AMC's Mad Men is nothing less than the smartest, most thought-provoking, character-driven drama on television, featuring an absurd attention to detail in recreating the early '60s setting, as well as a knack for adding depth to even the most tertiary of characters....so why all the schmaltz and pretension in last night's episode? Sure, there was plenty to leave me salivating over the story potential for the coming season, but the execution seemed off; everything was either tonally obvious (trying to lure new viewers, left curious by the marketing blitz and torrent of awards?) or arrogant.
A few hours later, I stayed up to catch the first episode of season three of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and it's a miracle that show has even made it to three seasons, so I can be a little more forgiving that it ranked among some of the least laugh-inducing episodes so far. While the general premise of the episode--Tim comes back to life with the power of being able to generate porcelain tiger statuettes from out of thin air--was pretty good, something was missing, and a lot of the segments fell flat. Even the Dr. Steve Brule appearance was a let-down.It wasn't all bad though, and I want to stress that I'm not rushing to any judgments about how these shows are going to play out across the rest of the summer. I have high hopes for both because lord knows, Sunday nights could use a little kick in the ass every once in awhile.
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