SPOILER ALERT: There's a jump.

May 10, 2015 1:48 PM

Matt Weiner provides an exclusive clip of Mad Men's series finale on Conan.
posted by ourt (20 comments total)

Would be funnier if they had dropped a ham.
posted by Pendragon at 2:05 PM on May 10, 2015 [14 favorites]

There are a lot of ways it could have been funnier. So very many ways.

(Here's the clip on YouTube for anyone who doesn't feel like visiting some random third-party content-leeching website...besides MetaFilter.)
posted by Sys Rq at 2:11 PM on May 10, 2015

Yeah, spoilers for the spoiler: It's not funny. Not even a little bit.
posted by Frayed Knot at 2:14 PM on May 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

I was expecting the clip Conan runs whenever Paul Rudd appears for an interview.
posted by hellojed at 2:16 PM on May 10, 2015 [6 favorites]

DON
I'm not who you think I am,
Peggy. In fact, I'm kind of
a... mad man.

He lights a cigarette.

FADE TO BLACK.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:34 PM on May 10, 2015 [9 favorites]

Would be funnier if they had dropped a ham.

Even funnier if Weiner had done that bit on Letterman's show instead.
posted by fuse theorem at 3:02 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

Both the acting and the writing on Mad Men is great. The time jumps are always handled artfully--he asks a lot of his viewers, I think, and I find his characterization quite subtle. Which is why this clip is at all funny, because it's the cartoony ending a lot of viewers have been expecting (you wouldn't believe some of the ridiculous theories on reddit about how it will end.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:28 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Blame where blame is due, spitbull (and I largely agree with you): Splitting this last season was AMC's doing, not Weiner's. Weiner didn't want to do it, but wasn't give a choice.
posted by Frayed Knot at 3:32 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

I was expecting the clip Conan runs whenever Paul Rudd appears for an interview.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:31 PM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

One of things I've grown to really appreciate about Mad Men is how shot through with the uncanny and mysterious and mannered it is and how they refuse to acknowledge that. if I can quote myself it's "a macabre show that refuses to show us the goods." which results in whole seasons of strange unbearable tension about things that, if you just described them, would seem pointlessly trival. Someone wears a dress, a pennant is pinned to the wall, a party goes awkwardly. It's almost comically restrained, so when it does break free into these odd little bursts it feels like THE UNIVERSE IS UNRAVELLING.

Like anyone can make cults and chanting and stag heads seem errie, Mad Men has built up enough mood while staying doggedly uplowkey and "everyday" that a lunch with friends can feel like a hostile alien encounter..
posted by The Whelk at 4:58 PM on May 10, 2015 [17 favorites]

THE ORGAN IS DIAGETIC!

/spookywoos
posted by Artw at 5:00 PM on May 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

Heh, I actually thought that the organ was a great bit of acknowledgement of how soap operatic the show can be. Because for a minute, you think PEGGY MIGHT SEE DON'S GHOST! But no, sometimes an organ is just an organ.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:05 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not even Roger's usual organ.
posted by The Whelk at 5:14 PM on May 10, 2015 [6 favorites]

the most understandable dismissals I've heard of Madmen are that the characters just aren't likable; that spending so much time with them just gets unbearable. Fair enough. I came to feel the same about Breaking Bad. But I never suggested it wasn't rather brilliantly mounted.
posted by philip-random at 6:02 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, that was bad. Really bad.

My favorite thing about Mad Men is how the first 3 episodes of every season are a tiresome drama, and the last 3 episodes are a witty, rollicking comedy.
posted by bleep at 6:18 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Normally I don't buy into stupid internet fan theories, but having looked at all the facts and the clues that Matthew Weiner has consciously or unconsciously hidden in plain sight, I think it is *very* possible that Don Draper disappears only to change his identity once again and become DL Hughley.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 6:55 PM on May 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

[INT. LA GUARDIA — Don Draper, visibly harried and on little sleep, slumps at a TWA counter, his soul heavy with the knowledge that he just walked out on the opportunity of a lifetime while pitching Nabisco.]

Ticket clerk: will that be smoking or non-smoking, Mister....

Don: uh...Fudge. (He pushes his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose) E.L. Fudge.

[roll credits]
posted by Senor Cardgage at 7:14 PM on May 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure the series ends with him picking a different alliterative alias and buying a radio news station.
posted by ckape at 7:15 PM on May 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've always liked our very own Whelk's Mad Men conspiracy theory.
posted by sparkletone at 3:19 AM on May 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure the series ends with him picking a different alliterative alias and buying a radio news station.

Matthew: Let me get straight to the question that's on everyone's mind: Mr. James, are you Doobie Keebler?
posted by oakroom at 6:23 AM on May 11, 2015