A Running Commentary on Joyce Carol Oates' Massive Twitter Review of Mad Men

After the Mad Men series finale aired, many, many, many, many critics weighed in with their opinions--was it good? was it bad? did Don make the Coke ad? did he not make the Coke ad? will we ever recap again?--but a surprise thinker joined the conversation on Twitter: novelist Joyce Carol Oates, notorious for being very, very bad at social media, including vaguely coherent, casual disdain for Muslims or awkward "witty" comments about cats. With such a bright past, there are sure to be some gems in this extended Mad Men take (a genre already fraught with danger and potential stupidity). Let's move through the opinions of Joyce Carol Oates, TV critic:

Advantage of TV picaresque structure: viewers get to "know" fictitious characters as if "real." Disadvantage: contrivance all too evident.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

One of the biggest differences between TV and film is that TV, for a variety of reasons, has the capacity to lead to more complicated projected interior lives for characters. So far I am with you, Joyce.

Nothing in "Don Draper's"/Dick Whitman's character would lead him to Esalen-like ending. Tone uncertain: fatuous, or serious? Neither works.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Suggest that "Don Draper" reconstitutes himself, returns & creates fatuous Coke ad? Would have to be executed visually, not by inference.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Hm... so here's a thesis -- she thinks that the ending is out of character for Don? That doesn't seem right at all. He starts the series with a big, famous ad pitch ("It's toasted," for Lucky Strike), and there have been more than enough hints that Don would make the ad. He's had so many epiphanies and backslid so many times that it seems perfectly reasonable to guess he would return to McCann. But go on...

Suggest that "Don Draper" reconstitutes himself, returns & creates fulsome Coke ad? Hardly an "ending" after 11 years.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

However, the "Coke" ending does bear (inadvertent?) resemblance to bitter-ironic ending of "Full Metal Jacket" w/ Mickey Mouse song triumph.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Sorry, did you need a big, showy cut to black? Or for Don to get murdered? Or turn out to be a Cylon? Or secretly be Bob Newhart? Do you assume anything is inadvertent with this show? Say what you will about Matthew Weiner, the guy is a perfectionist.

Very brief, ironic glance of Betty at end, calmly smoking cigarette. Ravages of 60's living manifest only in her, not others? (Not Roger?)

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Did you even see Don at the beginning of the episode? He looked like he'd been hit in the face with Bobby's frying pan. There's a real argument here somewhere about the way Betty has been mistreated for much of the show's run, but she's also one of the most important characters, and gets arguably the most noble sendoff. Truly, she is a trap queen.

Seen at a little distance, the great TV epics depict characters: Tony Soprano, Walter White, & now Don Draper. Storylines are but framings.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

A little distance? Meaning... what, 12 hours? And what shows are we talking about? THE GREAT EPICS. Like... this "epic dissatisfaction" with Mad Men?

Interesting how Betty (& Sally) prevail, even as Megan fades to oblivion. (Entire Megan sequence might be omitted w/ no loss to "Mad Men.")

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

(Was I alone in wondering at the stupefying length of the Megan story? & now her "crazy" mother, with Roger? forced & contrived?)

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Okay so this is where it gets really bad. No, Joyce, no. Megan is a great character and Jessica Paré is a great actress and the Calvet-Draper marriage is one of the most crucial storylines of the series, presenting Don with the opportunity to start fresh and then letting him waste it. And Roger and Marie are happy! What are you so salty about?

Interesting how, in final episodes, the women w/ whom Don Draper had been involved, some of them quite striking & individual, are not evoked

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Are you crazy, Joyce? Literally the first episode of the half-season raises the specter of Don's first serious girlfriend, Rachel Menken, then uses the widely hated Diana the waitress as a stand-in for pretty much every interchangeable woman he ever dated and the impetus for his hobo trip.

"Don Draper" as Gatsby-figure (self-invented & -named, duplicitous) seems in retrospect a character in search of a single defining act.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Don is "in search of a single defining act?" You can just say "he's horny," we're all adults here.

Creator of "Mad Men" could not discover a single profound/ dramatic defining act for "Don Draper" w/ which to conclude saga.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Years I have been defending "Mad Men" against vociferous critics--now I can see their point of view. Storyline just flat, uninspired by end.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

All that from a Coke ad? Feels like Joyce is worried about the finale changing the meaning of everything that happened before, and while that could happen on some shows, it doesn't really seem like the point on this one. It's practically a cliche to say that Mad Men is a collection of short stories, but it's also true--and that means Joyce has even less reason to react like a teenager angry about the Lost finale.

However, the characters prevail as distinctive figures. (Or do we just mean felicitous casting? Excellent actors? Great direction?)

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

CLASSIC JOYCE CAROL OATES--unnecessarily pithy, lots of rhetorical questions. Great job, everyone involved. This one is at least a second ballot entry to the @JoyceCarolOates hall of fame.

Some sort of antithesis intended between NYC & CA/ Esalen but Esalen scenes poorly written & unoriginal, weakly satiric. Very familiar.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

By end of "Mad Men" challenge was to complete "Don Draper" trajectory memorably, which almost happens in telephone scene w/ Betty.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

So close! But so far!

By end of "Mad Men" it is, or was, the actors who prevailed brilliantly, unflaggingly. Jon Hamm (despite name) our John Garfield.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Nice one! Really funny stuff, but maybe we should take a break?

In the great TV epics it has been great acting, great sustained "character," remarkable achievement despite constant scrutiny, that prevail.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

As in memorable "Boyhood," powerful emotion evoked by sheer passage of time as in (for instance) dramatic maturation of Sally Draper.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Uh oh, now we're back to general TV criticism--as far as I can tell, consistency is the most important thing here in her view, I think, giving the sense that there's a real person aging through a work of art. Mostly, this seems right. Except...

Richness of "Mad Men" has been in period detail & culture; representative types & experiences. How, why the lengthy Megan sequence?

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

CHILL WITH THE MEGAN STUFF ALREADY DID YOU NOT EVEN LIKE "ZOU BISOU BISOU"

Betty & Don Draper & young children had looked exactly like American ideal, as in American ads, of 1950s.Deconstructing this ideal brilliant

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Contrarian / comic ideal of "Seinfield" was: no one changes, ever. Tragedy requires a profound & convincing depth of change.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

After the Seinfeld comparison, this seems like time for an empty metaphor about nothing...

Lengthy TV series in which no one changes much, or memorably, or in some way not a cliche, like watching 12 rounds of careful boxing. Why?

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Which is why Mayweather is a very skilled boxer but not a "great" boxer: he is careful, risks little unlike (truly great, heroic) Ali.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

There it is!

Over all, "Mad Men" a great achievement on a par w/ "Breaking Bad"& "Sopranos" if not quite "The Wire." Should not be judged by finale.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

Should also note that I much admired "Oz" in its day. Revolutionary TV, more like experimental theater, truly brilliant actors & direction.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

But of all these TV series only "Breaking Bad' was truly cinematic. All others like filmed stage plays w/ much dialogue, interiority.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 18, 2015

GOD DAMN IT, JOYCE "CINEMATIC" IS A BAD COMPLIMENT FOR TV IT'S ITS OWN MEDIUM AND DOESN'T NEED TO BE VALIDATED THROUGH COMPARISONS TO FILM JUST GIVE IT A REST ALREADY GOSH.

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