Or some of you lack imagination.

The conclusion and the different routes that could be taken to get there aren't the same thing.

So what's the other route, giving the idea to Peggy? I don't buy that one at all

Maybe Don actually found his peace in California and the ad at the end shows the saccharine substitute that is all advertising had to offer.

Assuming that Don didn't just run to the phone, give the idea to Peggy, and go back to exploring the meaning of life (probably a safe bet), my point all along has simply been that I'm not satisfied with having to imagine what happens between Don's smile and the Coke ad being televised. Again, this is because one of the best parts of the show - in MY opinion - was when Don was selling to customers. The creative "aha!" moments prior to the presentations being delivered were some of the best parts of this show, too.

Also, right at the moment that Don appeared to discover how to finally be happy, the show ends. So, after multiple seasons of having to witness a tortured, successful Don, I think it would be really nice to see just how much a happy Don can really succeed. Or, does he end up losing his way again? No idea, but I want to know.

As I think I mentioned, I don't blame Weiner for ending the series the way he did. However, if the end was truly satisfying, I wouldn't really want to see more. I wouldn't be sure to go see a movie that picked up where the series left off.

It's just a personal preference. No one is right or wrong, but some of you obviously don't like that we're not all in agreement.

Yeah, because it's not like they had any good ad men working there.

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I've no doubt that the nostalgic details can be appreciated an enjoyed by anyone. I just don't know that the deeply emotional, almost visceral experience is the same for one who didn't live through it.

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Visceral experience is exactly what I said about 30 seconds after it ended.

The final montage, for those who want to watch it again in all its glory another 15 or so times like I have (I wish I was kidding)...

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/see-mad-mens-series-ending-finale-montage.html?mid=twitter_vulture

Not to go off on a tangent but for those of ya'll who were there can you explain the impact to the Hilltop coke commercial when it came out? I was born 13 years after that commercial came out and I was just curious as to why this is regarded as such an iconic ad.TIA

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The final montage, for those who want to watch it again in all its glory another 15 or so times like I have (I wish I was kidding)...

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/see-mad-mens-series-ending-finale-montage.html?mid=twitter_vulture

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plus there is a link to this which gives a ton of info on the Hilltop Coke ad..and it's tie in here.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/coke-ad-mad-men-finale-history.html


depogs - just saw your post above...this will answer your question pretty well

The Coke song was a pleasant tune that gets stuck in your head, and the message appealed to most people. Our society was pretty damn worn out from the Vietnam War, war protests/beatdowns/Kent State, racial conflict, the Kennedy and MLK assassinations, etc...

The ad guys knew that people were ready for peace and love, and they tied Coke to their message as though it was something that could help them achieve this vision. Maybe it did a little...

mccann bought SCDP mainly for don.

whatshisface had been trying to lure don over to mccann for years.

i'm sure don had to apologize, but i doubt he had to fight his way back in.

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Not to go off on a tangent but for those of ya'll who were there can you explain the impact to the Hilltop coke commercial when it came out? I was born 13 years after that commercial came out and I was just curious as to why this is regarded as such an iconic ad.TIA

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It was the right ad at the right time. It was peace and love. It was multiethnic and global. I was born in 1970, and I do have memories of that ad. Also keep in mind that for most people there were only three channels, so if you watched TV, you saw that ad.

It also started "Coke. It's the real thing." One of the most successful ad lines in history.,

Until 1985, when Peggy, now the top creative director at ME, comes up with New Coke. And she finally gets that campaign that makes her famous and recognized.

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The conclusion and the different routes that could be taken to get there aren't the same thing.

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Thank you. This. so much this.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/05/18/mad_men_finale_and_coke_an_interview_with_the_real_life_ad_man_who_created.html

I'm still thinking to myself - WTF?

There was little about that last episode that was good.

So I was very disappointed with the finale. I've been posting in this thread all year, but wasn't sure how to articulate my feelings exactly, especially since so many here and most tv critics seemed to love it and dismiss anyone who didn't feel the same. I've tried to convince myself it was a great finale, but I just know how I felt after watching it. At the core of it, the episode just didn't seem like a Mad Men story to me. It wasn't that I had expectations (as I've posted many times that I just wanted one more story with these characters), but it rang hollow to me, and not just because of the cynical ending.

