TVSquad

(S03E06) What do disappointment, opportunities and snakes have in common? They're all themes in this episode of Mad Men. The British, in the form of Powell, Ford and Mackendrick came to Sterling Cooper for a visit, but what that visit meant was anybody's guess. The visit wrecking holiday plans for the staff -- no Independence Day for you, colonists -- was obvious irony and true nonetheless. And the Guy walking into the ad agency, well, it would be a hollow joke after this tragedy. More after the jump.

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...

Season 3 of Mad Men is set to premiere August 16th, so of course the cast and crew are busy shooting it right now. While we don't have any new footage yet, AMC has released a series of new promos for the upcoming season.The ads focus on the different aspects of the series: Drama, Romance, Comedy and Action.

The idea behind them is that there's a little something for everyone, and let me tell you: they're right. Don't believe me? Not only do you have the requisite Mad Men drinking, smoking and sleeping with inappropriate people, but you have Don Draper making a googly face and saying "Pat M'Groin." How can that be beat? IT CAN'T.

(S02E08) "Crab, Duck. Duck, Crab." - Roger, introducing Crab to Duck.

I have a 12-pack of Heineken in my fridge right now. I don't drink it, but my roommate does. So it's fun to see the Sterling Cooper gang going after the beer company.

But can I say that I don't get Betty's reaction at the party when it came to the beer? Sure, this is just one more thing that she feels Don "deceives" her about, but I don't think he was doing anything particularly bad to her. What is nasty are the boldfaced lies that he tells her when she confronts him about his affair with Bobbie. Though I wonder, what else can he do? I know, I know, tell the truth. But given what the truth is, he probably feels that he has to lie or he's going to be that guy in the credits, falling from the sky as his world collapses beneath him.

AMC.com has been holding a contest for the past few months where they asked fans of Mad Men to send in video tapes where they re-enact a scene from the show. The network supplied the specific scene and script and you had to film your version of it. They got tons of entries. Here are the 18 finalists.

Almost all of them are quite good, and you can see that many of these people could be actors (not that a few of them aren't already). My favorites are actually the ones where a male will take a scene featuring a female like Betty, Joan, or Peggy and really recreate the scene. Jacob Crumbine's video is in the lead right now, and it's great. Even if Mad Men didn't exist, I'd watch whatever show this was. Rebecca De Ornelas recreates one of Betty's psychiatrist office scenes and does it very well. Mike Kimmel does the same scene and he's a natural. Valerie Long's drunken chat with a lamp works too. Sabina Maschi's entry is very, very clever.

(S02E06) "If we were to take you to see some women in their underwear, would that be too much like work?" - Fred, to the Playtex guys

Is it just me or is Don's affair with Bobbie nastier than his affairs with Midge and Rachel from season one? Not just that it's rougher and more blunt, but the way that he's doing it. With Midge and Rachel, it seemed like a natural part of his life and it happened away from home and it was separate. This year it seems like he's making a lot of excuses to Betty about where he has to be, like tonight when he lies to her in the middle of the country club bash to call Bobbie. And there's also a meanness and a sadness to the entire relationship.

Having said that, I think I laughed more in this episode than any other episode of the show so far.

If you're a fan of Twitter, the site where you microblog using only 140 characters max for each post, then you might have heard that several Mad Men characters have been on the site too. At first many people thought that this was cool marketing by AMC or the producers of the show, but actually they were accounts created by fans and AMC didn't like that. Now they've forced Twitter to take down the accounts.

The accounts affected include Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and Joan Holloway, though several other Twitters from other characters on the show seem to be safe (for now). The official word on it is that it was a copyright infringement problem.

This is really too bad. Some of the most creative, fun posts on Twitter are being done by fictional people (not just Mad Men but others as well). I would hope that AMC would hire some people to take over the accounts for each character, to be the official Twitter bloggers for the show. It's a great way to market it.

Update: AMC and Twitter have restored the accounts!