If having everyone you know on Facebook and Twitter get one of those Mad Men Yourself avatars wasn’t enough, get ready for the real onslaught of publicity for season 3 of the show. (I’ve seen the first three episodes and will be reviewing—the third episode, in particular, is one of the series’ best ever.)
One good place to start is Bruce Handy’s vast, insightful and juicy feature on the series, which among other things delves into the story of how HBO passed on the project, which ended up remaking AMC. You might think that after all the acclaim and a nice new contract, Matthew Weiner would be past it, but—probably to the benefit of his art—he doesn’t seem like the kind to get past things.
Weiner, a protege of David Chase on The Sopranos, tells Handy, “I would go through David Chase’s garbage if I was at HBO, trying to find more of what he does. But they were not like that.” But one man’s un-dug-through garbage is another man’s treasure.