The Year in Xmastime: April

A Few Random Thoughts on Last Night's Mad Men Season Opener

- I know it's supposed to be a way of announcing "hey look, it's 1968!", but rolling out the 60's haircuts was clownish. Camon. I didn't even recognize Ginsburg and Stan until after they had said a few lines. There's no way Harry Crane didn't look at those mon chi chi chops and think you know what, I look like a fucking idiot.

- Speaking of which, is that the worst-looking creative team ever? Wtf? Looked like total losers plucked off the street, with the mother from What's Eating Gilbert Grape? thrown in. Christ. Maybe Draper really IS the sole brain behind the whole thing, cause these people look baffled.

- Same thing with Peggy's crew. How are these retards getting paid?

- Roger was fucking golden with LOLs; my favorite was his reply to his secretary answering that his mother died in the bathroom: "Well, I asked."

- So someone can cheat on Megan? Ladies, it's official: there's no hope for you.

- The thing I'm getting tired of the whole Don Draper's guilt over not being the "real" Don Draper is that it's not as if he waltzed into the dude's life already built. The career he built was all on his own, he's a millionaire, and he bangs hot chicks all day long. It's not like he came back from the crusades claiming to be King Richard, for fuck's sake. So while I can appreciate his whole existentialism thing, lighten the fuck up already.

- Nice to see Sally Draper's coming along right on schedule as the most demonic teenager ever. This kid's gonna scare Carrie at the fucking prom.

- Henry Francis' relentless decency is becoming annoying. He and Ken Cosgrove need to get caught jerking off little boys in a bus depot. And soon.

- Of COURSE the Drapers are in Wakiki in the 60's, since that's where all those post cards are from. I never feel like I'm ever of my own time; I probably would've been one of those assholes when The Beatles came over who was shouting "yo, whatever happened to The Four Seasons?!"

- I remember once reading John Cale say that when he and Lou Reed lived on St Mark's Place they were so poor they couldn't fix the toilet so after they took a crap they'd hurl the shit out of the window. We already know the writers hate January Jones; how great would it be if when Betty's standing outside the building a turd comes flying down and hits her in the head? and with Weiner's slavish devotion to authenticity, wouldn't they love to make it real? Ha!

- On a more general note, I love how a huge part of the show is Don wandering around feeling bad about what a shitty person he is, kicking himself for being a craven, self-destructive douchebag, but when someone calls him on his bullshit he seems so genuinely offended. Awesome.