By the time summer is here, Mad Men will be over and the story of Don Draper (Jon Hamm) -- Dick Whitman, if you’re nasty -- will come to a likely not-that-happy close. In honor of the occasion, the show's creator, Matthew Weiner, sat down and spoke about a host of favorite scenes and moments that fans of the show have selected. In the clips, Weiner plumbs the underpinnings of the show and the characters, whether pointing out the similarities between Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Don when he tells her to leave the hospital, or highlighting Betty’s (January Jones) pigeon-shooting escapade as proof of her maternal instinct. It’s heartening to hear the creator speak about the “Carousel” scene as well, as it does encapsulate a lot of what Weiner’s show is really about in less than 10 minutes.
Of course, there were plenty of scenes that weren’t chosen that would have benefitted from insight. My pick would have been any given moment in “The Runaways,” or Sterling’s (John Slattery) riotous acid trip. Then again, a book could be (and most likely will be) written about the series and its devastating views of identity, masculinity, and the gradual ascension of women in the workplace. Weiner has yet to set-up a post-Mad Men project but one can only hope that it's on television. His debut feature film, Are You Here, showed a distinct lack of the thoughtfulness, clever symbolism, and empathy that has made Mad Men such a huge cultural phenomenon, worthy of its own statue in New York City and a major exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Mad Men returns to AMC for the last time on April 5th, 10 p.m.
Watch the clips below: