So happy, as a fan and critic, to receive a big package Thursday with the first episode of the final season of “Mad Men,” premiering on AMC April 13 at 10 p.m.
It came in a lavish box with a picture book, a disc of press pictures (but only a card to a website for the screener). Best of all, it came with Matthew Weiner’s annual plea not to let any cats out of their paisley-colored 60s bag before the start of the season.
The guy is a stickler for secrecy with actors sworn to secrecy, a big lid on production news and the pleas to reporters once they get an early glimpse.
“I realize this makes your job in writing about the series very challenging,” he writes, “but the request comes out of my respect for our viewers and a desire to let them have the same experience you did when watching this episode — coming to it with as little preconception as possible.”
That’s fine, and certainly something reporters know how to do. We know not to give away endings (and still “The Bachelor” previews come without the rose ceremonies as if we will). But Weiner doesn’t want us to tell anyone if hairstyles had changed.
No, specifically he tells us to “refrain from mentioning key storylines” and specifically avoiding mention of the following,” after which he lists them. The what? The who? Where? Him?
By enumerating what not to say to spare the viewers, Weiner has of course spoiled all of these “key storylines” for reviewers.
Drat. Maybe he’s trying to show us how viewers getting spoilers would feel by listing them for us before we have a chance to log on to the screener.