Let go, relax and raise a glass to ‘Mad Men’
Only madmen think they can control the universe.
After seven seasons, that message may finally be sinking in for Don Draper, who tried to reshape the world through advertising and rewrite his life through an elaborate, self-created myth. The open question now is whether the message has reached those remaining Mad Men viewers who think they should control the show’s finale.
It’s possible, of course, that creator Matthew Weiner will reverse his pattern and shape Sunday’s final installment of his AMC classic to satisfy every Internet request for how Don, Peggy, Joan and the entire Mad Men crew should exit our television lives. But it seems unlikely, and to want or expect it is to miss something essential about what made this shimmeringly beautiful series so special: Like many great artists, Weiner’s first goal was never to please us.
Certainly, there have been times this season when that commitment to telling the story he wanted to tell in the way he wanted to tell it reached almost perverse levels of self-indulgence. Many viewers fretted that too much time was lavished on characters they didn’t care about, rather than those they will miss.
Yet in the end, as with so many things in life, some of what we may have hated about Mad Men was tied into what we loved. As much as we might have wished otherwise, it’s that single-minded dedication to Weiner’s vision that made Mad Men the intricately cut and crafted jewel it was.
That isn’t the only way to create a great show — or to craft a great finale. Consider, for example, Justified, another classic that concluded its run this year. Having spent six years shaping a great series, the creator of Justified, Graham Yost, clearly wanted to end the show with a finale that would leave fans happy.
Ultimately, in a TV world more prone to a big-hit mentality, Weiner gave us a small art film. That doesn’t mean he would have rebelled if 50 million people had watched Mad Men and been happy with everything the show did — but he obviously did not want that enough to change anything he wanted to do, from sticking with Megan to introducing Diana. It probably cost him viewers along the way — and may have left some of us liking the idea of
Mad Men more than the show itself — but it allowed him to create something uniquely his.
As frustrating as that could be, there’s also a freedom if you’re willing to embrace it. Let go of demands and expectations. Stop trying to guess how the show will end and just let it end. Even if you could have changed the ending, it’s too late now, so sit back, relax and cede control.
It’s the only sane thing to do.