I have always seen television as the best medium for an artist or a storyteller to bring their stories to life; to give their characters a physical presence in our world in which we are allowed to take in their appearances, their surroundings and their relationships with other characters and watch how their actions influence those things with our own eyes. That's the excuse I use when I decide to watch TV shows on a Friday night over going out and being social. Good TV shows can keep you engaged as a way to pass the time. Great TV shows have the ability to do that while telling you a story that keeps you entranced even years after they have gone off the air. Which brings us to Mad Men which just aired its last episode last Sunday and should go down as one of the best TV dramas of all time.
I've been asked over the years what Mad Men is about and I've never exactly known how to answer that question. "It's a show about an advertising agency set in the 60s" but it's so much more than that. It's different from the other popular dramas we've been introduced to in the last decade like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, The Shield etc; shows with a white, male, Machiavellian anti-hero telling the story of how they balance their work lives with their personal lives. Mad Men has this in Don Draper (Jon Hamm) but without the explosions and the bullet holes. This is a story of several people trying to find out who they are, what makes them happy, the steps they take to achieve that happiness and them finding either fulfillment or disappointment when they get there.
Eventually in watching Mad Men, you realize that there's no big bad guy at the end (The Governor) or some deep, dark secret waiting to be uncovered (hey family, I sell meth for a living and I like it). I mean there is a secret, but we find out that ultimately no one cares. Matthew Weiner is telling us a story about life. How greatly some things matter and how little others don't. We quickly realize that we're watching the show because we're following the evolution of these characters who all eventually reach their own version of enlightenment. The kick here is Weiner tells the story from a perspective that is as close to "life" as you can get.
I love the transformation of two of the show's female characters more than anyone else. Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) and Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) try to find themselves while taking on patriarchy from two different perspectives. Peggy eventually gets to a point where her ambition and dexterity cause her work to shine out. The same almost happens for Joan but never really does when she's working under men because they are unable to look past her breasts.
Joan transforms from a character who almost subconsciously defended the patriarchy to other women. Over time, little by little, she eventually realizes that she's not helping herself by supporting that ideal or not speaking out against it. Now she's running her own business (which you know will be successful) and making her own decisions. She doesn't ultimately need to find love in men who try to tell her what to do or force her to fit a mold of what they want the women in their lives to be. I love Joan because you can see that the confidence she's gained in herself and her profession from her many experiences over the seasons of the show. This is what she truly values at that time and that no one was going to take that away from her.
Nobody realizes their purpose or where they want to be in life through one epiphany. That rarely happens. Instead we watch them have an idea, gain a small victory here, a setback here, regroup and try again or ultimately give up. It's a culmination of small moments and realizations that get us to that point eventually we're finally think that we're at peace.
This type of storytelling can be seen once more in the last season which shows our "antihero" Don Draper working for a new firm in New York when he suddenly leaves in the middle of a meeting, gets in a car and starts driving west. All season long, he makes stops here and there meeting random people, sharing stories and experiences. But he keeps driving west. He's rich. He has children. He's one of the most powerful men in New York. But he doesn't know who he is. He has no identity (or too many identities). And he's alone. He's been playing Captain Save-a-Hoe and falling into the same traps for so long he doesn't realize how alone he is. The last episode does a great job of depicting this. Showing Don have three separate phone conversations from over a thousand miles away to the three most important women in his life was a great way of showing just how alone Don was and how much those women didn't need him anymore. Peggy asks him if he needs help and tells him that he doesn't need to be alone. His response to her was "I'm in a crowd". He's searching for an answer. He keeps going west looking for his own version of the truth till he finally breaks down and can build himself back up again in the last episode. Then he comes up with a Coke commercial......
We're lead to believe that Don went back to the only place that would have him back. At first, the cynic in me was like "Really? He went on that life-changing journey of discovery and revelation and came back with a Coke commercial". Then I thought about it in the context of the show and realized that it worked neatly and was a simple, fitting ending to the story of this great character. The only place that he could call home and would welcome him with open arms was the McCann advertising office. His journey across America and his new insights and experiences were used to launch the iconic "Buy The World a Coke" ad campaign of the 70s. What I've chosen to understand from this ad was that in that final moment of revelation, Don realized that he wasn't alone in his loneliness.
Because of the way Mad Men's story was told, I wouldn't be surprised if Weiner and AMC said "SURPRISE! Season 8's already in production!" I could see the show going on for several years longer. Don's story was one that showed a cycle of renewal which is why I felt like I could relate to it on many levels. The opening theme sequence shows three stages. A man (Don) walking into an office with a briefcase. Him falling in the midst of buildings that show the ads he's created; his contribution to American life. And the third stage shows him in an armchair staring off into the distance in contemplation. It's right that the final episode ends with a scene of Don smiling because he has plunged deep into his fears and has come to terms with the cycle he was going through. He finally understood his anxieties and creates an ad campaign that helps battle those anxieties. It doesn't mean that now and forever, Don will be at peace, cause that's not how life works. Our dreams may endure the test of time or they may eventually erode. We don't know. But for now he's achieved a certain level of personal peace that will sustain him for now until that cycle begins again.
