Mad(lib) Men

What's inherently dramatic about advertising? Because this is a field that I would not have guessed to be overrepresented on the TV. Melrose Place (Heather Locklear), Sex and the City (Kim Catrall), ...um... Seinfeld? (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss). Whatevs. Point is, Mad Men does is better than anyone else. How, you might ask? Easy. One of these things is going to be in any scene, which is either awesome on its own, or because of the whole meta, isn't-it-funny-that-it's-in-every-scene thing:

• Smoking
• Drinking
• Joan

Here's the thing - I've only been watching the second season, and I don't even care what I've missed. I'm sure there's a ton of backstory, but who cares! Don Draper clearly hates himself, and he's mean to January Jones. Self-loathing that manifests itself in sabotaging one's own marriage? You had me at "self-loathing".

A well-deserved Emmy in my book. Also, Zoe Bartlett is surprisingly, surprisingly good. Ehh what the hell, here it is again - "surprisingly". Not that I've been unimpressed before, but wow, she absolutely nails that character. She's like a ninja that's behind on the bills and has to work as a temp to pay the bills - "I could whump all yall punks, but I'm stuck here with a stapler, Microsoft Excel, and a crushing amount of personal crap. But for real, I will destroy you all."

Lastly, mad props to The Onion AV Club and their blogging of MM. I never went to film school, so I use the AVC to learn about things like "direction" and "subtlety" and "lighting". First rate work, guys.