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“No man has ever come back from leave. Even Napoleon. He staged a coup, but he ended up back on that island.”

Spoken by Bert Cooper, those words were the only substantial reference to Napoleon in the midseason finale of Mad Men’s seventh and final season, titled “Waterloo” — but the question is, in this AMC drama, who exactly is our Napoleon?

The battle of Waterloo in 1815 saw the end of Napoleon’s reign as a political and military heavyweight. Following his defeat in Waterloo, Napoleon lived out the short remaining years of his life in isolation on Saint Helena. In Mad Men, some may consider Cutler, the now easy-to-hate SC&P exec, the Napoleon of the midseason finale — his heartless reaction to Cooper’s sudden death and unwavering intent to do away with Don fell apart in “Waterloo” when Roger announced plans to allow competitor ad firm McCann to acquire a 51% stake in the company, thereby keeping Don on board at the firm. All of Cutler’s efforts to oust Don — including sending Don a breach of contract letter from the SC&P attorney — did not come together. Cutler’s reign and mission to decimate Don, it appears, are now over.

But Cooper was not comparing Cutler to Napoleon in his quote. Rather, he was comparing Don, one of the shrewdest businessmen at SC&P. Could the plans for McCann to acquire SC&P be one of Don’s biggest coups yet? The acquisition saves his standing at the firm, hands him a 5-year contract, and generously pads his (and all the other partners’) pockets. And if Don really is our Napoleon in Mad Men, that means his Waterloo moment has not yet arrived.

At the end of the series run, will Don end up alone on the island again? In isolation and on the brink of death?

(“Waterloo” also featured Roger noting that any man who starts talking about Napoleon is going to die soon — while Roger was referencing some of Cooper’s final words, one cannot help but wonder if this was also Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s cheeky nod to himself and the sunset of the series.)

The optimism at SC&P at the end of “Waterloo” felt hollow — and surreal. McCann will acquire SC&P; Don is back in the driver’s seat at his job; Peggy won the Burger Chef campaign; the partners are about to be a hell of a lot richer. Don wanders back downstairs to his office following his coup only to have a hallucination where Cooper, flanked by dancers, does a campy performance of “The Best Things in Life Are Free.”

The vision brings confused tears to Don’s eyes — if the best things in life, like the moon and stars (continuously referenced in “Waterloo”), are free, what is to be said about the greed that drove the partners at SC&P to pursue an acquisition by one of their most hated rivals? Sure, Don saved his job, but the same cannot be said of other realms of his life — his marriage to Megan seems to have ended with a single phone call in “Waterloo,” and his relationship with his children is still distant at best. Betty refers to Don flippantly as a “bad boyfriend” from her past now. Perhaps Don more than anyone understood, as phantom Cooper danced before him, the true cost of things in life.

“Waterloo” closed with an undercurrent of uncertainty, as we are left to wonder where the Mad Men characters are headed during their final seven episodes, slated to air next spring.Navigation and travel were two themes present throughout the episode, whether the travel was to Indiana, Newark, the moon, or even death, in Cooper’s case. Much of “Waterloo” was focused on the lunar landing, which brought numerous Mad Men characters (many of whom previously feuded) to gather around their TV sets to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk across the moon. (Sally kissing a nerdy boy named Neal instead of the brutish jock after seeing the North Star through a telescope was one of the more nuanced “navigation” moments in “Waterloo.”)

Peggy uses the lunar landing to navigate her inspiration for the tweaked Burger Chef pitch. In her pitch that won the company over as a new SC&P client, she states that the gathering of families and friends around TVs to watch the astronauts land on the moon was proof that people are “hungry” for not just dinner, but connection. She states that she understands the home dinner table — with a television set six feet away — is the “battlefield” for Burger Chef, one her campaign will help Burger Chef conquer.

The irony, of course, is the hindsight we have in 2014 when it comes to Peggy’s hopeful comments about conquering the battlefield that is TV in front of the dinner table — today, we now dine while glued to our TVs, smartphones and computers, detached from the people around us. Burger Chef and Peggy’s optimistic ad campaign could stage a coup and drive families to connect more, but we all eventually ended up back on that island decades later, starving for something other than dinner, alone. The battlefield coup can only stave off the future for so long.

Celebration ensued when the astronauts landed on the moon in “Waterloo,” but the fretful question on many of the characters’ minds as they watched the lunar landing is, “Will the astronauts make it back?” Ted has his own pessimistic view — while flying Sunkist clients around in his plane, he remarks, “Maybe [the astronauts] won’t make it. All of their problems will be over.” Then, as a macabre joke, Ted cuts the engine to his plane, sending the Sunkist execs into a panic. Others remain cautiously hopeful that the astronauts will return back to Earth, safe and sound.

