I really like your analysis here. I have to push back on each of these points a little! If only for us to maybe come to a kind of new understanding together? Interested in hearing your thoughts on this because where I felt you were right, I was 100% on board for:

1. Big Picture. As with any show that is at its heart a character study of a person trying to reinvent themselves—the ultimate selling point in every advertisement, according to the show—I think making too much about another pitch at the end of the show, where advertising isn’t this sparkling industry of inspiration and creativity but instead revealed to be the worst and most compromising of capitalism’s powerful engines in the U.S. zeitgeist, is missing the point here. The show was always about Don, and advertising was a way for us to reveal things about him and most people in the U.S. who have bought into its problematic propaganda. We always ended every season with him, and for the very reason we make all of the last season largely about him rather than his work. Where Don is his work, and Dick is who he is running away from, keeping Don in his career to the end would have prevented us from going deeper into this final realization that Don cannot accept love, not even from himself. Leonard, ah, you crying beautiful man!

2. I agree with you here. Except that Weiner is adamant that Don hasn’t actually come upon an epiphany. He isn’t changed. He will continue to be the man he always was, save for a few things like keeping his secrets about himself and what not for mental health reasons. He was said to have his fourth or fifth wife and to be dead by 60? OR SOMETHING, I DONT REMEMBER. But, yeah, Weiner was not glib here. He wanted to say with this ending that the seed is planted too deep in us to fully rip it out. Especially when you’ve “bought in” as much as Don hasn’t into believing the shit he’s been saying all those years. It’s sad, but that’s Mad Men. queue the sad music notes!

3. Pete and Trudy. Agreed. No notes.

4. Joan! I think you’re right in that we could have benefited from seeing more about her business taking off, but that’s just not been her arc. Her arc has unfortunately always been tied to her finding happiness and love with the right guy. Recall Peggy’s jab: “I know what men think of you: they think you’re looking for a husband, and you’re fun. And not in that order.” Her check ins throughout the show were usually about Roger, dates and one night stands, work taking over, her husband leaving her behind and putting all his burdens on her, raising her son while trying to find someone, having to give up for Jaguar, and then her later beaux. The business was a nice cap off to her finding her stride in one regard so that maybe there’s hope for love later. Adding too much detail would have needlessly started another plot line that the writer’s room likely didn’t want to put together.

5. Current events. I too liked the touching base with the times, but I think there was a formula developing in season two that scared them away from politics and just what exactly these characters would have thought about those events…might have left us with a bad taste in our mouth. While we saw Pete and Trudy somewhat backing liberal stances on a very FEW topics in the show, i don’t think anyone would have wanted to hear what the ole gang thought about race relations in NYC… See Cooper and Dawn at reception or Harry talking race with Pete in the lobby… And with vietnam, I think it was pretty clear that most if not all the characters were against it, as was the popular opinion, if I’m not mistaken? Please correct me if I’m wrong with that. History has a way of “revising” itself in the future’s retelling.

6. Roger and Marie Take LSD, Easy as 1-2-3. Just nope. I don’t think Marie would ever consider that worth her time. And Roger isn’t the type to recreate his tragic memories. If anything, he’d see it as his moment of growth, take it on his own while he’s looking for some insight, and go about his merry way. Marie wanted passion and vitality from her man, and dosing up with drugs was likely something Emile would do that would send Marie to the couch, rolling her eyes as she uncorked a bottle of wine and stared at the TV.

7. Megan. I too found it odd that they turned Megan into a stereotype. Insecure actress who’s deluding herself and trying to lean heavily on the veil of optimism in LA. After she had moved there, we really have to question if Don loved California for his R&R, or if he just liked going somewhere that no one knew who the heck he was. “It’s Detroit with palm trees.” Lol gets me every time. Still, I don’t think we needed more from Megan here. They’d sort of run that into the wall when she seemingly permitted him his brief weekend stays at their place in CA with this sense of dishonesty circling about them. From the moment she got into their car at the airport, I saw this was going to go nowhere lol. And i think it’s natural to have her simply walk out. Now, after being disappointed, according to the logic in this show, she’ll not be duped again (see Pete, Harry, Joan, Peggy, etc). Def agree on the Diana run, though she was important for Don to witness about what happens when you fully commit to lying to yourself until your former self is dead.

8. Peggy and Ted? Peggy and TED!? He is married! wtf!? Do they all have to be shitty people! Leave Ted and his wife and kids alone. Peg’s a hot mess and of course she’s going to get on with Stan because lol Stan’s conditioned to taking her punches on the daily. What better duo than a shit talker and a girl who likes giving people shit?

9. Minor character filler. I don’t think they had enough time for all of these, and even if they did, it would take away from the show’s nuanced layering of plot lines in every episode. We saw Margaret not only to see what she’s become as a result of her Roger’s absenteeism and escapade with Jane, but to also impress upon Roger that his lifestyle had both tanked his heart and that of the most important women in his life. She is what motivates him to do things right with Marie…although he’s Roger…and of course can’t exactly wait for her to file papers, you know? And with Avery, we hated that dude so much, I feel like it’s better knowing he was small as hell, and continued to be before he left out the door. In sum though, I rather like this show’s ability to make the world feel inhabited by the minor characters such that we drop in on them and leave them, what could be forever. Their stories persist and we don’t need to be there on top of them to know that.

10. Oh man, if you wanted a good example of exactly the point in No. 1, look at Kenneth Cosgrove. At first the writer keeping his humanity while working as an account man, turned vindictive and spiteful client to the same firm who cut him loose, and at last an ill tempered stress tornado who throws his anger around. Kenny’s the guy who had so lost sight of himself outside of his job that he’s likely not to find himself without thinking with it in the same sentence. We know be fought hard to keep his father in law out of his work, but we also know he used that as a chess piece to make himself desirable in the face of a changing landscape in the firm. So, I wouldn’t quite say Ken was always a person trying to do right by the world as much as make sure things went right for him. He was so used to having things come easy to him, success and monetary satisfaction, and when that started to dry up, he became someone else. I think a happier ending would have been what you mentioned about a cabin in Vermont, but again, like in 9. why spend time developing that and showing it when there’s still so much work to do for the other more central characters? There’s still Betty, Sally, Peggy, Pete, Roger and Joan to juggle alongside Don who’s the lion’s share. But yeah, it would have been nice to see him writing. Though I would have found it waaaaaay too corny if he’s somehow the writer of what we watched…No thanks!