Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Mad Men Finale

Heather Havrilesky wrote a brilliant and spoiler full review of the Mad Men finale: Hello darkness, my old friend. She found much more in it than I did and I don't have anything more to add.

The season had some great moments and perhaps the great depth to the writing, but I think it wasn't quite as exciting as some of the previous ones.

Update: Ezra Klein has a different take Is Don Draper right?.

2 comments:

Roman said...

"My productivity is usually lower on Mondays, as I spend a fair portion of the day reading commentaries on the previous night's episode of "Mad Men." ...yeah, while I am not usually interested in commentaries for movies or other shows with "Mad Men" it is different - there are many details and facts that people point out that I do not notice/think of if I just watched. (although, some of the comments seem like plain over-analyzing).

Howard said...

I think Mad Men has more subtext than any other show. Other shows have depth and some greater depth and scope (The Wire), but Mad Men makes you work for it more than any show.

In thinking about great shows now, I think you can split them in two. The Wire, Deadwood, and Rome all were about a place and culture and tried to tell everyone's stories in those places. The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Dexter were all character studies even though they had ensembles and told several stories. For a while I said Mad Men was really about the 60s, but this season in particular really concentrated on Don Draper, maybe that's why I liked it a little less.