You could get vertigo tonight, scaling the heights of the finale of Mad Men on AMC, and then plumbing the depths of the tone-deaf misfire that is Viva Laughlin, premiering on CBS in the plum slot after CSI before moving to Sundays. There, only those with the most morbid curiosity to watch a show’s slow yet hopefully quick death are likely to follow (unless every critic I know is totally off the mark).First, a salute to the best and most fascinating new show to arrive on TV this year (and I’m even including my quirky new treasure Pushing Daisies in that equation). Mad Men, so hypnotic in its look and style as it recreates a classic movie-worthy image of 1960 Manhattan, is a period piece that says volumes about today, or about any era in which salary and status is tied to self-worth and where people construct a false reality to sell themselves on the American dream.Don Draper (instant star Jon Hamm) would seem to have it all. Besides the movie-star looks, he enjoys upward mo...
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With its season finale airing tonight, TV Guide lays out the top reasons Mad Men (10 pm/ET, AMC) is the show to watch.
1) The enigma that is Don Draper. He has matinee-idol looks, power and creative genius. Plus, he's a philanderer, a liar and god knows what else. What are we supposed to feel for this guy — contempt? Envy? Compassion? Yes, yes and yes, and never more so than by the end of the Oct. 18 season finale. Matthew Weiner, creator of AMC's sleeper hit, promises, "We will like him more. Don [Jon Hamm] is asking himself if he wants to separate from everything that is his humanity. He knows on some level he's a fraud, and you'll see him trying to have feelings."
2) Location, location, location! The marble lobby of Menken's department store, the dingy Deelite Coffee S
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Favorite line on any show I've seen all week: "Peggy, this isn't China. There's no money in virginity." That's Joan talking, the sexiest secretary in all of '60s New York advertising, once again stealing a scene in AMC's dazzling Mad Men with aplomb. Christina Hendricks, I salute you.It was another intensely enjoyable episode this week, which also grew my estimation for the performance of January Jones (what a name) as Don Draper’s quietly simmering, drop-dead-gorgeous Grace Kelly look-alike wife, Betty. How happy was she when, at intermission at Broadway’s Fiorello!, the ad guy wooing Don to jump agencies to the big time offered her a chance to get back into modeling (with the pause that refreshes). How fooled were we that this was just another ploy to lure Don away from “the tiny store” of Sterling Cooper? Not very. And neither was Don fooled. Betty, however? Very fooled. And very crushed when the opportunity vanishes once Don turns them down.Who can blame her ...
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InvasionUm, wow. Did I miss an episode, or a whole season? Whatever it was, I feel like I just watched a film, and the DVD was all scratched and kept jumping all over the place, but I somehow think I saw the whole thing. Kind of like those migrant workers emerging slowly from the swamps, with their eerie calm, mustaches and countenances that put the fear of Chuck Norris in us all. They knew. Knew about us — knew us as humans. Russ and Tom should have arrested them, but they were like animals, beings, souls — something to respect for one reason or another. Why would you arrest them? They're just doing their thing... catching fish and surviving. Who cares what they are? How cool was that? Very Discovery Channel. Very "big picture" for a show that's only been
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