The first part of this season is more pleasant to watch than the first part of last season. But until we know where we're going this season, I'm not sure how consequential it will all turn out to be.

So far, Mad Men, with the guidance of creator Matthew Weiner and the rest of the writers, has avoided backlash with its continued high quality. That ultimate safeguard has continued as Season 4 gets underway.

What "Seven Twenty Three" is is Don Draper's Waterloo. Or I should say, Dick Whitman's Waterloo. That's the day in 1963 on which Don Draper/Dick Whitman gets lassoed.

A satisfactory if not scintillating opener for the third season of Mad Men. The show captures the air of uncertainty that grips today's U.S. economy, and hints at major culture clash ahead.

There are a number of ways to view Mad Men. For my own part, I can take it as a period piece, a sort of time capsule of the early '60s, at once relatively close yet far enough away to be intriguing for its unfamiliarity.

Forever frozen in our minds in the early 60s, we can only wonder how our friends from Sterling Cooper, on a mad gust of nicotine, and pickled in booze, would vote tomorrow.