TVSquad

(S03E08) "You don't kiss boys, boys kiss you." - Betty, to Sally

I think my favorite episodes of Mad Men are the ones that have a nice balance of Draper household drama and Sterling Cooper advertising drama. It seemed that this episode was going to tilt a lot - too much - towards the former, but about 20 minutes in, both worlds came together in unexpected ways -- Betty going on the business trip to Rome with Don and Pete running into ... well, someone at the department store. We'll talk about that more after the jump.

(S03E07) "Maybe I was late because I was with my family reading the Bible." - Don, to Conrad Hilton

I've never understood why some people say they can't get into Mad Men (or they watch the show and think the same thing) because "nothing ever happens." I think a lot of stuff happens in every episode, but a lot of it is done with silences and not something more intense. But even the people who think that the show is too "slow" will have to admit that like last week's episode, this episode had a ton of character development, mystery, and plot twists.

There was a real conundrum for Mad Men last Sunday night. Did you watch the Emmys and see Mad Men win as Outstanding Drama Series or were you tuned in to watch latest episode from Season Three? Of course, most of you reading are DVR owners and could watch one live and record the other, but watching an award show after you know the winners is a little like watching sports when you know the results.

Well, if a Mad Men fan has missed any episodes this season, or if they're piled up on the DVR/Tivo queue, making you feel guilty for not keeping up, here's an out. AMC is going to show a Mad Men Season Three marathon on Sunday, September 27, starting at 10 a.m. All six episodes will air up to the premiere of the last, episode seven, at 10 p.m.

Earlier today, Joel gave you an early look at season three of Mad Men. We're not sure what exactly to expect from the new season, but we know what happened in season two. If you haven't seen season two for some reason, or just need a quick refresher before Sunday's season premiere, here's a recap of the entire season in four minutes.

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.

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!

Since today marks the release of the first season DVD set for Mad Men, I thought I'd pass this little bit of news on to fans of the show: they're holding a contest and the winner gets a walk-on role on the show!

Now, this isn't one of those easy "send an e-mail" or "mail in a coupon" type of contest. You're gonna have to work a little bit for this one. You have to go to the link above and print out a monologue from the show and film yourself doing it. Then you upload the video to AMC's web site. The winner gets a walk-on in a future episode and a free trip to Los Angeles.

(S01E11) "I saw this one where the husband gets this girl pregnant, so he kills her ... you don't want to be that woman." - Rachel's sister, about Rachel's affair with Don.

Several episodes ago, after the episode where Don/Dick was reunited with his younger step-brother Adam, we all wondered if Adam would reappear. Had we seen the last of him? Would he cause more trouble for Don? Would he show up in the season-ending cliffhanger? Those questions were answered in the very first minute of tonight's episode, as Adam gives the hotel clerk a package to mail to Don and then promptly goes to his room and hangs himself.

I was not expecting that.

(S01E05)

"The story wasn't to my liking, but it shows an uncanny understanding of what other people like." - Roger

Am I a horrible, cynical person because I thought that Don was going to pull a gun out of his suitcase and shoot his step-brother? Oh, come on, you thought it too. The way they didn't show what he took out of his private, locked desk drawer, the way they set the scene in the hotel room with Adam talking to Don with his back turned, the way Don was waiting for just the right moment to reach into the briefcase. I thought the show was going to take a dark, Sopranos-like turn.