And of course, the deeper we get into the 60’s, the closer we come to seeing their way of life come to an end. The hippies are coming. Disillusionment is around the corner. History is going to pass Don Draper by, and it’s not going to be pretty. (Sidenote: Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see Paul Kinsey fall under the thrall of a Timothy Leary-style guru?) Are we going to see the old Sterling Cooper crew again? I mean, Ken Cosgrove is basically the top man over there right now, and I would love to see what that entails. What about Sal? Will we see him again, or is he going to turn out like Furio from The Sopranos, disappearing for good with barely a good-bye? Speaking of The Sopranos, well, if you read our Roundtables, you may have noticed that I’m mildly obsessed with comparing Mad Men to that other show where Matthew Weiner made his name. I’m constantly looking for parallels and trying to decide whether, ultimately, Mad Men or The Sopranos is the better series. For the most part, Weiner avoids most of Sopranos’ honcho David Chase’s more obvious indulgences, but the field’s still wide open. By the end of its third season, The Sopranos had delivered both its best (“Pine Barrens”) and worst (“To Save Us All From Satan’s Power”) episodes, though the fourth season was overall the weakest of the entire series. Mad Men ended its third season with three straight episodes that were absolutely stunning. We saw Betty discover Don’s mystery box, the cast react to the Kennedy Assassination, and the birth of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. If Season Four follows this momentum, I’m going to have to commit to Mad Men as the better series. And finally, after seeing Alison Brie on Community and her Funny or Die videos, is anybody else going to be crushing on Trudy Campbell? I swear, I’m going to be even sadder than usual when Pete is inevitably awful to her. Myndi
