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That was back at the start of the season, when, as usual, the showseemed to be more about setting a mood than telling a story. BeforeLane killed himself, that is, and Joan prostituted herself, andPeggy found herself another job. Back when there seemed there mightbe some small, outside chance unlikely, but not impossible that Don Draper could be happy. If viewers took anything away from Sunday's season finale of AMC'sprize-winning drama, it's that conventional happiness is probablynot going to be Don's lot. How could it be, when he leaves hiswife, Megan, as she shoots the commercial he won for her and walksinto a bar, where the episode ends before he can answer thecrucial, final question: "Are you alone?" In other shows, that might seem tragic. On Mad Men , the tragedy is tempered by the show's sometimes subtle butpersistent implication that if Don's unhappy, it's because hedeserves to be. As The Sopranos did with Tony, Mad Men often goes out of its way to remind us that this man who can seemso charming and is unquestionably attractive, is not a nice person,or even a real one. He's a self-invention, a man who knows how tosell people what they want, but is too cut off from himself to givethem what they need. Certainly Don had more than his share of personal problems for thefinale. Confronted by Lane's bitter widow, called to task by hisdismissive mother-in-law, conflicted over the status of hismarriage (as witness the subplot about the abscess he resistshaving removed), Don's only sweet encounter with a woman comes whenhe unexpectedly runs into Peggy in a movie theater. And even thatmeeting ended on a sad note though not for viewers, who were nodoubt relieved to see Elisabeth Moss back, at least for the season ender. Once again this season, Don's personal problems were mirrored byPete's another man seeking to reinvent himself with a new wife,though unfortunately not his own. The story did overreach a bit:Having Pete's adultery end with Beth having him electro-shocked outof her memory seemed more '50s movie melodrama than '60s reality,and having Pete get beat up again, and not once, but twice, seemedlike overkill. Yet there's no doubt that Pete and Vincent Kartheiser , the fine actor who plays him, have come into their own thisseason, as Pete's growing success and assertiveness at work haveonly underscored his personal failures and his lack of socialskills. So where do we leave them? The firm is doing well so well, thatit's about to move into bigger quarters and yet there was apersistent foreboding note, sometimes ironically played. (The use,for example, of You Only Live Twice as a closing theme.) As for where the characters leave us, mostlikely emotions are mixed: Sad to see them go, a bit worried thattheir show is starting to feel a bit self-consciously weird andclaustrophobic, and yet eager to have them back. It may not have been the best season of Mad Men, and the show may not be able to hold its place on top of the Emmyranks not with Breaking Bad and Homeland pushing up against it. But "best" for Mad Men is an incredibly high standard to reach, considering the bar theshow has set for itself and every other drama on TV. Let's settle for "great," and leave the season at that. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Silicone Baking Gloves , Silicone Baking Mat for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Silicone Baking Moulds.
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