Mad Men without Joan - Unthinkable!

So there is good news and bad news. The good news is Mad Men has been renewed for a fifth season the bad news is we have to wait another year for it.

A couple of weeks ago it looked like there was a real danger that Mad Men could have ended up just like Deadwood. A great show cut off in its prime because creative directors and networks just couldn’t get along. This doesn’t seem to be the case anymore but whether we get the same Mad Men back is a completely different matter.

Talks between Matthew Weiner and AMC stalled because AMC wanted to cut two minutes off of the show, put in product placement and axe two regular characters. Wiener was dead set against the changes and instead wanted $30 million to continue for the next two seasons.

Seeing as we now have a return date we can only hope that these problems have been resolved. We wont be getting episodes that are half an hour long, episodes without Don and Peggy and we wont be watching Roger drinking diet coke in front of the camera, I mean that would be ridiculous, everyone knows Roger only drinks Martinis.

However there is one little problem…

Now there’s a lot of speculation going around at the moment (and I stress speculation) but a worrying story is going around that what with the delay in filming it seems season 5 will be lacking one key character… the beloved Joan! I know, I know it doesn’t bear thinking about! It seems that Christina Hendricks has signed on to do some movie and filming for that and Mad Men is scheduled for the same time. Unless Hendricks has a twin (and we know that’s not true, there’s only one Christina Hendricks) then it looks pretty impossible that she is going to be able to do the two.

Anyone who watches the Mad Men will tell you one thing, Mad Men without Joany unthinkable! It would be like having 24 without Chloe, Lost with Kate, Glee without Rachel. She is the matriarch, the glitz and glamour, the brains behind the operation, the one who makes sure SCDP runs smoothly and keeps the men in check. Also if she doesn’t come back we would be missing out on the storyline of Joan being pregnant with Rogers baby. Not much happens in Mad Men, that’s a given but I thought this could have brought some major drama to the show.

Of course it wouldn’t be the first time shows have wrote out characters that are integral to the plot line and if AMC were so desperate to get rid of a regular character it seems they may well have go their wish. One thing I do know is that if Joan doesn’t feature in Season 5 then they better start working on a way to get Betty more involved because we cannot rely on Peggy to bring the sixties glamour.

I for one am slightly worried. Mad Men really is the best show on TV. It’s classy, visually perfect, the acting is second to none and every character is integral to the show. If all these changes means Mad Men is on the verge of jumping the shark then perhaps it shouldn’t come back at all.