Quiet Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution) occurs which leads to a large scale secularization and modernization of the country. This change occurs fairly quickly after the passing of a corrupt Premier (Duplessis) who had been in power for a long time due to a combination of corruption and strong church support. It is my understanding is that the societal changes that occur during this period in Quebec is much faster than the gradual evolution depicted in Mad Men because of Duplessis' reign prior (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Noirceur) and other influences (the US?). It seemed to me that Megan has always been, as Chris said, a more urbane and modern person than what I assumed a normal Quebecois person would be in that time, but this episode juxtaposes her to her more traditional family. Her sister remains entrenched in traditional catholic family values on which she bases her entire worldview, whereas her mom rejects the old way (Megan mentions that her mom had been unhappy for a long time) and seemingly embraces the revolution by staying in New York.

 

I'm not sure if they've mentioned if Megan is a typical Quebecois or if she's specifically from Montreal. Insomuch as Quebec is different from the rest of North America, so is Montreal from Quebec. Montreal is closer to the values depicted in Megan in that it is a mix of old world values and traditions with modern cosmopolitan sensibilities. During this time period, Montreal ends up holding the 67 International Exposition (we end up naming our future baseball team after this), builds a subway and hosts the Olympics in 76. This is also the time period where the separatist movement is birthed. Again, I doubt the writers intend to have all of this reflected in Megan and her family, but it does explain a bit why you would feel that they seem to have a contradicting set of values.

[Jake]

Xtanstic that is great info, can you write that in to madmen@idlethumbs.net?

[Xtanstic]

Sure thing