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 In a talk with novelist A.M. Homes at the New York Public
Library on Wednesday night, the writer and director of the Emmy
award winning AMC drama said the final season was about an
inward journey for the characters, particularly its star, Don
Draper, played by actor Jon Hamm.
"The whole last season was the idea that the revolution failed
and it is time to deal with what you can control, which is
yourself, this turning inward," Weiner said.
"He (Draper) stripped it all away, that was the idea."
The final episode ends fittingly with a 1971 commercial, the
multi-ethnic Coca-Cola ad "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke,"
after Draper, the troubled, hard-drinking, womanizing
advertising executive, finds inner peace at a retreat in
California.
"I like the idea that he would come to this place and it would
be about other people and a moment of recognition," said Weiner.
But did Draper return to advertising as his colleague, Peggy
Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss, pleaded for him to do and
create the commercial?
Weiner thought the ad was an appropriate way to end the series
and said he enjoyed the idea that some enlightened state, and
not just co-option, might have created something that was very
pure.
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"To me, it's the best ad ever made, and it comes from a very good
place," he explained. "The ambiguous relationship we have with
advertising is why I did the show."
Weiner, 49, said he was grateful he had the opportunity to do the
series about Draper's search for identity which also dealt with
feminism, racism and equality during the turbulent era.
"I wanted it to feel like there was a vision and a point to the
entire thing," he said.
Homes likened the series to a novel, saying it was epic in scale
with so many varied stories and different lives and plots.
Weiner was flattered by the comparison and said he found television
suited his purposes best.
"For me, series television, episode to episode, one season at a time
and one story at a time, was a way to deal with everything that was
on my mind," he added.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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