What Do We Do Now? Coming to Terms with the End of an Era

The great big nostalgic horse pill we were all forced to swallow back in 2007 has finally passed through our system and we are left empty inside. Because while it inhabited every part of our beings for a good 7 seasons, life was good.  No matter how shitty your shitty, shitty life was, you knew that on Sunday night you could come home, or go to someone else's house dressed in a girdle and bright red dress and come together to watch a show that took us on so any twists and turns, the writers from LOST were dizzy. 

People (or haters) would say of Mad Men that it was long, boring, whatever fuck all of them. It's only so on the surface to those who read buzzfeed articles instead of news and have the attention span of a fruit fly. I'm sorry but this is a show that you actually have to sit down and devote 50 minutes a week to, with your fucking computer closed, your phone off, and a glass of wine in your hand. Yes it commands your attention only because it tells of the nature of man better than anything else TV has offered, yes better than Breaking Bad, yes better than The Wire, with characters more akin to the real nature of humanity than any actual person in the Reality TV cannon. 

All those in favor of a Sally Draper spin-off raise your hands. 

We all wanted to hate the characters on Mad Men because they could be vile, vicious, unforgiving, and constantly made mistakes. And we eventually realized, hey that's all of us. And what do the characters on Mad Men do? They just keep going...well except for (Spoiler Alert) Lane. RIP. 

And despite everything that life deals us that we believe to be unfair, we survive, and we overcome, even if the outcome is not exactly what we expected, we roll with the punches. Have I used up all of my life cliche's yet? Oh I have? Ok moving on. 

For a show so dark it ended on such a beautiful and lyrical positive note that we were all left teary messes, well at least maybe the girls. Perhaps what was most beautiful about it was the simplicity of it all. Unlike most season finale's, this was like 'what you see is what you get'. If you haven't watched the finale yet, you've probably read the insane amount of articles that came out analyzing it. Or reflecting on it, or crying tears all over their keyboard. In the end, it boils down to the following: The last 5 minutes of the show tell us that no matter how hard the journey is and has been for every principal from Peggy to Pete to of course Don, there is a time and place that they eventually find peace. It doesn't matter who wrote the coca-cola commercial (Don, not Peggy); what matters is that we as much as we don't want to, can leave these characters, and say goodbye graciously. Bravo Mad Men writers. 

The fabulous and simplistic symbolism of the falling man from every Mad Men intro still holds resonance. 

Ok Spoilers! 

Yes they killed off like some of my favorite people or nixed them from the show; Sal, Lane, Betty (yes I like Betty more than any woman on the show, yes she's not dead yet but she's told in the second to last episode that she has months to go), Paul up to a point, and poor Ginsburg with one nipple. And yes, people that were once endearing are complete a-holes right now; Megan, Pete, and even Peggy. But that's life isn't it. We can't always have great people in our lives, more importantly we can't always BE great people. That's the ultimate lesson isn't it. I read an article someone posted about how Mad Men understands our humanity better than any other show before or since. This is very true. And it's fascinating in its simplicity. We are flawed. Period. We have ups and downs. We have moments of great success and terrible turmoil. Some float and some sink. This is just life. No matter whom you thought you related to the most and who was your spirit animal you have to admit you could relate to anyone. I saw myself in Mrs. Blankenship for chrissake. 

Goodbye my friends.

Anyway, what do we do now? I think it's going to be hard for AMC to catch lightening in a bottle like that. One that was so brilliantly thought through, acted, and executed. This really was the beginning of the renaissance of TV...and now it's all over. I suppose we can go back to living our lives. But at least now we know what goes into an old fashioned. And how to be drunk and not give a fuck. More importantly how to climb that shaky ladder full of dirty protruding nails called life that manifests itself on the show as Sterling Cooper/Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce/ to eventually McCann Erikson. Whether you're a Peggy a Joan or a Pete...you never know what's in store for you. And whatever happens. It'll be ok. 

Below: The finale: 

Below: The very first trailer for the first season oh how things have changed.

Who Run the World? Nerds!

(L to R) Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis and Lee Pace look out of their clandestine offices at IBM representatives who invade their territory with a mixture of defiance and intimidation.

