Mad Men "Tomorrowland": Advertising Marriage, Babe

I was going to let the season four finale for Mad Men go without comment, seeing as how I was late to watching and even later synthesizing my thoughts on it. But after reading several posts on it and seeing Groundhog's Day get bandied about in association with the song over the closing credits (PLEASE!), I felt the need to at least outline a post.

Luckily for all of us, Ann Powers from the LATimes' music blog Pop & Hiss set the record straight with their analysis of the song use for "Tomorrowland," which I'll just point you to in lieu of finishing my post -- she's synthesized my thoughts better than I could at this point, with the song choice having to do with the singers' marriage fantasy versus reality, and what that means for the new Mr. & Mrs. Draper in the mid-60s.

Mad Men - Episode 4.13
"I Got You Babe" - Sonny & Cher [download]

Outside of song choice, there are two other posts that resonate with my reading of the finale (and the season in general) and the first is from Heather Havrilesky (Salon), who points out Don's Madonna/Whore attraction to Megan. My own contribution here is to go back and look at the director cues for this, going back to when we first meet her. Every meaningful look that Don makes towards Megan's way she's either dolled up to go out on the town or playing/taking care of his kids. The other post I envy comes from Matt Zoller Seitz (for The New Republic) who encapsulates the Don / Peggy dynamic (nearly) perfectly. He also stumbled on the Groundhogs Day thing, but he doesn't suggest Matt Weiner or someone from Mad Men had that intention, so we'll let that one slide.

Previously: "Hands & Knees" (Episode 4.10)