Mad About ‘Mad Men’ season 7, episode 11: Is Don’s time ticking away?
Sunday night’s new episode of “Mad Men” could either be one of two things for Don Draper: The beginning of the end, or a new beginning. The ball really is in his court on this one, even if it may seem like he is at the mercy of someone else in Jim Hobart.
The first thing that Don needs to realize in the wake of Mccann finally owning both him and the firm he helped build is simple: This is not the world for him anymore. Maybe it never was. There were only so many times that he could come up with last-minute schemes to save money and keep his workplace from bring swallowed up. Capitalism is an angry beast sometimes, and regardless of however much Matthew Weiner kept the little-guy facade going for SC&P, he delivered a chilling message during “Time & Life”: More often than not, the little guy winning is really just delaying the inevitable takeover.
Whether or not Don decides to work for this institution now is his choice, but there is zero doubt in our mind he will be miserable there. He has always excelled thanks to creative freedom, otherwise known as being able to pull a great thought out of an extremely dark place. It made up for his indiscretions, the drinking, and the occasional botched pitch that nearly screwed everyone over. That creative freedom is going to be done. While Weiner may be smart to not ever show Don literally falling out of a window a la the theme song, this is pretty darn close to the same thing.
Or, Don could decide now to leave all of this behind, that there is no point fighting a losing battle. Maybe he could realize that all of the time and effort he has spent building this life has gotten him nowhere. He just sold an empty apartment, he has two ex-wives, and his children are not huge fans of him. One of his closest friends is Roger Sterling, a guy sleeping with his ex-wife’s mother. Another tried to sleep with said ex-wife in return for business services.
We always want to be the optimist, and thanks to that, we would so much prefer to see Don take the second path. Unfortunately, this is not always a show that looks at change as a realistic possibility. Do we really think that Don is going to wake up Sunday night feeling like a new man, ready to take on new challenges? It feels unlikely.
Every Saturday / early Sunday we publish a new “Mad About Mad Men” piece to get some additional perspective on what has transpired on the series, and what could be coming up.
Eileen
May 3, 2015 @ 10:14 pm
Joan: When last seen, Joan was freaking because she was the only partner who wasn’t offered a client by the giant ad agency that ate our heroes. Her interpretation was that they weren’t going to ever take her seriously at the new agency. I think the opposite is going to play out. It’s 1970 and Joan is in the catbird seat. Joan is a woman who made partner at an advertising agency. My bet is that the corporate monster wants to use her to market to a massive number of clients who are under increasing pressure to have a woman in a position of influence and who can be played by an agency that has a woman in an important position. My bet is that Joan is going to be offered it all: a major role at a major agency and a permanent romantic partner who is everything any woman could dream of. That is going to suck as bad as anything Joan has had to deal with before – and I think she’s going to choose the business, not the romance. She may rationalize that she’s paving the way for women like Peggy to follow her but I think Joan is going to discover that if she can indulge her drive for success that is what she’s going to go after.