Andy Greenwald's review captures my feelings, and explains things much better than I can:
Mad Men finale review - Grantland

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It wasn't just the final moments that threw me: the bizarre triptych of Don ceding the floor to an anonymous schnook, blissing out in the lotus position, and then maybe? probably? buying the entire world a Coke. It was everything that came before: 60-plus minutes of unexpectedly clumsy lunches, freighted phone calls, and fan service. The latter seemed particularly egregious. The brilliance of Mad Men was, to me, that everyone knew that Peggy and Stan loved each other. It was there in their codependent bellyaching, their wordless phone calls, their easy honesty. The push into full-on Ephronica was as preposterous as it was unnecessary, even with Elisabeth Moss's exquisite performance to anchor it. A good bartender isn't the one who keeps pouring after the glass is full. It's the one who knows when to leave well enough alone.

It was the safety of it all that bugged me, I guess. Mad Men has always been a show that lived in the hollow, uncomfortable spaces between what we want and what we need, that perpetually dared us with visions of the most horrific things imaginable corpses under beds, car crashes on the Thruway only to reveal the status quo as the scariest outcome of them all. But everyone knuckled to convention Sunday night, one way or another: Roger chased his age-appropriate bliss north of the border while securing the financial future of his son. Joan chose work, her truest love, over a life of wide horizons and wider lapels. Pete, reborn after last week's windfall, ferried his perfect family into clear blue skies. Every interaction between these people felt as staged as the cast roundtables AMC has been airing throughout this miniseason. All warm smiles and stiff drinks, throats full of the grandiloquent sentiment generally reserved for eulogies and usually eschewed by Mad Men like the plague. Of the core ensemble, only Sally's fate felt rough and true. She can't fly away to Madrid, like her father would, or scoff through cigarette smoke, like her mother. She has to act like an adult because, for god's sake, it's about time someone did.

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Any thoughts on this viewpoint?

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I'm still thinking to myself - WTF?

There was little about that last episode that was good.

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the vast majority of people disagree

I disagree with almost every word of it.

The nice-ish ribbons around the other characters stories were appropriate and fitting for a finale. As this thread has shown, many people LIKE nice ribbons and closure.

As to Stan and Peggy. I never saw it. Sorry, I didn't. And that includes rewatching every episode during March getting ready for this last season. Their scene didn't feel contrived to me, at all. As to Don, I think that we were being set up for a punch line. I was pissed watching Don's arc the last two or three episodes. That was instantaneously transformed into a grin with in the first three notes after Don's (almost) smirk. I didn't like watching the set up, but payoff in the punchline was near perfection. I do think that anyone who isn't old enough to remember that commercial can't really enjoy the same experience as those of us who were. Everything that was good about that series, for me, emerged within the first few bars...

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I disagree with almost every word of it.

The nice-ish ribbons around the other characters stories were appropriate and fitting for a finale. As this thread has shown, many people LIKE nice ribbons and closure.

As to Stan and Peggy. I never saw it. Sorry, I didn't. And that includes rewatching every episode during March getting ready for this last season. Their scene didn't feel contrived to me, at all. As to Don, I think that we were being set up for a punch line. I was pissed watching Don's arc the last two or three episodes. That was instantaneously transformed into a grin with in the first three notes after Don's (almost) smirk. I didn't like watching the set up, but payoff in the punchline was near perfection.

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Interesting. It seemed obvious to me that Peggy and Stan had a deep relationship from the episode where they were working in different offices, but spending the night on the phone just chatting and being there. It was implied that was a normal thing for them, and they had seemed very close and caring about each other since then to me. That scene felt like something from FRIENDS or a romantic comedy movie.

I absolutely loved the two previous episodes and think that both are top 15, maybe top 10 Mad Men episodes, and I loved that Don was able to shed his biggest secret and thought that the shot of him at the bus stop was perfection. I used to love the California episodes, but I think I view it as a false heaven for Don. It's where he thinks he can really be himself and really find happiness, but he still has to reconcile Dick and Don, and he can't ignore that part of himself.

As for the neat bows and ribbons, I know that plenty of people love that - heck, I do a lot of the time, too. I loved the Parks and Rec finale, and that was about as neat as possible. This just didn't feel like Mad Men to me. Mad Men is a story that life goes on, that things continue even after a big moment or after you've reached the heights or depths of your career/life. It was a jumpy episode that felt like fan-fic to me.

I saw it coming, and I even stated it earlier yesterday morning. I didn't need that Stan and Peggy scene to tell me anything. For a long time, they have been by far the 2 closest souls on the show. an "I love you" out of "because why not?" style in the series finale did absolutely nothing for me. I already knew they were either in love, or as close as you could possibly be with someone.

