Thursday, October 11, 2007

Sepinwall on TV: 'Mad Men' ending superb first season

Today's column looks back at this great season of "Mad Men" as the show heads towards its final two episodes:
"Who knows why people do what they do?" '60s advertising exec Don Draper (Jon Hamm) asks his wife in next week's "Mad Men" season finale.

For most television shows, that question gets answered early and often. Every nuance of every character's behavior, every motivational impulse, gets explained and then explained again, and maybe explained once more just in case the nice people on their living room couches don't understand why Horatio Caine hates crime or why Meredith Grey and McDreamy can't just settle down and be happy.

One of the keys to the genius of "Mad Men" -- far and away the best new show of the year, making every network rookie look lazy and dull in comparison -- is how often the series' writers resist the temptation to spell everything out in large print.

To read the full thing, click here.

7 comments:

  1. What, don't you think Jon Hamm is a pretty boy? He's quite gorgeous to me, though maybe you mean 20-something pretty boy.

    On the other hand, he could follow in Clooney's footsteps.

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  2. He's more in the ruggedly handsome vein than the Orlando Bloom types who seem to be all the rage at the moment, I'd say.

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  3. Some would say the film world has been taken over by the geeky boys (Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, etc.). Although maybe "The Heartbreak Kid" has ended all that.

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  4. That is, until Apatow's next movie ;)

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  5. Alan - Have you seen the final two episodes in advance? Will we be thrilled?

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  6. Hey, mad fans -

    AMC has clips up on their website from the Mad Men wrap party.

    http://www.amctv.com/videos/madmen

    Enjoy,
    LA

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  7. My stupid cable company just dumped AMC so I am not able to watch the finale tonight. I hear iTunes has episodes available for download, but it seems they still haven't posted last week's episode so I'm hoping maybe one of these days I'll get to see it. Grrr!!!

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