MAD MEN – a Glimpse at the end?

Have you ever wondered how AMC’s Mad Men might end? I can tell you right now, you’re not the only one, nor should you think you would be. Mad Men’s creator, Matthew Weiner, has likely thought of how to end his beloved show more than anyone else in the world, and he may have it figured out. *If you don’t want to be spoiled, please don’t read ahead!*

A post on Grantland tells of a conversation between Weiner and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin, where among subjects such as Alex Trebek and Conan O’Brien, Weiner revealed how he currently imagines the end of Mad Men. In a nutshell, he wants to see Don Draper (Jon Hamm) as an old man in 2011, or a similar year. It’s an experience of human life, as he puts it. We should be able to look at an 84 year old Don and relate to him in the sense that whatever we do in our lives we’re going to be old and out of our prime, but our lives will have meant something. Everything Don has done and will do should matter, even as an old man.

It’s a daring, if obvious way to go. I would love to see Don as an old man, with his life decisions weighing on him (assuming his ending is a bittersweet one). I can’t help but wonder if we’d see the other cast members as they’re getting on in years. A kind of “Where are they now?” but more melancholy. It would be like “We went through Hell and back, and this is all we have to show for it?”