AMC
Hard truth: Mad Men is over. After seven seasons and 92 episodes of pure delight and even more pure pain, AMC’s latest masterpiece has wrapped up, sailing off on a big puff of “ooooom” and the lingering sugary scent of a bunch of hippies holding glass bottles of Coke (delicious). The series’ legacy already seems clear – it heralded in the New Golden Age of Television, it made AMC a viable network for original programming, it made people care about the best way to sell cigarettes and nylons to past generations – but what of the copious talents that walked it hallowed ad agency halls? Mad Men may be done, but at least we have a lot to look forward to from the show’s biggest stars.
What’s everybody up to next? Let’s find out.
Jon Hamm (Don Draper): Hamm always made time for select film projects during Mad Men hiatuses, and now he’ll have still more time to appear on the big screen. His silky smooth voice – it’s toasted! – will next grace Minions, out this summer (he stars as a character named “Herb Overkill,” which is wonderful). Hamm will also turn up in the new Wet Hot American Summer Netflix series, First Day of Camp, as a dude named Falcon. In 2016, he’ll star alongside Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher in Greg Mottola’s Keeping Up with the Joneses.
January Jones (Betty Francis): You can catch our dearly departed (right? probably?) Betty in theaters now in Good Kill, and with The Last Man on Earth already set for a second season, she’ll probably appear on the small screen again before you can even miss her.
Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson): Moss will next star in Truth, based on the final days of Dan Rather’s tenure at CBS (the film just sold at Cannes), followed by a turn in Ben Wheatley’s much-anticipated High-Rise. Here’s hoping she soon finds the time for another twisty feature like The One I Love, still my favorite big screen Moss turn.
Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell): It’s been a good month for Kartheiser, thanks to a stellar appearance in Amy Schumer’s already-legendary 12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer, and Mad Men finale that saw his Pete Campbell edging up on both redemption and happiness. He’ll next appear in Andy Goddard’s twisty-sounding thriller The Blunderer, and he recently wrapped work on Zoe R. Cassavetes’ Hollywood-centric Day Out of Days.
Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris): You can catch Hendricks in Ryan Gosling’s Lost River, which recently hit home video, presumably while you wait to see Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, which sounds fantastic and is due out in 2016. She will also star in the TV series Another Period, a send-up of period pictures that sounds uproarious, and she’s gearing up to star in Cameron Crowe’s TV movie, Roadies.
John Slattery (Roger Sterling): Slattery has some excellent stuff on deck, thanks to roles in both the MCU’s Ant-Man and the upcoming Spotlight, which will see him starring as Ben Bradlee Jr. in the true story of the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of various molestation charges. Along with Hamm, he’ll also star in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp.
Aaron Staton (Ken Cosgrove): Staton will next pop up in The List, a genuinely quirky-sounding romantic comedy from Harris Goldberg.
Rich Sommer (Harry Crane): Guess who is also in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp? Can you guess? Oh, you guessed. Sommer will also appear in My Name Is David, which sounds wrenching (it’s about a guy who finds an abandoned baby in the subway), and the TV movie Good Session, about couples therapy.
Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper): Shipka is doing the horror thing next, thanks to Oz Perkins’ February, a boarding school-set thriller that sounds creepy as all get out. She’ll also soon be seen in Fan Girl — which, hey, I’ve already seen! – which puts her sassy teen wiles to work in a contemporary setting.
Jay R. Ferguson (Stan Rizzo): Dreamy siiiiigh. Ferguson has a bunch of good stuff lined up, including the comedy Killer Set, Fabrizio Conte’s nightclub-set Club Life, and the brand new television series The Real O’Neals (where he’ll star as the patriarch of a family upended by the news that their youngest son is gay).
Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell): You can still catch Brie weekly on Community, but she’s also about to flood the multiplex. The long-delayed Get A Job looks to be coming out sometime this year, and Brie recently wrapped the very charming-sounding No Stranger Than Love. She continues her (extremely welcome) assault on the rom-com with a role in How To Be Single, alongside Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson. Later this year, you can catch her in Leslye Headland’s Sleeping With Other People, still one of my favorite films of the year.
Mason Vale Cotton (Bobby Draper): Vacation?
Stephanie Drake (Meredith): Give Meredith work now.
Kevin Rahm (Ted Chaough): First of all, can we take just a moment to consider our last glimpse of Ted? After happily toting around a pair of boxed lunches – one for him, one for Don, so sweet – we left Ted alone with a bunch of McCann Erickson dudes, listening to the New Don Draper pontificate on beer or something. Our farewell to Ted is getting less play, simply because he’s not part of the core group and probably because he exited before the show’s final two episodes. Still, Ted’s send-off was both very appropriate and somehow totally heartbreaking. Good luck, guy.
Anyway! Rahm also stars on Bates Motel, and you can probably catch his Friends episode sometime today (if you like to watch Friends reruns as much as I do). More work for Rahm!
Jared Harris (RIP, Lane Pryce): You can see Harris next week in the Poltergeist and, after that, he’s got roles lined up in Sean Penn’s The Last Face, the big screen The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Kelly Reichardt’s currently untitled new feature.
Teyonah Parris (Dawn Chambers): Like Dawn, Parris will be just fine – she’ll next appear in Five Nights in Maine and Where Children Play, both due out sometime this year.
Robert Morse (RIP, Bert Cooper): Dancing through our hearts somewhere, probably.
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We miss you already, Mad Men, but this will just have to do.
