AMC Keeps Teasing Us with Nothing’s-New-Here ‘Mad Men’s’ Promos

It's been well over a year. Don't the AMC suits think the ever-patient Mad Men fans deserve a little something new to tide us over until the two-hour season five Mad Men premiere on March 25? Although AMC did release a series of season five promos, all of them contain footage from previous seasons.

Despite the lack of new scenes, is there anything we can glean from the videos which might provide us with some clues as to what to expect in the fifth season? The choice of scenes and adjectives, may -- I repeat, MAY -- be informative, but likely only in hindsight once the season has concluded:

• Style, featuring Don Draper driving a red convertible along a shoreline
• Debauchery, featuring Roger Sterling, and then Don alongside Peggy Olson, drinking
• Deception, with Pete asking Don why he should keep something secret
• Adultery, punctuated by Joan Harris and Roger's impromptu baby-making session in a Manhattan alley after they were mugged
• Jealousy, showing Roger lunging at Pete as Don leaps between the duo

Sadly, the new videos didn't thrill me, nor have the teasers told us anything which, after the yawning gap between season four and this new one, was a disappointment. Show us a little ankle, a short new scene or a wry glimpse, something new, won't ya? It's not too much to ask.

The only image featuring a cast member that is fresh and new is one that I happened to see yesterday when I was outside of Zabar's in New York City. (I was in the city for a few days with the family.) It appeared on the side of a bus. A New York-based Mad Men fan posted a photo of the bus billboard I'd seen:

In this photo, Don's image is reflected in a store's front window where two, faceless mannequins -- a naked female one is standing next to a seated male who's wearing a red robe, striped pajamas and red slippers in what looks like a hotel room. Possible interpretations:

Don is looking at a glimpse of his past, the times when he would sit in a chair while some nameless, faceless female would parade around in front of him. (In the season three promo poster, an unsmiling

Don was pictured, seated in a chair in an office, casually smoking a cigarette while he's in some pretty treacherously deep water.)

Don is looking at a reflection of his current, philandering situation and hoping he won't be found out . . . again.

Don is looking at the faceless couple and imagining that he and Betty were back sharing a boudoir.

Don is looking at scene he'll soon have played out in his new life and in his new digs with his new, spry wife.

Either way, the photo is similar to the season three teaser photo featuring Betty, although Betty wasn't looking at her reflection and the window display contained a long, glamorous glove, perfume, pearls and a hat atop the head of a mannequin, which had a face:

Are the Mad Men/AMC folks just trying to string us along by telling us next to nothing? Speaking for myself, I find the lack of any real scraps irritating.

Image credits: AMC's Mad Men season five open thread and Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC.

Notes on Pop Culture: Mad at 'Mad Men,' Don Draper & Co. in Cartoons, 'The Big C' Finally Comes Clean

Mad at Mad Men

After allowing myself to stew about the Mad Men season four finale for a few days, I wrote this piece over on Mommy Tracked. The more I thought about the fourth season in its entirety, the more I became annoyed with how Betty Draper Frances was depicted as a distinctly unlikeable, unsympathetic character, as well as with Don’s choice of a substitute mate.

Other critics, including New York Magazine’s Emily Nussbaum, likewise weren't overjoyed with what has become of Betty ("While the ladies around her bloom, Betty hardens. Her character . . . gets even icier, vainer, more alien – nearly camp at times") and the New York Times’ Ginia Bellafante observed, in light of Don’s proposal to Megan, that the show exacted “vengeance on Faye for her lack of maternal instinct” and that Betty was portrayed negatively because of “her horrific one.”

The most interesting thing I discovered while researching my column: In season one, Don told Betty that she was a better mother than “anyone else in the world,” adding, “I would’ve given anything to have had a mother like you, beautiful and kind and filled with love, like an angel.”

Don Draper & Co., Cartoon Style

I’m still trying to figure out if this is some kind of a joke . . . but the internet is buzzing about these picture books that the UK's The Poke has created based on chain-smoking, expletive-spewing Mad Men characters.

The Poke has posted images of "Mr. Draper," "Little Miss Joan," "Mr. Campbell," "Little Miss Betty" and "Little Miss Peggy," and has posted the complete 17-page version of a book called “Mr. Sterling Gets Angry” in which there’s a debate over who drinks more whiskey, smokes more cigarettes and has more “inappropriate sex,” Roger Sterling or Don “I’m a goddamn sex machine in a suit” Draper.

I’d love to get these in print.

The Big C Finally Comes Clean

It finally happened, 10 episodes into The Big C’s freshman season on Showtime. Laura Linney’s Cathy Jamison character, who has spent most of the season not telling her husband and son that she has a serious, fatal case of melanoma -- and instead of getting treatment she had an affair, got her first bikini wax, bought a red sports car, took Ecstasy and punished her husband to the point where he finally asked for a divorce – finally told her husband, in the closing seconds of the episode, that she has cancer. NOW, things are going to get interesting. I reviewed this episode, “Divine Intervention” on CliqueClack TV.

Image credits: The Poke.