In a way, the lunar landing mirrored the midseason finale for Mad Men — optimistic, awe-inspiring, but a journey only half complete. Now, we wait for the return mission. Now, we set off to complete this voyage we’ve watched unfold on television sets since Mad Men’s debut in 2007. The fear of losing those we watch on TV, like the fear experienced by those watching the lunar landing in ’69, is still bright for fans of Mad Men. Will these characters make it back? Will Don survive? "Waterloo" was one small step in the drama's seven-season run, but one giant leap towards the approaching end.

Source:

mashable.com

At this point on Mad Men, Don Draper isn't inspiring any of his co-workers or family members.

But Leah Umansky finds a lot to love about the character — so much that she just published a chapbook of poetry inspired by the AMC drama.

Umansky, a poet whose works have appeared in Poetry magazine, Tin House and other publications, is the author of Don Dreams and I Dream(Kattywompus Press). With titles like In My Next Life, I Want to Be an Ad Man and Don Discovered America, it's a fun read for those of us who can't wait for the final season to start Sunday.

I talked to Leah about the project, and she was kind enough to let me share one of her poems:

I can understand someone being inspired to write one poem about Mad Men, but you've published a whole book! What about the show inspires you so much?

I really love Don. To be honest, I think what really hooked me was the language. Don is not only sexy, but he's smart. What draws people to him? It's his confidence, yes, and his authority, yes, but it's really his word choice and his delivery.

I just read that new interview with (series creator) Matthew Weiner in The Paris Review and discovered that he's a poet. His senior thesis was on poetry, and it was one of the few things he excelled in as a student. We both have that love for emotion, intensity and precision in language.

Do you have a favorite episode or scene from Mad Men?

I loved when Don and Rachel planned to run away together. That was a great episode, because Don finally found someone who truly got him.

Another favorite is the one I wrote about in my poem The Times. (Note: Scroll down to read it.) In Season 5 when Peggy gives her notice, there is such a tender moment between her and Don. I remember crying for Don — he was losing Peggy, but I also remember being so proud of Peggy.

Additionally, in Season 5, when the partners convince Joan to sleep with a big client so that they can get his business, Don's true colors show. He goes to Joan's house, even though it's out of his way and they aren't exactly "friends" at work, and he tells her not to do it. Sure, he's macho and he's sexy, sleek and manipulative, but what I really love about Don is when he's a good-hearted man.

You've also written Game of Thrones poetry. (Read it here.) Does pop culture inspire a lot of your work?

I've written Mad Men poems and Game of Thrones poems, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would. With that said, I love it. I love that sometimes my poems gorge on pop culture. I love the bridge it connects to the circles outside of my small world of writers.

I've always been a fan of pop culture, but on a serious note, at the end of the day, we are all consumers of our 21st century pop-culture world. We consume a constant diet of savory media, and we are inundated with images, slogans and ideas, whether we realize it or not. But we are also salespeople. We each sell our experience of living in this world. I do it through my poetry. Television does it through great writing and great characters.

Excerpt form Don Dreams and I Dream by Leah Umansky:

The Times

When Don puts on the Revolver LP it is like I'm back in my
childhood bedroom asserting that it is not the 1990's. When
the Beatles terrorize his penthouse apartment, I wish I
could sit on his lap and sing to him.

Don says, "Having a dream is admirable."

He can drink all he wants, as long as when "And Your Bird
Can Sing" comes on he promises to dance. Whiskey could do
the trick. Those Drapers are pretty predictable. Drapers do
whatever they want. Even if Don is an "ideas man," he knows
better than to say no to a woman.

Don says, "I was raised in the 30's. My dream was indoor
plumbing."

Megan says, "Don, You're everything I dreamed."

Let's not talk about my dreams...

I thought I'd hate Don, like everyone else, but I don't.
I long for him the way kids long for the turning of
the Ice Cream Man. I hear that elevator door DING
and I rise on up.

Sure, he's troubled like the rest of them, but beneath that
designer suit is a good, strong man. He's a warrior.
He treats Joan like she came out of that goddamn Trojan Horse
with the soldiers, all woman, all beauty and all power-hungry
as hell. She's everything a man is and more. Don can't plead
with Joan; she's a woman who's ready to kill her darlings.

I know advertising is based on moments, but so is life. Don has
changed this moment for me.

When Don falls asleep on Peggy's lap, you can feel the
continents shift. He almost tells her she's beautiful, but
doesn't, which is good, because she doesn't need that from
him. When her number's called, she gets gone.

