JanuaryJones-related stories
Posted Nov 9th 2009 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Mad Men

That was
some Mad Men finale, wasn't it? If you haven't seen it yet, please stop reading now, because there was just too much going on for me not to just launch into some discussion.
OK, I'll wait until after the jump to really get into things. But, suffice to say, the end of season three left some characters going down a pretty well-determined path, but others have entered a sort of limbo state, where we don't quite know what their roles will be in season four.
Continue reading Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Posted Nov 4th 2009 8:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men

The assassination of JFK on
Sunday's episode of Mad Men may have been the catalyst for Betty Draper's "awakening," but it's been a long time coming.
Here comes my rant: I, for one, am sick and tired of seeing the women in this show get walked all over! I know it's the way things were back then, but the times they are a changin', so I'm hoping we'll get to see more women stand up and take charge of their lives.
I was cheering when Betty stood up to her lying, cheating, skank of a husband Don and told him she didn't love him anymore. Bonus points for driving off to meet your lover, Betty. Hopefully, he won't cheat on you.
Now if Joan would leave her loser fiance who raped her at the office and then went about his business like nothing happened -- that'd be the icing on this women's movement cake. I'd say that she and Roger Sterling belong together, but she's too good for him.
Posted Oct 21st 2009 10:29AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men

So ... Betty Draper is starting to get an inkling of Don's dark and secret past on
Mad Men. In
Sunday's episode, she found the box with all his secret things. Really, you'd think he would keep it in a safety deposit box or something. You can't just leave that stuff lying around the house, even in a locked desk drawer. Someone's bound to find it, just as Betty did.
My question is what will Betty do with this important information? She' s already been stung by Don's affairs, and now she's got
this to contend with.
Continue reading What will Betty Draper do?
Posted Oct 7th 2009 9:29AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men

For all of their problems and dalliances,
Mad Men's Don and Betty Draper are one sexy couple. Sunday's episode, "
Souvenir," was another stellar offering, and one of my favorite scenes was when Don and Betty pretended to be strangers in Rome, then went back to their room and made sweet love.
It made me swoon, not just because they're two really handsome people (her beehive-type hairdo was something else), but also because I felt like I was part of the whole deception involving the Italian guys at the cafe. Very fun.
And this, after Betty accepted a kiss from Henry Francis after the courtroom scene. She's such a cold fish with these things, and I have to wonder if she's just doing it to get back at Don for his affairs. She doesn't seem to enjoy the attention of other men. She doesn't seem to enjoy much of anything.
Bob likened it to Revolutionary Road, and I quite agree. And it's no wonder Sally has repressed anger issues. She comes by it honestly.
Posted Sep 17th 2009 4:35PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show, Ratings, Reality-Free, Mad Men

Does it seem like somebody lit a fire under Oprah Winfrey? It seems like it to me. Her new season commenced this week with
the Whitney Houston two-parter, she's off to Central Park for tomorrow show which will relaunch Oprah's Book Club, and on Monday
Oprah's doing a flashback to the 1960's with Mad Men's Jon Hamm and January Jones as guests.
Continue reading What's gotten into Oprah?
Posted Aug 9th 2009 4:15PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men, Jane After Dark

First of all, I have to say that I'm terribly distracted at the moment, because my daughter is watching
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even though
I just watched it a few months ago, I wouldn't mind watching the entire series again from start to finish. But, alas, there are other things in my stack o' DVDs, so I'll have to be content with hearing it in the background while I work. She just watched the first two eps, and I had totally forgotten that Darla showed up in the very first episode. Interesting. Anyways...
I'll get back to
The Wire -- I still have season five to watch -- but this week's
Jane After Dark is all about
Mad Men. Sometimes I fall deeply and madly in love with a TV show, and that's how it is with AMC's love letter to the 1960s. I raced through season one right after it was released on DVD, but stupidly waited for season two on DVD. I bought it last week and watched the entire season, devouring it like a hearty tenderloin that's perfectly cooked, so I'd be caught up for the season three premiere on August 16. If you haven't watched season two yet, spoilers follow after the jump...
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Mad Men, season two - Meditations on a stylish TV show
Posted Jul 29th 2009 2:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free, Mad Men
I'm not going to lie to you: Pretty much my whole life right now is leading up to the Mad Men season 3 premiere on August 16. I'm so excited, I'm practically vibrating. You can judge me if you want, but I'm perfectly fine with my priorities.
Anyway, like the rest of the internet, I have been salivating for any Mad Men morsel that AMC deigns to share with the unwashed masses. So, yes. I was super-psyched about the water-logged Don Draper promo poster that came out a few weeks ago, and yes, I totally Mad Men'd myself.
So obviously, I was ridiculously excited to see that Zap2It had a whole crop of new Mad Men promo photos. Jon Hamm! January Jones! Christina Hendricks! John Slattery! There may be a chance that there's a more conventionally good-looking cast out there, but I defy you to find a sexier cast on television. Seriously. If you have any suggestions, I welcome them, because I cannot imagine anything you would actually come up with that would beat the power, glory, and pure sexiness of Mad Men.
Posted Jul 14th 2009 2:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Friday Night Lights, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, Mad Men

The actresses who have been competing for the Primetime Emmy award in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category these past few years are some of the top names in the business. Two-time Oscar winner
Sally Field for
Brothers & Sisters, multiple Emmy winner -- including last year's award --
Glenn Close for
Damages. Previous winner Mariska Hargitay for
Law & Order: SVU. Oh, yes, there's also
Saving Grace's Holly Hunter, another former Oscar winner, and Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick for
The Closer.
All these ladies are worthy of winning nominations again, and it wouldn't be surprising to see one or all of them nominated. But if I were to have a say, there are some other women I hope to see recognized when the Primetime Emmy nominations are announced this Thursday.
Continue reading Emmy Wish List: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Posted Oct 6th 2008 9:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E10) This seemed an oddly structured episode, with the emphasis more on Betty than Don, with a splash of Pete and Kinsey thrown in. The idea that life was simpler in the old days, should anyone still think that adage applies, is disproved with every hour of
Mad Men that unfolds.
For Betty, the impending death of her father has shaken her to the core. A series of strokes has led to dementia and when Don accompanies Betty to visit him in her childhood home, she has to come to grips with not only the fact that he's slipping away, but also be reminded that nearly every vestige of her mother has also gone.
Continue reading Mad Men: The Inheritance
Posted Jul 20th 2007 8:08AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Mad Men
(S01E01) I think it's really appropriate that the Emmy Award nominations were announced on the same day this show premiered, because if there's any justice in this TV land, we'll be hearing a lot about Mad Men at this time next year.
The television landscape is filled with a lot of shows that are just the same as other shows on other networks. Even when we say "there's nothing else like this on TV right now," it's usually not true. There's usually something a bit (or a lot) like the show we're talking about. Mad Men is one show we can truly say is rather original. Of course, it's original by being retro. It's New York City, 1960. The world of Madison Avenue advertising men. And it is men, as most of the women are in the secretarial pool or gum chewing telephone operators.
But the women have power too, in ways the men don't see.
Continue reading Mad Men: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (series premiere)