Mad Men To Suffer Final Season Split

AMC have confirmed that the seventh and final season of Mad Men is to follow the same split-season formula of its station-mate Breaking Bad.

The show's final fourteen episodes are to be broadcast in two seven-episode blocks over the next two years.

Says AMC president Charlie Collier: "This approach has worked well for us with Breaking Bad, which attracted nearly double the number of viewers to its second half premiere than had watched any previous episode. We are determined to bring Mad Men a similar showcase. In an era where high-end content is savoured and analysed, and catch-up time is used well to drive back to live events, we believe this is the best way to release the now 14 episodes that remain of this iconic series."

It's a Mad Men article. I pretty much had to.

Showrunner Matt Weiner has put a positive spin on events, saying that the crew "plan to take advantage of this chance to have a more elaborate story told in two parts, which can resonate a little bit longer in the minds of our audience.

"The writers, cast and other artists welcome this unique manner of ending this unique experience."

Seriously, people just expect it...

However, while the move may have worked well for Breaking Bad, which works on a serial format allowing for dramatic cliffhangers (and then some...) to hold people over the close season and thus built hype to fever-pitch during the gap in the fifth run, Mad Men has never been that kind of show. The key to the drama's success has always been the strong and subtle thematic strains running through each season - often events and scenes only gain significance when the finale comes around. This is a show that at heart works on ideas, not storylines.

It's hard to imagine how stopping a season half-way through (for a whole year, no less) can do anything but damage the underlying thematic arcs that will be building up.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Mad Men returns to AMC and Sky Atlantic next Summer.

Okay, one more...