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It’s the end of an era...
though splitting the seventh season of Matthew Weiner’s sublimely subtle Mad Men in two will always feel like a misstep, disrupting the precise rhythms of its storytelling, its final episodes dovetail into an unexpectedly heartfelt ending. The question has been whether haunted, self-destructive ad man Don Draper ( Jon Hamm) is capable of change, and Weiner’s ending leaves this on an ambiguous note that’s both triumphant and fittingly cynical.
Picking up in the early ’70s, the first couple of episodes falter, with the meandering and clunky ‘New Business’ – in which Don becomes obsessed with a mysterious waitress (Elizabeth Reaser) in the wake of his latest divorce – marking a worrying series low. But things improve dramatically from that point onwards, a compelling and surreal sense of dread building as Sterling Cooper & Partners begins to splinter, and Don leaves New York behind for a Kerouacesque spiritual road trip.
Weiner knows his characters inside out and pays them all off in spades, with Vincent Kartheiser’s flawed Pete and Christina Hendricks’ frustrated Joan showing startling growth. Having been ill-served for seasons on end, January Jones’ Betty is granted an ending that’s as redemptive as it is tragic. And though separating Don from the rest of the cast could have been disastrous, it only adds weight to series finale ‘Person To Person’, which sees him embracing the past he’s been running from all along. The golden age of television will continue past Mad Men’s end, but its singular blend of lovingly crafted characters, wry writing and meticulous visual storytelling will
Emma Dibdin be sorely missed. Extras › Commentaries › Featurettes