Mad Men Season 3 Begins With a Bang

Not to worry, I won’t reveal plot details for the Mad Men season 3 opener (Aug 16, 10pm ET, AMC) , except to say fasten your seat belts.

Matthew Weiner, who created the 1960s-set series, wrote this ep and his roots from The Sopranos show here. While I would never say anything is perfect television, this ep is close. There’s not a wasted word or moment in the entire opening episode. It’s that tight. Nothing, not even the choice of music, is insignificant. Like a wonderful piece of classical music, themes are introduced, developed, re-worked and then return later.

Close watching will yield hidden treasures. I’ll admit, I viewed this episode twice, in quick succession, and was captivated even more the second time than during the first quite enthralling go-round. Like The Sopranos, there’s so much to take in, gestures, costumes, small bits of dialogue that seem insignificant are not. There’s an homage to Hitchcock, a whack at today’s recession spoken in the board room of London Fog almost 50 years ago and as I said above, the music is key.

Addicts of this series probably already know the tag line for this season is “change,” and that hits you squarely, and relatively soon in the episode. As you might recall, the ad agency Sterling Cooper was going through some changes late last season. But hang on, some other changes are far more significant than that.

Fortunately, of course, what hasn’t changed is the superior writing, acting and characters. In fact, there are a few new characters in this episode who promise to add some deliciously juicy complexity to the already strained world of Mad Men. Yes, these are the times before the World Wide Web, but Weiner craftily has woven a web of intrigue that hopefully will sizzle for weeks. OK, can you wait until mid August?