Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
For a series that's been dark and brooding from the start, the last two episodes of Mad Men have been particularly grim and morbid with Joan's decision to prostitute herself for the Jaguar account and Lane's fatal departure from the firm--from life itself. Both choices were motivated by money and commercial success (or the lack thereof). Both were related to cars (Lane first tried to kill himself in the new Jaguar his wife bought him--but failed). And both deeply disturb Don, making him reconsider his definition of happiness. Is happiness having it all, materially? Or is it something else? Lane and Joan make tragic decisions in the pursuit of having it all. Will our hero, Don, fall into the same trap?
Over at the Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy blog, Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan points out that happiness was a major theme of last Sunday’s episode:
What can give us happiness? Remember when a car, any car, was enough? It is, still, for Glen. Yet for Lane the car just adds to his mortification. . . . And Don — the man who has seemed so happy all season long, at least until he saw that he might have won Jaguar through Joan’s night with Herb — tells us that nothing will ever be enough.
As we see in the show:
Don goes into Roger’s office and says that he’s disenchanted with what’s going on at work and he wants to think bigger. He’s shaken by Lane’s betrayal and the hand-to-mouth existence employees of the firm seem to be living. He wants meetings with bigger companies. Roger gets him a meeting with Dow.
Here’s what Don tells the executives of Dow, who claim to be happy with the fact that they have 50 percent of market share:
I’ve been looking at what you’re doing and I think you’re in desperate need of change . . . Even though success is a reality, its effects are temporary. You get hungry even though you’ve just eaten . . . You’re happy with 50 percent? You’re on top, and you don’t have enough. You’re happy because you’re successful. For now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50 percent of anything. I want 100 percent. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not happy with anything. You don’t want most of it, you want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it. Thank you for your time.
That’s the old Don speaking. So is the old Don back–the old Don, whose drive for success and status ultimately compromised his happiness in the earlier seasons of the show? I don’t think so.
It isn’t until later–that is, after the meeting with Dow–that Don learns about Lane’s death. And he’s, of course, visibly shaken by it. It was Don, after all, who demanded earlier in the episode that Lane resign from the company because he embezzled funds. Certainly Don made the right and reasonable call from a business perspective–Lane broke the law and could no longer be trusted to be a partner who is working toward the best interest of the firm. But what are the consequences of detached businessman’s cool? That’s something that Don is left to consider as he, along with Pete and Roger, struggle to cut Lane’s limp and bruised body down from the makeshift noose in the office.
As the episode comes to a close, a demoralized Don returns to his apartment, where Megan and Sally’s boyfriend, Glen, are waiting. Rather than have Glen take the train back to his Connecticut boarding school, Don decides to drive him the two hours to Hotchkiss. On the elevator down, Glen–who has had his own rough day with Sally and is getting picked on at school–asks Don, “Why does everything turn out crappy? . . . Every thing you want to do, every thing you think is going to make you happy, just turns to crap.”
“What do you want to do?” Don asks. “If you could do anything, what would you do?”
The show ends with a shot of Don and Glen in Don’s car. Glen is driving it as Don occasionally taps the steering wheel to straighten out the car’s path. Glen is smiling and happy: Thanks to Don’s help, he realizes that “every thing you want to do, every thing you think is going to make you happy” doesn’t have to turn to crap. And Don, for his part, is probably feeling a little better too. In the car with Glen, miles away from New York City, the old Don is extinguished, if just for a moment, by the new Don, who affirms that contributing to another person’s happiness is more meaningful than “having it all.”
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May '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Somehow I don't think the 0.8 rating the show did in the key demographic on Sunday equals happiness.
Jan '11
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Calling Dr. Prager. Calling Dr. Prager.
May '11
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
You wag.
Jun '11
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Emily, please! For those of us not caught up on our DVR viewing, a spoiler alert would have been nice!&%!
May '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Call me what you will, but this is a show that barely gets 2 million viewers. That's 0.0063% of the nation and it sure gets a lot of ink (er, electrons) around these parts.
The top-rated scripted show on television gets 8 times the viewers of Mad Men. Yet nobody here ruminates on the happiness equation of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his multiple rules (Rule #23: Never mess with a Marine's coffee if you want to live.)
Apr '11
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
I see posts like this and it just reinforces my not owning a TV .So little to writr adout.
Aug '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Interesting post, which got me thinking a little more deeply about an episode I had already enjoyed. Mad Men is an excellent middle-to-highbrow series, tackling themes often found in literature. I have no doubt that it will be considered a landmark program decades from now.
No offense intended, EJ and bagodonuts, but I don't understand viewers' fascination with ratings, except as they affect a series' viability. I couldn't care less how many other people watch it, as long as it's on. By the same token, I don't understand the fascination with box office numbers. Either a movie is good, or it isn't. How much money the filmmakers and the studio make is irrelevant to me. Casablanca was initially a box-office failure.
Edited on June 6, 2012 at 5:36pmMay '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Good post Emily. I'm wondering though, do you think Joan made her decision for money or out of loyalty to her co-workers? Wasn't she trying to contribute to their happiness instead of just wanting to "have it all"?
