Mad Men will probably clean up at the Emmys—but should it?
Will the final season of AMC’s hit drama pull a ‘Breaking Bad’ at this year’s Emmy Awards?
The cast and crew of ‘Mad Men’ at the 2009 Emmy Awards.
The nominees for the 2015 Emmy Awards are in, and not surprisingly, the final season of AMC’s Mad Men earned a ton of nods.
Like Breaking Bad—the network’s previous drama juggernaut—Mad Men is in prime position to clean up at this year’s award show. But do Don Draper and company deserve all the attention and accolades just because the series has come to an end?
I don’t think so.
Breaking Bad owes some of its Emmy dominance in 2014 to a heavy nostalgia factor over the series’ swan song. But it was also a fantastic final season that featured one of the best finales in TV history.
While definitely enjoyable, the last episodes of Mad Men, including the series’ finale, failed to live up to the bar set by previous seasons. The show took home the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series during each of its first four years on the air, but it’s failed to win the award in recent seasons and, honestly, doesn’t deserve it this time around either.
Sure, the inclusion of Coca-Cola’s most famous ad may have been fun water-cooler fodder, but the episode as a whole was not Breaking Bad finale good. Nor does it forgive the show for it’s waning quality.
Early on, Mad Men was a truly ground-breaking period drama. The gorgeous 1960s aesthetics and smart use of the era’s big cultural moments served as an intriguing backdrop for the series’ initial storylines.
Don’s struggle to maintain his assumed identity as a mysterious lothario while also trying to bury his broken past was gut-wrenching to watch during the first few seasons. And despite all of his infidelities and short-comings, you can’t help but empathize with Jon Hamm’s character and hope that he can find some semblance of happiness.
But as the years went on, Don never truly finds peace and relapses back into alcohol, affairs, and depression too many times. These bad habits were initially interesting, however, they start to play like an old record when that’s all he does in the later seasons.
How many times does Don have to cheat on his wife or get lost in a bottle of whiskey before he finally learns his lesson?
It’s this lack of evolution that likely led to Mad Men’s recent Emmy shutout (the show hasn’t won in any category since 2011).
My fear is that Mad Men will get an unfair boost because the Academy may want to give it a nice send off with tons of golden statues in hand. This would be a disservice to the other nominees like HBO’s Game of Thrones and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, which have been huge hits among fans and critics.
Another fear is that Hamm will win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, an award he’s been snubbed for every single Emmy Awards since Mad Men debuted.
If it was 2008 or 2009, I’d say Hamm would be my only choice for the honor. The actor was brutally snubbed early on during his stint as Don, but that doesn’t mean he should get the nod now.
Fellow nominee Kevin Spacey has been nothing short of masterful as Frank Underwood in House of Cards and Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler made a huge splash this year in Bloodlines. Both are way more deserving of the award than Hamm.
Don is a favorite of mine, but he should’ve been lauded by the Emmys when he was truly the best character on TV.
If anything, Hamm deserves to win for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his hilarious run as Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Between films like Bridesmaids and Friends with Kids, the actor has proven himself to be a comedy powerhouse and, dare I say, is better at cracking jokes than he is at doing dramas (although he’s pretty good at those too). While he has stiff competition in the form of Louis C.K. and Mel Brooks, Hamm outshined his competition in this category and deserves the win.
But, if everything goes like I think it will, Hamm is going to get his first Emmy for Mad Men and the series as a whole will clean house. Too bad it’s four years too late.
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