So the highly anticipated series on AMC that's not Mad Men or Breaking Bad premiered this past Sunday. Halt and Catch Fire tells the almost unknown technology story of tenacious and rebellious renegades in the 'Silicon Prairie' a decade before Silicon Valley ever crystallized as the center of the technology revolution, that stole IBM's flagship product; the PC, to basically create some of the most important innovations in the field birthing the Dell computer, and without whom we'd all be staring at a black IBM screen typing in green face letters. I exaggerate, but we'd definitely not be as technologically evolved. 

Speaking for myself I was so relieved to watch the premiere of a new AMC show without immediately thinking; 'well this is pretentious'. Let's face it people, AMC has a weird streak of broadcasting good material on its viewers and then letting it fall into bleakness, pretentiousness, and mediocrity...am I right Breaking Bad? But this series, promises to be new and different, exciting and incendiary, sexually charged and spy-thrillery, throughout, and yes all of that came through just in the pilot. Not to mention how refreshing it is to wax nostalgic about the 80's rather than the 60's.

I wish I could tell you there was a love story between these two characters; Joe and Cameron, but it's more of a hate-sex thing. It's much better!

Faux-rebellious protagonists who turn anti-heroes because of blind ambition like Don Draper and Walter White are out. This show focuses on desperate people with nothing to lose and an enormous thirst for power, legacy, and entitlement. The three protagonists could not be more different from one another nor from any protagonists in scripted television right now. Though they may have certain familiar quirks and characteristics, they are fundamentally unique, and we have the writers and actors playing them to thank for this.

Lee Pace as Joe MacMillan; the ring leader.

Joe MacMillan (played by Lee Pace) seems like your typical 80's yuppie. He drives a cool car, wears a sharp suit, blow dries is hair, and always has something elitist to say to his 'lessers'. But he's not everything he appears to be. Even though he's what's commonly known as a 'closer', he can't seem to catch a break. Sure his job pays well but no one really takes him seriously when his ambition gets the better of him. He might have the appearance of a staunch business man, but he wants more. And the way to get it is to do it his own way and circumvent those standing between him and ultimate power. 

Scoot McNairy as Gordon Clark; the 'brain' and most of the time, the voice of reason.

Gordon Clark (played by Scoot McNairy) is basically his polar opposite. Thin and physically inferior with huge glasses and a face-masking beard, he's the 'misunderstood genius'. There was a time when he had brilliant ideas, but his dreams were crushed, along with his self-confidence when he tried to build his own computer with his wife which turned out to be a pyrotechnic disaster. No one ever took him seriously again until Joe offers him a new means of recognition; not to build a computer from the ground up but to reverse-engineer the IBM computer and make it their own. It's hilghly illegal, and yet extremely titillating. Where would we be today if innovation ideas weren't pirated and nuanced to make that particular product better?

Brilliant Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis as Cameron Howe; the rebel.

And then there's Cameron Howe (played by Mackenzie Davis). Is she ever a loose cannon, and she perfectly rounds out this trifecta of brilliant thieves. She's her own kind of rebel, outwardly and aesthetically punk, extroverted, and defiant, inwardly an enormous genius for someone her age (I'm guessing she's about 21-22 considering she admits she's a college dropout). She's beautiful and spunky and doesn't take shit from anybody. She doesn't belong within a 5 mile radius of an office building, but when called upon by Joe to work on the reverse-engineering plan, she jumps to the opportunity considering all that's on the horizon is 'repairing VCR's for 3.25 an hour'. 

Two enormous egos battle for their time in the harsh glare of the tech spotlight.

The three formulate a plan to take down the biggest and only computer company in existence, but are soon met with opposition not to mention their mutual hate and resentment of each other. There's sexual tension basically everywhere, and if this show teaches us anything it's this: 1) Don't live in Dallas. 2) Be bold and do whatever the fuck you want even when everyone tells you not to, because that's how great people become great. I'm on board AMC, thank you for redeeming yourself with really enthralling material for a change. I have high hopes for this show, I can't wait for the next episode, and it's been a while since I cancelled plans for TV. This is the story never told, and the story we've suddenly become fascinated with thanks to The Social Network (2010). It has a unique point of view, and shed new light on a quiet revolution that happened behind locked doors and curtained windows. It takes a million artistic liberties but who cares? It's not on The History Channel. 

Trailer below: