Season three of AMC's
Mad Menbegins Sunday at 10 p.m. ET -- and once again, it throws you into a 1960s world that's fascinating for both its retro contrasts to today, and for its unsettling similarities. It's one of the very best shows on television, and returns this weekend without missing a step...
When we left off at the end of last season, Jon Hamm's Don Draper had walked away from Sterling Cooper after the new British owners had designated a rival as president, and Don's wife, Betty (January Jones), told him she was pregnant. The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was averted at the last minute, but what about Don's future?
Sunday night, as the third season begins, we don't learn about Don's future until we get a glimpse into his most distant past. We see him heating a small pan of milk on the stove, but the kitchen suddenly gives way to a different place, and to a strange room, with a woman in bed, attended to by a doctor.
What we see next aren't Don's memories -- they can't possibly be -- but are his impressions, based on what he's been told, of the circumstances of his birth, and even the genesis of his name. Only after that prologue do we get our bearings and learn where Mad Men is picking up its narrative in season three.
The good news -- and it's not a spoiler, because it's been out there, and occurs in the opening minutes -- is that Betty is still pregnant (which means series creator Matthew Weiner, who wrote the opener, hasn't leapfrogged over the John F. Kennedy assassination), and that Don is back at work at Sterling Cooper. That's where, with the plots focusing on firings and unsettling changes, the events of Mad Men echo, with uncomfortable resonance, what's happening to most of us today.
I love, but won't describe, what happens Sunday to some of the regular characters, especially Christina Hendricks (above) as Joan, but it's delicious to watch. My full review of Mad Men for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, with a couple of clips from the show, can be heard (after about 5 p.m. ET Friday) by clicking HERE.
For here, for now, put it this way: Mad Men is exactly the kind of show TV WORTH WATCHING was created to champion. And celebrate.