I don't agree with that review in its entirety, but I do share some similarities with it, which I have already discussed.

Look, it's not like I didn't like anything about so many of those scenes Sunday night. The ending by itself was brilliant, but as I said also, it was the other 75 minutes that did nothing for me. I didn't need to see Pete get on a plane. Didn't need to see Joan start up another company that may or may not succeed. Didn't need Roger and Marie. Didn't need another Betty scene(as powerful as it was), after she had such an emotional and powerful penultimate.

That being said, the more I read in the post-finale interviews, etc., the more it is clear that Weiner had the idea of Don meditating, finally succumbing to all of his former mistakes, and being able to accept who he is, come out of it, and possibly finally come to full acceptance with his life. And of course let that be a light bulb that leads to the famous Coke Ad.

So he had an ending he wanted, therefore he had to get us there. I think he tried his hardest to do service to the ensemble as much as possible by sending each one (seemingly off) in the prior weeks, and keeping things on the level. Even Don on the road the last 2 episodes was very much in the same vein of Mad Men past.

The finale was just a 1 off that didn't feel like Mad Men hardly at all. It was a a very hastily put together story to get Don to LA, up to the commune, and get weird before hitting rock bottom and climbing out. The supplemental storylines were just a collection of scenes that did not flow very well. Only offering people a glimpse of what was still going on with the other characters.

Again, it was well acted, well done, had some incredibly emotional scenes, and the (very) end was awesome. But I'll say it probably for the final time on the thread, so as to not beat a dead horse....I did not need any of what we saw from Mad Men on Sunday night to help finish the story for me. The ending on the bus bench in the penultimate seemed such a perfect series ender, after having spent the previous 3 or 4 weeks giving each major character a finish....that the finale just almost felt like a "Meanwhile, back in Mad Men world" after-look at the series.

And that's fine. I'm not going to criticize Weiner or anyone with the show for deciding to do the series finale how they did. I didn't have any real problems with it, only other than how brilliant the prior 3 weeks were from start to finish. The series finale was just a great finish with fluff scenes for an hour before.

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As to Stan and Peggy. I never saw it. Sorry, I didn't.

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Interesting. It seemed obvious to me that Peggy and Stan had a deep relationship from the episode where they were working in different offices, but spending the night on the phone just chatting and being there. It was implied that was a normal thing for them, and they had seemed very close and caring about each other since then to me.

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me too. they've been circling each other without even knowing it for almost the entire run.

There were a few scenes I enjoyed - Don and Betty's call, Sally and Bobby, Peggy and Pete, but it just felt so disjointed and off to me otherwise.

I still love the show and its still my favorite show of all time, and I don't really see it getting surpassed.

What the heck is this? I don't remember this at all... Can someone refresh?

Agree. And I enjoyed those scenes thoroughly. I mean, Betty and Don on that phone call...holy moly that was emotional.

But again, I didn't need it to help finish the story of Betty from the prior week. I especially didn't need it just to be 3 extra minutes of screen time just so she can say "don't come back, continue to not see your children and not care, please do this in memory of me."

Had the plot decided to take us back to NY, her funeral, etc. in the finale, I would have been fine with it or however. But just a scene between them just to have a scene in the finale seemed a bit off. But damn if it wasn't emotional anyway.

Stan and Peggy's relationship has been a deepening friendship the past few years, in a very real and relatable way. They developed a very intimate way of interacting the way "work spouses" do. The final scene was total fan service and I couldn't care less - loved it.

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Until 1985, when Peggy, now the top creative director at ME, comes up with New Coke. And she finally gets that campaign that makes her famous and recognized.

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See , I can totally envision Peggy in that meeting imploring Coke not to change the recipe.

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What the heck is this? I don't remember this at all... Can someone refresh?

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I can't even tell who's in that photo. Is that Joan? I do remember her husband raping her, but other than that, I don't know.

Is it when he had the fever dream that he choked a girl and hid her body under his bed? Looks like promo art, and that is never actual scenes from the show.

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What the heck is this? I don't remember this at all... Can someone refresh?

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I feel like that was in a dream he had.

I guess a greatness of the show is that it can create such diverse emotions and opinions.
This:

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The ending on the bus bench in the penultimate seemed such a perfect series ender,

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For me, that would have completely ruined the entire series. Not exaggerating. I thought that episode was terrible. Poorly written and not a "Mad Men" at all. Where as you think the opposite.