Mad Men season 6 (spoilers)

[Lord Garth]

Matt Weiner was always dead-set on Mad Men ending after seven seasons. At least dead-set since 2011.

AMC, not wanting to lose Mad Men right after Breaking Bad would want Mad Men to run longer. Matt Weiner's intentions be damned.

Splitting the season in two seems like a compromise. The only solution "equally offensive to all" to quote Jim Cutler. Except it's equally beneficial if Matt Weiner can make it work as two separate but complimentary halves.

... but then there's what Jonas Grumby said, people could think, "Out of sight, out of mind."

I don't know. Mad Men seasons are always a slow burn. This one would have to be structured differently. A slow S7 pt. 1 would kill interest in S7 pt. 2 for most people.

I'm not sure how Breaking Bad seasons are structured because I've never actually seen the series but just because it worked for them, doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for Mad Men. Not unless Matt Weiner really writes it so it's meant to be split.

I'm still not sure "The Doorway" needed to be two hours. Matt Weiner said that premiere would be structured like a movie and I thought they pulled it off much better with "A Little Kiss".

 

[Nick Ryder]

I'm kinda getting tired of these TINY half seasons - I mean really... when you have a series that has short seasons to begin with and then they cut them in half. I can understand them wanting to milk it for what it's worth - but really.. it's just going to make the series end on a whimper instead of a bang - unless the finale is really spectacular

 

[gblews]

Matt Weiner was always dead-set on Mad Men ending after seven seasons. At least dead-set since 2011.

AMC, not wanting to lose Mad Men right after Breaking Bad would want Mad Men to run longer. Matt Weiner's intentions be damned.

Splitting the season in two seems like a compromise. The only solution "equally offensive to all" to quote Jim Cutler. Except it's equally beneficial if Matt Weiner can make it work as two separate but complimentary halves.

... but then there's what Jonas Grumby said, people could think, "Out of sight, out of mind."

I don't know. Mad Men seasons are always a slow burn. This one would have to be structured differently. A slow S7 pt. 1 would kill interest in S7 pt. 2 for most people.

I doubt this would be the case. Mad Men started off kind of slow last season and roared to it's conclusion.

Weiner and his staff know they have 14 hours to end their story. They will likely end season 6 with some kind of a cliffhanger in order to help keep the more casual viewers' interest in season 7. The hard core fans will tune in for the conclusion no matter what -- well, unless season 6 is a total mess. I doubt that will be the case.

 

[Lord Garth]

It's S7 part 1 and S7 part 2 not S6 and S7.

I'm not quite sure where we disagree.

If S7 is designed to be two halves and both halves can stand on their own, even if "The Beginning" and "The End of an Era" are companion pieces, then that's great, regardless of whether or not there's a cliff-hanger two bridge the two haves.

If S7 is structured like previous seasons and is just an overall story broken in half with a nine-month hiatus in-between, then not so great, regardless of if there's a cliff-hanger.

They're not quite the same thing. It sounds like it's going to be the former. I'm just saying I hope it doesn't turn out to be the latter.

 

[the G-man]

AMC also split the final season of Breaking Bad. This network seems desperate to extend their hit shows as long as possible, the only reason that we are getting spinoffs of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead...

They are in trouble. They had, basically, three hit shows.

One of the their hit shows (BB) is going to end in a matter of days. The other (MM) has only one season left. The third (WD) is still going but one hit series doesn't a network make.

Meanwhile, their other attempts have all been misfires.

The Killing started strong but fell apart with the bait and switch at the end of season one. Hell on Wheels is a middling hit at best and not the kind of "water cooler" TV they built their rep on. Everything else they've put out has been even less successful.

So they;re going to milk MM and TWD for as long as they can in the hopes they can recapture lightning in a bottle with another couple of hit shows.

Whether they can do that given how stingy they are with their talent remains to be seen.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

The half seasons are done so they can do two years without re-negotiating with the talent. They're basically getting an extra season at the old rate. Even if it's less episodes, they're getting an extra year of new content.