When she gives her notice, he takes her hand like she is
royalty. He is tender and sensual. It is almost erotic
in the way he lingers there in the twilight of her moment.
She is rejecting him and he won't let go of her hand.
She feels his lips, not on her face, but on the top of her
hand; her fingers; and her nails.

He is proud of her; she's her own glory now. She's got the
guns and the ammo, but inside, I bet he's thinking:
I've created a monster.

Peggy resists all the clichés and wraps herself in strength.
She takes Don on in a way that children learn how to fight
back tears.

This is tough-love at its finest.

It's a man's world, but not for all of us.

Source:

www.usatoday.com

Will Betty and Don Draper get back together?

“Probably not,” Jon Hamm told an audience of “Mad Men” fans during Friday night’s Paleyfest panel at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater reports Variety.

But, for the most part, the appearing castmembers, which also included Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss, remained mum on exactly what happens when the first half of the final season of AMC’s Emmy-winning skein bows on April 13. The conversation, moderated by TV Guide’s Michael Schneider, ranged from the actors’ feelings of loss as production on the final seven episodes begins next week to favorite moments from the past eight years to the show’s trademark moments of silence between characters that say so much.

“I think some of us know where our characters are going to be,” said Hamm. “I don’t think any of us know what the scope or the entire body of the show is going to be. The way the show doles out information and tells the story is very oblique sometimes and I think that when people become really invested in the show they try to fill in the blanks.”

One thing that’s clear is that for Hamm, who for the past seven years has played the enigmatic, alcoholic Draper, the impending finale won’t be easily suffered.

“We’re in some phase of grief right now and it’s probably denial,” he revealed. “There’s nothing we can do to prepare for it. It just is. We just need to have as much fun as we can making the show until we can’t make it anymore. And that will be emotional, but it’s inevitable. Saying goodbye is part of life.”

“It’s difficult,” agreed Robert Morse, who plays crusty ad firm partner Bertram Cooper. “There’s an empty feeling because you are used to seven years of being together and being the best you can and all of a sudden it’s over and you walk around the house and you put the Celtics game on and you’re not going to go to work next Tuesday. And we’re going to miss it. And it’s something we all have to adjust to it and yet you grapple with it.”

For 14 year-old Kiernan Shipka, who was cast in the role of Draper’s daughter Sally when she was six, her experience on the show represents not just a career milestone, but a marking of her entire adolescence.

“I’ve been on the show longer than I haven’t, which is weird to think about but it’s true,” said Shipka.  “To not know what Sally is going to be up to anymore is going to be sad.”

While Hamm isn’t savvy to the “definitive end of the show,” he did hint at Don spending this last season continuing to wrestle with the myriad emotional and marital setbacks that have plagued him in prior years.

“We’ve obviously seen Don have personal struggles in various parts of his life over the course of the show — trouble with his ex-wife and his kids — and the one constant has been work,” he said. “And now at the end of season six, we see that his marriage is in trouble, his relationship with his kids is tricky at best and now work is not there. And that’s going to be a hurdle. But one overriding principle of Don is that he’s a survivor. He rises to the challenge.”

Jessica Paré, who plays Draper’s soap opera actress wife, Megan, and Moss, who plays the career-driven copywriter Peggy Olsen, spoke of how their characters help personify the rise of the 1960’s feminist icon.

“It’s a time where feminism is sort of bubbling up in the culture and Megan takes it for granted that she can have everything — a career, a family and a husband who loves her and supports her,” notes the Canadian-born Pare.  “And Don wants to be that man, he wants her to have what she wants as well, but it’s not an easy switch to flip.”

“[Peggy’s] battle all along has been: Would she be Don? Should she be Joan? Should she be someone’s wife or someone’s mother?” explained Moss. “I don’t think she’s figured it out yet but she’s starting to ask the right question, which is: Who am I? I think she’s finally figuring out that her role is to be who she is.”

Hendricks’ Joan Harris, who began her “Mad Men” journey as a bombshell secretary and has since become a single mom and formidable ad firm partner, will “absolutely find her place” in the final episodes.

“She’s making it happen on her own and sharing her feelings and emotions about it,” said Hendricks. “She’s gauging where her strengths are. Ultimately, Joan is a protector and nurturer and she is figuring out the best way to take care of her son and to protect her family.”

The cast, itself, has become a family, said Moss, “hanging out together” on and off set, and when the time comes for that one final shot there’s a certain special moment she’ll be clinging to forever.

“It was back when were wrapping the pilot and we were looking out at the New York skyline and the sun had just set and it was so beautiful,” the actress wistfully recalled, “and I thought, ‘Well, that was really wonderful and I hope we get to do it again.’”

Source:

www.foxnews.com