Thursday, June 27, 2013

What I’m Watching: Mad Men (Season Finale)


Mad Men: Season 6, Episode 13 “In Care Of” (A-)

It’s hard to believe that this season is over already, but what a monumental way to close out the year. The season five finale was dramatic enough, but nothing compares to this in terms of pure shock value. Don expressing his desire to move to California to start over and actually preparing with Megan to go out there was entirely unexpected and uncharacteristic, and he really tanked his own career when he brought up his whorehouse orphan past in the middle of a meeting with a client. Appointing Ted as his California emissary after initially telling him that he couldn’t go was his one act of charity, but to have all the partners, including his dear friend Roger, vote against him to force him to take a few months off is a sign of things being inescapably bad. Running into Duck on the way out was an enormous final blow. Both Megan and Peggy were rightfully furious with the flip-flopping nature of the men in their lives, and it’s going to be hard for either of those relationships to work going forward. Don taking his kids to see where he grew up – prompting an expression of “This is a bad area” from Bobby – was a subtle, quiet way of closing out a busy season. I don’t think this was the best season of this show, but it was certainly strong, with a handful of great episodes and some other perfectly satisfactory ones. There’s no show quite like this on the air, and it will be greatly missed in between seasons.

Season grade: A-
Season MVP: Who wasn’t great? Too hard a question for the moment.

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