This Is How MAD MEN Ends
There’s a new season of Mad Men coming in just a few months, and it can’t get here soon enough. I’m jonesing to get back to the world of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and now that creator Matthew Weiner has a commitment to the end of the series, I’m excited to see where the show goes.
About the end of the series: Weiner says he knows what it will be.
Here’s what he tells Grantland:
I do know how the whole show ends… It came to me in the middle of last season. I always felt like it would be the experience of human life. And human life has a destination. It doesn’t mean Don’s gonna die. What I’m looking for, and how I hope to end the show, is like … It’s 2011. Don Draper would be 84 right now. I want to leave the show in a place where you have an idea of what it meant and how it’s related to you. It’s a very tall order, but I always talk about Abbey Road. What’s the song at the end of Abbey Road? It’s called ‘The End.’ There is a culmination of an experience of people working at their highest level. And all I want to do is not wear out the welcome. I was 35 when I wrote theMad Men pilot, 42 when I got to make it, and I’ll be 50 when it goes off the air. So that’s what you’re gonna get. Do I know everything that’s gonna happen? No, I don’t. But I just want it to be entertaining and I want people to remember it fondly and not think it ended in a fart.
It’s not clear if he means that he wants to visit Don Draper in the modern day (lord, I hope not) or just that he wants an ending that shows the impact of that period on today. If he wanted to jump to 2011 I’d much prefer seeing what Sally Draper is doing now, and what her kids are like – that seems to be the ultimate way to show what mark Don left on the world.
Or maybe Don could discover a creek of urine that leads to a mystery cave and finds the Burger King ‘Have It Your Way’ slogan inscribed on a wall, creating his most lasting advertising victory.
Or better yet, he should end it with a literal fart, like Don farting on Betty one last time.
