In the third season finale of Mad Men, Don Draper, the walking quintessence of ad-manology, has to pitch his formerly taken-for-granted creative exec Peggy on staying with him, and he tells her why he needs her:
There are people out there who buy things, people like you and me. And something happened. Something terrible. And the way that they saw themselves is gone. And nobody understands that. But you do. And that's very valuable.
The speech is a kind of blank verse reiteration of what the series is about, a neat summation of what its auteur Matthew Weiner has understood about America and embodied in the arc of the show this past year.
"And the way that they saw themselves is gone," says Don, his eyes glistening with the pain of his own private loss, for the Don that was is no more. Season 3's end - spoilage is unavoidable here - takes a rich, ghastly gleefulness in ripping apart every relationship the series has so carefully woven together for its characters over the last three years.
But then - at the darkest of dark moments - comes the re-bonding dawn of a new enterprise. There's a weird sort of Christmas-y, It's a Wonderful Life vibe to the place where our mad crew ultimately ends up this time around. After every American dream has turned nightmare, each archetypal persona punished (the genius a fool, the wife declared whore), we realize we've been witnessing the birth pangs of a new world order.
And this time we'll all get it right, won't we?
We are ruined, and we need to remake ourselves anew. This is the story the ad men feed upon, and it's the myth that Weiner and his impeccable company have rendered so rightly in this season's canny arc.
A great ad makes us believe in that new story about who we, however wounded, can be. A great series is only as great as the boldness of its over-arching storyline, and in this, Weiner has mined a motherlode: reframing its first three years as essentially prologue to The Real Story, the whole Mad Men shebang has been reborn, or rather, revealed for the creation myth that it was apparently intended to be.
The theme's right there each week in the credit sequence, a choreographed disintegration from the get: everything falls apart, but that falling body never does hit the ground. The darkness that's swallowed us turns out to be the slick suit jacket of the same executive, renewed, reborn, set back in his chair.
In this regard what really counts is who we've gotten back on board for the next resurrection. Throughout every Mad Man fan's long, dark wait till the start of Season Four, it'll be heartening to know that the dawn brings Joan.
I need to start watching this show religiously.
Right now I just pretend to so I can hang out with all the cool kids at the water cooler...
Posted by: J | November 09, 2009 at 09:52 AM
J: You could Netflix Season 1 and start from the top... I bet you'd be out-cooling the water-cooler kids with your insights in no time.
Posted by: mernitman | November 09, 2009 at 10:31 AM
I've tried to get into Mad Men, watching the entire first season, but couldn't. I didn't care for the characters and they didn't make it interesting enough to get over that hurdle. Similarly, I feel The Wire also had characters I didn't care enough about, but I thought it was sculpted so well that I hung on, but only till season 3. I haven't made it past that yet. Thots?
Posted by: Annie | November 09, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Annie: I don't know you well enough to draw any profound conclusions from your resistance to MM (and/or THE WIRE) - after all, taste is taste - and bottom line is, if you don't relate to the characters in a story - any story, of any length - then it's simply not material that'll resonate with you. But maybe you like your dramas to be more dynamic? As in, you tend to enjoy the compressed dramatic arc of a kick-ass feature narrative... as opposed to the slow, simmering, incremental and episodic treatment of a story where the grades are less steep?
Posted by: mernitman | November 09, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Billy, Was looking to see what you thought when I decided to check out your blog. I couldn't agree with you more in your assessment of the series and last night's finale. I had just commented on Ellen's site in a similar way about Don and Peggy's little exchange as he tries to get her to come to his agency. Ad men sell us stuff we need to reinvent ourselves after a hard fall and that's what the show is about really underneath it all. Can't wait for next season!
Posted by: Stephanie | November 09, 2009 at 01:22 PM
BTW, in the most relevant ad that I saw today, Brooks Bros is selling the updated MM suit! Yes, that is what they are calling it. The ad assumes that men will want to look like these iconic ad execs. Well, who wouldn't want to look like Don Draper?
Posted by: Stephanie | November 09, 2009 at 01:36 PM
Stephanie, that's hysterical about Brooks Brothers, especially given the unconscious subtext, i.e. You, too, can live a lie as a made-up person, while being unfaithful to your wife (and judgmental about her affairs), betraying your original family, as well as occasional lovers and co-workers according to whim, and be essentially miserable... but look SO COOL at the same time!
Posted by: mernitman | November 09, 2009 at 01:52 PM
I thought I would like this but watched one episode & it left me cold.
Not funny or interesting or insightful. Just very dull. Maybe I caught a bad episode...
I'll try renting the DVDs & watch it from the beg.
(PS I love Jared Harris & I'm hoping I can stick with MM long enough to catch him.)
Posted by: Laura Reyna | November 11, 2009 at 02:34 PM
Interesting observation about the slow simmer vs. the quicker dramatic arc. I'd say yes and no. I love shows that simmer and build, but if the payoff isn't there or I don't enjoy the ride (aka the characters, story swerves) then the show will leave me cold. For example, I thought Everwood was actually quite good and it was kind of a slow show/build. I reallly liked how they used small moments to get to the big moments, if that makes sense. With Mad Men, it feels very built and inorganic - sterile.
Posted by: Annie | November 13, 2009 at 09:52 AM
Laura: I believe the proper old phrase is "That's what makes horse racing." But you're right, maybe trying it from the top will affect your take?
Annie: See cliche invoked in comment to Laura, above...
Posted by: mernitman | November 16, 2009 at 08:46 AM
An exquisitely written show, I wager that Mad Men is ultimately more appealing to mature audiences, those who have been alive in years closer to the actual era and been able to watch our culture evolve from post-war reconstruction through to the current commodification of the commons. It's poignant, wistful, nostalgic, and frightening all at the same time. For so much of our culture has turned retro as of late what with the ramping up of societal punishment of those who step outside of social (esp. gender) constructions, narrow attitudes toward, and marginalization of the "other", and media-sanctioned misogyny. All this as a result of Patriarchy's last-ditch desperate efforts to retain power. But I digress...
Mad Men is a masterpiece.
Posted by: Abigail | April 08, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Abigail: I quite agree (obviously), and thank you for the digression.
Posted by: mernitman | April 11, 2010 at 01:11 PM