Just to be clear, my long hiatus from the business was not entirely unintentional. After LA Law, I became obsessed with climate change and some new technologies that might help mitigate its effects and I focused a lot of my attention there.

The Flood is a good episode of Mad Men, especially in a Season 6 off to an uneven start. It came at a good time, too, reassuring that our characters are not all irretrievably stuck in tedious personal melodramas. That, actually, they can be very appealing people.

Mad Men is back, and I'm glad. Even though the two-part premiere episode wasn't perfect, it brought some keen acting, sharp dialogue, and stunning visuals. And it brought the show fully into the beginning of the fire that consumed the late 1960s.