In a way, you have a greater challenge even than shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Justified.” They ended with very well-executed finales, but in some ways the nature of those shows sort of dictated what the finale should be.

What’s real for “Breaking Bad” is you have a genre that asked a question, and then you have to answer it and there’s only two answers. He dies or he lives. The end of “Breaking Bad,” he dies rescuing Jesse. To consider more options is to basically end up with “The Sopranos,” right? Christopher did not show up at the end of “The Sopranos.” Tony did not save him, and you [did not see] the Russian. That’s just not the kind of story it was. It never promised that. So, in terms of people feeling right now that I am not fulfilling a promise, all I can tell you is that we’re telling a story, this is the natural conclusion of the story.

Image Mr. Hamm and Kiernan Shipka. Credit... Carin Baer/AMC

You were a producer on “The Sopranos.”

It’s the greatest TV show ever.

Did David Chase [the creator of “The Sopranos”] ever take you guys in and say, “O.K., here’s what’s going to happen with the finale.”? Was there discussion?

Oh yeah, we heard about it long before it happened. Terry [Winter, a producer on the show who later went on to create “Boardwalk Empire”] and I did, for sure. And once David knew he wasn’t going to fire you, he would share that with you pretty early on. I don’t think anybody knew that it would be such an experience for people, positive and negative. You’re also getting some people who watched the end of “The Sopranos” who had never seen the show. And they were really angry. They were the angriest people.

Don’t start with the finale of a series, no matter the series.

Ending a TV show is not a natural thing to do. Nobody’s happy about it.