At Matthew Weiner's request, and due to our hatred of spoilers, we can assure you nothing below will ruin your enjoyment of watching the two-hour season premiere of Mad Men this Sunday. But since we're entitled media d-bags, we got sent an advance copy and watched it the other night at the office while skateboarding in the Gothamist HQ half-pipe pounding promotional alcohol and Tweeting all about it. It's a really strong start, and very funny! Here are some juicy hints—mere intimations—of what you have to look forward to. Look at these not like spoilers, but like one of Don Draper's ladies slowly loosening one button of her blouse.
1. We already know the show will jump a few years forward to 1966, when the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing and the Black Power Movement emerged. That year the Civil Rights Movement suffered its first major setback in nearly a decade, however, with congress turning back the 1966 Civil Rights Bill. So expect to see some protests, some stupid counter-protests, and some even stupider counter-counter-protests. That's not a spoiler, that's the sixties.
2. A few main characters have moved, and someone's been taking the train back and forth to suburbia... which was not very popular with everyone around this time. But in the premiere, we spend a lot of time in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office, which is so much more fun than Ossining or wherever January Jones is moping around these days.
3. Someone gets a cane! It's not who you think! We're not saying it's one of those canes with a sword hidden inside and that it's ultimately used to (accidentally) decapitate a secretary, but AMC only sent us the first episode.
4. Dick Whitman is alive and well, still looks impeccable with his shirt off shaving, and grimacing, and collapsing face down in a bed. And damn his new apartment is sweet. Is it a spoiler to say it's sweet in a swinging-'60s way? And that it's kind of ironic that the hunk finally gets an ultimate bachelor pad now that he's Sinking in Sands of Commitment?
5. Nothing is really revealed or even hinted at in the premiere, but as the season goes on, we suspect the framing of this photo will become more significant. Not necessarily in a romantic way, but the fact that Lane pays for Joan's breast reduction surgery is TELLING! (KIDDING!) (OR ARE WE?!)
If you don't have access to AMC, you can watch the show at any of these places on Sunday.
With John Del Signore
