“This agency has entered the future.”
The actual dismantling of the Creative Lounge is pretty much the perfect encapsulation of not only Don’s crisis, but also of the state of SC&P. Gone are the days of pitches and gone is the essence of true advertising, replaced by fancy computers as the walls metaphorically crumble around Don. Essentially, the new world of advertising breeds fear.
“Okay.”
Don Draper is paying for his actions. He’s suffering. He’s humiliated. Yet, at the same time, he’s not. “Field Trip” is a moving, compelling episode of television that effortlessly transitions into a new power situation, and it’s yet another installment in a final season that’s shaping up to be brilliant.
“Just write the truth.”
In our modern world–but especially in our business world–power plays an essential role in how we structure our offices, how we deal with clients and move up in the ladder and make our money. That is at the forefront of the proceedings at SC&P: although we may win our small victories, as Bonnie Whiteside says, “our fortunes are in other people’s hands”.
“She knows I’m a terrible husband.”
As we move into the final season of Mad Men, our characters are being stripped down to their most basic parts; no longer do they have anything to hide, for try as they might, they can’t stop the world from spinning and losing them in the shuffle. A sense of exhaustion permeates the atmosphere in “Time Zones”, one that portrays a group of people who’ve been stuck before and are stuck now.
In just one of the steps leading up to a world in which every single TV season is split into two, yet is called one season, AMC has decided to split Mad Men’s final season in two. AMC executives reportedly spent about 6 seconds deliberating, then made this decision while rolling in piles of money and giggling like little schoolchildren. In a statement read to the press, AMC president Ilike Money announced, “Because we’re AMC and our new shows suck, we’ve decided to do this because we don’t like sucking. We also like Emmys.” AMC will spend the next couple years holding onto Mad Men as they drown in a sea of mediocrity, and will probably renew “The Walking Dead”, and its spinoff, for at least 36 more seasons.
Each half-season will consist of 7 episodes, with the first batch titled “The Beginning” and the second batch titled “The End of an Era”. So, the first batch will presumably be just a bunch of clip shows of Don Draper as a kid, frolicking around in a whorehouse while gaping at naked women. The second batch will consist of seven episodes of Matthew Weiner feeding his child, Ego.
“We plan to take advantage of this chance to have a more elaborate story told in two parts, which can resonate a little bit longer in the minds of our audience,” Weiner said, in a statement that makes no sense because they could’ve easily just have slapped “The beginning of the end of an era” on the final season and told an elaborate story that resonated in the minds of their audience. This is a show that usually takes a couple episodes to really get going, so by the time each really gets going, we’ll already be at the finale.
Anyway, I guess it’s time to speculate who’s going to end up on the toilet in Season 7A’s finale. Or, maybe an army of Bob Bensons will destroy everyone before we can get a chance to say goodbye.
Or, maybe Jon Hamm will finally get that Emmy he deserves.
“Not a chance.” -Emmy voters
Credit to AMC and Mad Men for all pictures. I own nothing.
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