Mad Men returns. Thumbs up or down?

Can I confess here that I watched the show for about two seasons and got bored with it? It looks fantastic, but the characters are hard to like or root for.

And it's slow.

 

A lot of people watched it for a year, got bored, and stopped. I've watched off and on.

It's not that good of a show. You can't trust TV critics that much anymore. Too much groupthink, and every "legitimate" review apparently has to be 3,000 words.

 

1. Does Don Draper know that the woman he's cheating on his wife with was a Mathlete?

2. I always want a show's characters in a drama to crash and burn, so I'm all for all the developments of this opener.

3. Stan Rizzo's response to Don after the pitch was the laugh of the night for me.

 

Definitely wasn't a great premiere, but last year's wasn't either other than Zou Bisou Bisou.

Season 5 didn't really hit its stride until episode 3, then it was awesome for about six straight weeks.

 

I could have done without the entire Betty subplot.

 

I can understand why Weiner fights the publication of "spoilers." For a show like Mad Men, Don cheats on Megan is hardly a shock, nor do I think it really conveys what is going on. Same with Roger seeing a shrink, his mom and then his shoe shine guy dying.
To reduce this show to plot points misses the point of the show.

 

Very hit-or-miss, like Season 5 as a whole. Not enough going on, for a two-hour episode. But it had its moments.

Linda Cardellini just surpassed Eric Byrnes as the most accomplished St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) High Lancer.

For my money, the Grantland review almost as entertaining as the show itself.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/73390/mad-men-power-rankings-episode-601602-the-doorway is

 

Betty's bedroom talk was the weirdest moment in Mad Men history. Even weirder than Creepy Glen asking for Betty's hair.

 

That was bizarre. I had a girlfriend like that once.

She just had a poor sense of humor. Was always alienating our friends, because she was completely unable to tell the difference between a little twisted and completely inappropriate.

 

But I think it does change your view of a lot of things that happened previously. Not as much as the episode when Joan uses her body to get a client for the firm (and a partnership for herself), but similar.

Also, you was the guy who played Bob. So familiar for some reason and bugging the heck out of me. (EDIT: James Wolk, who was in Political Animals, which I watched. Had to look it up, of course.)

 

I read an interesting idea about this somewhere. Maybe Betty was intentionally trying to make the idea of bedding the teenage girl seem less appealing. If Henry was lusting after Sandy -- which I don't think he was, I think Bobby's obvious crush was enough to make Betty jealous -- then next time she crosses his mind he's going to have this off-putting thought instead.

 

Oh, absolutely. That was absolutely Betty's point.