Mad Men – Season 7, Episode 9 – Never Liked the Furniture ← FREE KRAUT!

Mad Men – Season 7, Episode 9 – Never Liked the Furniture 3

This was an episode that felt like Exhibit A for the argument that this show should have ended a while ago.

I didn’t care about Diana. I don’t care about her sad backstory. I don’t care about Don’s stalker-like behavior. Fine, I get the point, but that doesn’t mean I was interested.

I found Megan and her family tiresome. Yeah, the whole thing between Roger and Megan’s mother used to be amusing, but it was kind of stupid this time. I never hated Megan as much as some other viewers did, but that doesn’t mean that her character’s arc needed one last episode that had her quite bitter and her sister appearing at all. (OK, I get that it turned out that Megan’s career isn’t panning out after moving to California, and that this is sort of his fault, but this could have turned out badly for her career regardless of whether Don came along.)

The episode just felt really obvious and clumsy. Don’s jarring realization that the nuclear family could have included him was overplayed. Roger wasn’t funny even when he was supposed to be.

The highlight of the whole episode, oddly enough, was Mimi Rogers as a photographer hired to shoot an advertisement. She’s cool and confident, and flusters Stan and Peggy, inducing the former to cheat on his girlfriend and prompting the latter to decide she’s never coming back. But I get it. She’s ahead of her time. She’s Annie Hall!

In the end, Don pays Megan more than she seems to deserve for a short marriage and then arrives home – after getting dropped by Di – to an empty apartment. Yes, it’s symbolic and all, but he never really liked the furniture anyway.

3 thoughts on “Mad Men – Season 7, Episode 9 – Never Liked the Furniture

  1. FreeSeatUpgrade Apr 13,2015 8:33 pm

    Yeah, this was a long long way to go to get to Don surrounded by the literal emptiness of his life. He hit that rock bottom like three seasons ago. One clever visual was not worth the long slow plod it took to get there. They’ve got a handful of episodes left to play with and this seemed like a waste of one.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  2. lenscrafters Apr 14,2015 4:53 pm

    Really don’t understand why Megan is so bitter and angry at Don now. From the end of last season, it seemed like they ended on relatively decent if not completely amicable terms? I guess this reversal is to reinforce the “Everyone hates Don and his life sucks” point, but like you and FSU alluded to, we’ve already been beat over the head by this theme throughout the episode, if not the entire series by now.

    In any case, it was amusing to see Megan try to ingratiate herself to the likes of Harry Crane, someone who she used to hate, before he inevitably tried to pull the slimy Harry Crane move. I still remember the Harry Crane from the first two seasons who was mortified at cheating on his wife with that secretary.

    Is Pete Campbell doing anything anymore?

    I can’t seem to recall how Betty went from fat Betty to seemingly content, at peace Betty, but I guess I really haven’t cared about her character arcs for a while.

    Thanks for doing these. I recently got caught up on Mad Men thanks to a friend’s Netflix so I’ll be following along on this season. Haven’t watched this series regularly since season 1 or 2.

    • nevermoor Apr 14,2015 8:58 pm || Up

      Not that I have personal experience, but I can totally see mom/sister radicalizing her.

      "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"

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