This feels like an
end of an era.
And we do get to hear
Jim Morrison singing “The End”, a moment as obligatory as Don Draper sleeping
with another woman. Still, when something dies, something as good as this, you
would rather see it dead than wounded. Even if – oh God yes – you are left with
the sore feeling that you just won’t find it again. For me, the best thing on
TV since Twin Peaks (don’t fucking do
it, Lynch).
Final episode can
never be satisfying, especially one happening after seven seasons of exquisitely
plotted, intense drama. But in that world he created, world where everything
comes at a price but the best things in life are free, Matthew Weiner could do
no wrong. And while initially you may have shuddered at the shot of Don meditating
among the hippies, the cynical smile followed by the Coke commercial was an ending
as perfect as it was inevitable. Don had just seen Dick Whitman, in a scene you
should be a stone to resist, and Dick Whitman was not what he wanted to be. Not
at all.
Elsewhere, everyone
gets what he/she deserves, more or less, and – mercifully – we survive the
finale without a single death or a sudden tragedy. No cheap tricks, it’s all
done with as much style as that first scene, season one episode one, in which
Don is talking to a waiter. From Lucky Strike to Coca-Cola, this was a fascinating
journey either too long or too short.
“One day they will be
us”, Marie says to Roger, in a café, with a group of young people sitting
around.
“Tomorrow”, replies
Roger.