Mad Men’s creator Matthew Weiner has fought off criticism’s of the latest season of the show, stating “fans don’t run the show.”
Viewers have expressed their disappointment at the start of the sixth season, which on Sunday will broadcast its fourth episode after starting at the beginning of April.
Weiner was taking ahead of Mad Men panel event, which took place on Tuesday evening at New York City’s Paley Center. The event saw Brian Williams interview the entire cast of the show.
Weiner asked fans to “sit back and enjoy where we’re going.” He then added, “It might be a little salacious, but that’s what the show is.”
Mad Men’s sixth season started on New Year’s Eve 1967, leading into 1968, which Weiner stated was the worst year in US history. However he stopped short of giving any of the show’s future plot details away.
So far, Don Draper, who is played by Jon Hamm, has started to cheat on his wife, Megan, played by Jessica Pare, again, even philandering with his friend’s wife, who lives in the same building.
Weiner feels that the character is redeemable, stating, “We’ll have to see what the world hands him and if he’s able to confront a problem that’s following him around – that might actually be him.”
Weiner also recently talked to NPR about the new season of Mad Men declaring that the horrible activities of 1968 are key to the series progress.
“That’s what it was about for me,” he told Terry Gross on Fresh Air. “Let’s get to the destruction. Let’s get to the loss. Let’s express the idea that people want to change, and change is afoot. Because as far as I can tell, 1968 is a year about change, about revolution, about violence, about people turning inwards as community breaks down.”
He then related that to the show, adding, “So I really kind of wanted to get that into the personal story of Don, which is, ‘I don’t like the way I am.’ Where will that go?”
What do you think of the current season of Mad Men?