Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner on the symbolism of Don Draper reading Dante’s Inferno at the beginning of Season Six, which takes place in 1968:

This man is in his worst state — the way 1968 is — because it is overrunning his life and it’s page 1 in the story: He’s going into hell. This is the descent. Maybe he’ll come out on the other side, or maybe he’ll just take up residence there.”

image courtesy of AMC

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner talks to Terry Gross about Don Draper, Existentialist:

I feel like Don is like a lot of existential characters: brave in the face of death but more deeply, deeply afraid of it — and trying to find some purpose and some control over it — because he is aware of the sort of meaninglessness of life. … Let’s say existentialism is a young man’s game. As he’s getting up there, he’s saying, like, ‘Why do I keep repeating this? Why am I in this process?’

image courtesy of AMC

Today: Mad Men series creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner dishes about last night’s episode, talks about the character development of Don Draper and tells us where the series might be going next.

WARNING: Obviously, we will be talking about last night’s episode. If you did not see/are planning to watch/have never heard of Mad Men, please DO NOT tune in and then send an irate email to me. Pleasant emails are more than welcome. -Mel

David Bianculli answers the burning Mad Men question: Was it worth the wait?

This photo and caption reveal nothing about Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) state of mind at the end of Mad Men’s fourth season. This article does.

If you need to get up to speed before Sunday, Internet.

Jon Hamm explains how he approaches every new season of Mad Men: “I honestly don’t like knowing what’s going to come down the pike, for fear of somehow subconsciously playing the end of the story, or playing information my character shouldn’t have. That said, Matt and I sit at the beginning of every season and we talk about what the season is going to bring and what the arc of the season could be or should be or might be — but this is well before anything is written. And we talk in very, very general terms of themes and feelings and general ideas.”

swahiliforchili:

no mo’ mad men til 2012. 

We’re playing highlights from our interview with Jon Hamm tomorrow. No tears. No tears.

Jon Hamm, on his thoughts about his character Don Draper, on this season of Mad Men: “When you no longer have the perfect life and the perfect family and the perfect job and the perfect approach to every problem, when all of that stuff gets stripped away, who are you at the foundation?” (Photo: AMC)

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner on the inspiration for the character Don Draper: “Part of the inspiration for this character [Don Draper] is based on personalities like Marilyn Monroe. It’s hard to identify Don Draper with Marilyn Monroe, but this idea of a false self — of creating a persona that is so different from where you came from … there can be a sense of shame, of ‘You don’t know me. You will never know me. I’m a fraud.’ And that’s the part that I think the audience can engage with.” (Photo:AMC)

One of the people pictured here is our guest tomorrow. Guess who? (It’s not George or policeman-Eric or Herman.)