TCA: 7 episodes make up “perfect” Mad Men series finale

It’s not often that a cast panel can weigh on your emotions, but tears filled some of our eyes at the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press tour as AMC and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner shared a “road to the finale” video montage that captured the emotion of the series’ last seven seasons (less the final episodes). The images were played along to Paul Anka’s “Times of Your Life” and served as a timeline to showcase the last 10 years of these characters’ amazing journeys.  The final seven episodes of Mad Men begin on Sunday, April 5 at 10pmET/PT on AMC. All of the original six members of the cast were here — Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks and John Slattery. They agreed that the series finale was “perfect.”

Mad Men series finaleSeries creator/writer/director/producer Matthew Weiner says he is excited to “unspool” these final seven episodes, and tells that each episode alone feels like it’s own finale. When asked on the pressures of meeting fan expectations, Weiner says: “I’m trying to delight them and confound them, and not frustrate and irritate them. I don’t want them to walk away angry.”

Jon Hamm described the finale in greater detail in a hallway conversation with critics after the panel, saying it “wasn’t so much about being surprised, but being pleased.” Just watching the video, Hamm said “I got misty watching both of those retrospectives. It means so much to me. These people mean so much to me. These characters mean so much to me. It was pleasing to have a satisfying ending. And, to have an ending! It’s a story — it needs to have an end. If there’s no end to the story you never get to go to bed. So it’s nice to go to bed.”

When asked what he took from the set, Hamm says with sincerity: “I took nothing from the set other than memories, and they were delightful at that.”

Elisabeth Moss said: “I was definitely surprised in the best way,” on her character Peggy’s ending, as well as, the series finale. Hendricks, who plays Joan, agreed, saying “I was surprised I was pleased.”

January Jones who plays the complex Betty described the final few weeks of shooting as being very emotional for her, saying she was a total mess, but summarized the finale saying it was “a beautiful story. It’s perfect in a way.”

A rather stoic Kartheiser told me after the panel that he too was pleased. “I had a great experience on this show. I try not to get too sentimental — I don’t necessarily subscribe to that emotion. It’s not something that comes easily to me. I had a lot of fun and all I have is fond memories.”

“January said she was a mess the last couple of weeks,” Kartheiser continued, “I really wasn’t a mess. I kind of approached it the same way I approach a lot of things in my life, which is — I’m glad for the opportunity I had. I’m glad for the people I got to meet, and the story we got to tell. I’m not sentimental.”

When asked more on his satisfaction with his character’s ending versus the series finale, he did share: “The entire making of this project I was always satisfied with what they had Pete do. There was never a moment in the 10 years or nine years that we worked on this that I was like ‘I don’t get this’ or ‘I don’t like this,’ so that’s remarkable. That’s a lot of pages to write without a false note.”

1 Comment

  1. I just don’t won’t to see the series come to an end. I wake up every Sunday morning at 6:00a.m. just to recapture some of shows I might have missed. I hope that they will continue to show reruns. Really I wish the producer would reconsider cancelling the series. I truly love the show and all the characters. It will be truly missed

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