What a great season for "Mad Men," no?

I've heard a lot of complaints about Mad Men being too focused on character development and not enough on plotlines, which is something I have agreed with on occassion. How am I supposed to know what every deep, meaningful stare is supposed to imply? But, I must say that this season of Mad Men rocked my world. Don't worry, I will refrain from spoiling.

Yeah, it was more focused on Don and Betty's marriage than the ad agency; sure it lacked too many scenes with Joan; sure we were missing Don's grandiose speeches given to clients about why their campaigns kick major ass; and okay, so it never addressed the whole Pete and Peggy baby thing. Fine, these are all valuable assertions. But, for me, this season finally touched on some important issues--namely the whole Don's past thing and how he and Betty will survive all the years of the lies and infidelities. In my opinion, that is the heart of the show. Of course it's always great to see the ad agency stuff, but, at the end of the day, the show is about Don Draper, and you can't delve into that without figuring out how his home life fits into the equation, which it often doesn't.

I'm gonna go ahead and say that this season was vastly superior to last year's, which was unyieldingly slow for me until the final episode. I wouldn't neccessarily say it was on par with season one, though, which was a fantastic season of television from start to finish. But, season three just kept getting better and better after a couple of bland episodes. Plus, Roger has been the MVP this year, offering up perfect zingers left and right that really keep the show from becoming downright dour at times (i.e. the season finale).

I don't want to spoil what happened in the finale, especially for you, Greg, but I can't help talking about the Draper marriage. I tend to sypmathize with Betty a lot of the time, even when a lot of people don't. It was a shitty time for women, who weren't given that many options. I mean, look at Joan, who is also stuck in a marriage that wasn't quite what she thought it would be, and Joan is anything but meek and mild mannered. And, throughout this season, I rooted for the Drapers--during the Derby when they shared their passionate moonlight kiss, and especially in Rome, when Betty was at her finest, speaking Italian and flirting with Don spectactularly. I've always wanted these crazy kids to get their acts together and stop treating each other poorly. Let's just say that last night was a kick to the gut for me, and I'm more than a little upset with Betty, who went from doting wife to just a plain brat in the last couple of episodes. I'm hoping next season won't ignore their relationship.

But, even with the unhappiness of the Drapers, I loved how the season ended, with a sense of hope and optimisim towards the future. Thankfully it's not all gloom and doom!