AMC and Don Draper: In the same boat?

The network struggles to duplicate that "Mad Men" magic.

November 12, 2010 at 12:25AM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
"Mad Men"
"Mad Men" (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Reports emerged late Thursday that AMC has canceled "Rubicon," a spy-conspiracy-thriller series inspired by the slow-building thinkpieces of the 1970s like "Three Days of the Condor" and "The Conversation." It comes just as AMC jumped on the early success of "The Walking Dead" zombiefest by quickly ordering up another season.

AMC has rightly trumpeted the critical, if not popular, success of "Mad Men." But might it be asking a little too much to expect every series to do that well? In fact, AMC might be just like Don Draper himself: Fresh off critical acclaim, looking to do more, yet fighting to keep above water and jumping into another commitment perhaps a little too early. Let's hope it comes with a little less drinking.

Always amazing to me, "Mad Men" fan that I am, is while that show seemed to grab the media imagination, AMC's "Breaking Bad" didn't garner as much popular pub, even as it garnered Emmys. A little less glamour in a meth-making chemistry teacher with cancer? Is AMC itself shortchanging "Breaking Bad," off the screen for months now? You make the call.

about the writer

about the writer

Vince Tuss

Night home-page producer

Vince Tuss is a producer working on the StarTribune.com home page most evenings. Before that, he was a copy editor and a night police reporter.

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