Aug '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
I think she made her decision based on money, but in the sense of "security" rather than "luxury". She did it for her son.
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
EJ: So start a thread about it.
Emily: hadn't thought of that re: the ending; I was thinking at the time that Glen is having the male equivalent of what Sally experienced at the museum.
Kevin: if "Mad Men" had been on regular TV, it would have been cancelled the first season, like nearly every other TV show I've ever enjoyed. This is why I don't watch network TV anymore: unless they commit to a season, forget it. And the only places that commit to seasons are the cable channels.
May '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
EJ:
Ratings on cable figure in differently than on network TV.
A lot of the best shows on cable last as long as they do because channels like HBO not only don't need to but in fact don't try for the wider audience. They go for the niche of audience that pays up front to watch anything on the channel. That's why The Wire, and The Sopranos were on HBO
I don't follow Mad Men but that sounds like a good episode to introduce myself to the series.
I once sent out home-made Christmas cards with a detail of a stained glass panel in a Brooklyn Heights church depicting the Trial of Christ that was (I would swear this is the case) inspired by Breughel's Flemish Proverbs. Inside I wrote:
The only thing worse than being driven crazy by family at the holidays ... is not having a family to drive you crazy at the holidays.
You could amend that:
The only thing worse than what life is throwing at you today ... is not being alive to experience what it throws at you tomorrow.
Or something like that.
Feb '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Edward Smith: EJ:
I once sent out home-made Christmas cards with a detail of a stained glass panel in a Brooklyn Heights church depicting the Trial of Christ that was (I would swear this is the case) inspired by Breughel'sFlemish Proverbs. Inside I wrote:
The only thing worse than being driven crazy by family at the holidays ... is not having a family to drive you crazy at the holidays.
You could amend that:
The only thing worse than what life is throwing at you today ... is not being alive to experience what it throws at you tomorrow.
Or something like that. · 8 minutes ago
I've always thought the best Bible verse to do with Christmas was Matthew 10:34-36.
Sounds like Christmas to me ...
May '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Rating matter in the same regard that votes matter. Mad Men is the Ron Paul of television. It has the same cultural impact as the Congressman does on national policy. When it comes to '60s ad men, Darrin Stevens had more cultural impact than Don Draper.
I like to write one-offs about history and culture. A few of them have even made the front page. But in addition to this, we have had the following:
The Cultural Imperialism of Mad Men
What's Going to Happen to Mad Men's Sally Draper?
Are the Kids Alright?
For We Mere Mortals, Another Year of Mad Men
Up For Some TV Talk?
Mad Men Sucker Punch
And then James Poulos took us through an episode-by-episode deconstruction for an entire season.
A one-off is interesting. An single article on Wally Pipp, Pumpsie Green or White Christmas can illuminate (and, hopefuly, entertain.) But seventeen main page articles on a show 99.2% of the population is oblivious to? Elitist overkill?
Edited on June 6, 2012 at 6:40pmDec '11
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
I dont think that there is a major philisopher out there that hasnt said that being good to others makes us happy.
I think Neitzche even went on to call this selfish.
I think Ayn Rand talks about it some, especially in relation to her husband
Francis Hutchison (the guy who taught adam smith everything he knew) talked and wrote about it.
Adam Smith wrote a great big huge book on it.
Essentially everybody acknowledges that we are hardwired to do good things for others and derive happiness from it. Heck biologically the things that are biologically important give us good feelings via our endocrine systems.
My masonic friends point out that the lord made us for friendly and social behavior, and that failure to do so makes us worthless people as well as unhappy.
May '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
EJ, if you don't like the show, don't read the threads, how hard is that? I love the show, I read all threads about it. But I skip all sorts of threads on the main page everyday. I'm sure you do as well. So what I wonder is, is your beef that you don't want anyone to like the show because you don't? That's pretty silly.
May '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
These last two episodes have been among the best, if not the best, episodes of the show in five years. I think your take on Don is interesting, Emily, but I don't share your view. Don has always been a compassionate character. Remember his treatment of Peggy in season two, and his willingness to help out his junkie former mistress. I think Don is starting to revert to his true nature. My prediction for the finale is that Don falls off the fidelity wagon and we see that the slow reversion to his old self we've been watching for the last few episodes becomes complete.
Edited on June 6, 2012 at 7:22pmMay '10
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
I am only questioning the proportionality of space provided to either it's general popularity or cultural significance.
May '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Curse you and your spoilers! (And curse me for being stupid enough to read anyway.)
May '12
Re: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Why do you care how much space is devoted to it? It's not to a point that it's crowding out other contributions, and it's easily skipped. Not to mention there are many here who love having a chance to discuss it, why do you want to look down your nose at those of us who are fans?
Edited on June 6, 2012 at 7:07pmRe: Mad Men: What Is Happiness?
Edward: don't start with the last episode! Start at the beginning, in Blu-Ray if you can get it; the art direction alone is a good reason to watch the show.