10 Shocking Twists That Would Improve Major TV Shows

10. Don Goes To Jail €“ Mad Men

Back in 2007 when Mad Men premiered, its protagonist Don Draper followed in a grand line of questionably motivated leading men that sometimes made you root for their misdeeds. He has been a family man who cheated on his wife (while being unhappy), a single divorcee who bedded lots of ladies (while being really unhappy), and again a married man who cheats on his wife (while being even more unhappy). But Don Draper is not really Don Draper, he is Dick Whitman, the bastard son of a prostitute who had, surprisingly enough, an unhappy childhood. I'm not a person who thinks Mad Men has dropped in quality over the years €“ in fact, I think season six was one of its finest. But just as the cycle of male antiheroes is dying down, Mad Men could use the opportunity their final season provides to really dig the antihero's grave. One of the ways it could do that is by having Don go to jail. Unlike dying, which several antiheroes have done before him, Don really needs to do penance for his crimes (both literal and metaphorical). Don has always been looking over his shoulder in case any agency is looking to track him down and reveal his true identity, and having a business executive go to jail for his crimes, even if they aren't necessarily because of his business practices, would be a fitting way to tie the end of the show to more contemporary times. But Mad Men will likely just end with another one of those musical montages in which every character's future is mapped out in front of the actors faces, which is fine, but it doesn't provide the same excitement that Don's incarceration would have for the show.