MAD MEN Creator Talks Season 5; Series Finale Still A Secret

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner teases the direction, themes and arcs of Season 5, and confirms that the show’s ending hasn’t been spilled after all.

On the long gap between seasons 4 and 5:

The decision for us not to be on the air had nothing to do with the negotiations. I’ve never been able to explain that to people. They don’t seem interested in it. But, AMC had always planned for the show not to be on this year, and that was it. So, I didn’t really have that much time off. We have seven episodes ready. We’re ready to go on the air right now. But, this is the way the schedule has worked out and we’re happy that people are anticipating it.

On where Season 5 picks up time-wise:

I can’t tell you when it picks up. You have to watch. Let’s have as much expectation as possible. There’s so little in life, where you don’t know what’s going to happen. Just come back to the show. All I can tell you is that Don [Draper] is going to be in it. You want to come back and get into it. There will be some time skipped. It’s a minimum of 24 hours after the finale ended.

On the overall theme of the fifth season:

There are a lot of things going on. A couple of things have emerged, as we’ve gone on. It’s a little bit about every man for himself, and the maturity that comes with realizing that life isn’t fair. And, there’s a line in the third episode where somebody says, “When is everything going to get back to normal?” I think there’s a feeling of being in the midst of change, which we know is a big part of life and where we are right now, and certainly where they are in the show, and they always have been. This could have been any season.
I love the feeling of, right when I think I’m on top of something, and right when I think I have things where I know what they are, and right when I think I have some wisdom from life experience, you just feel things slip away. There’s this sensation, which I think people have right now, and I know I do, of so much change going on. Where I write from is what I’m feeling. I just have this feeling right now of, “Enough already. Let’s just get our feet on the ground and go back to the way it was.” I don’t even know when. I don’t know if anybody else identifies with that, but that’s a big part of the season – trying to hold on.

On how far ahead he plans out the story arcs:

I do the whole arc for the season. I come in with the last image for the season, and where we’re going to work from, and where it’s going to start, and what the date is, and then we go. I don’t stick to it by law. It’s not strict. But, I do often get to the end of the season and start having anxiety about, “Was this the right thing to do? It’s too late to change it.” And then, I need my writing staff and my actors and my wife to say, “Shut up, you knew where you were going. Let’s just do it. This is where it goes.”

On how he feels about actor Jon Hamm letting slip the season 5 premiere date and why the show’s ending is still very much under wraps, despite words to the contrary:

I told the cast about [the premiere date], a couple weeks ago. I’m so tight-lipped, even at work, that I think I was probably too casual about it. Honestly, it’s Jon Hamm. I don’t think he knew. That wasn’t how we planned on letting the information out, but Jon and I are on the same team.
Things happen. I gave an interview where I was talking about the ending of the series on a podcast. I basically was just ruminating about life and, all of a sudden, there was this thing all over the place that I said how the series ended. I was like, “I won’t let my in-laws visit the set. Do you think I’m going to go on a podcast and reveal the end of the show?” I was stunned. But, all of this is flattering to me. All the interest in the show is flattering.

Source: Collider

The 2-hour premiere begins Sunday, March 25 at 9pm on AMC

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Tagged as: interviews, mad men, matthew weiner, Spoilers