You could argue the show has more awards than it has viewers: “Mad Men” is one of those TV gems outside the mainstream, a brilliant original drama on a little-known cable channel with consistently glowing reviews and Emmy nominations, and yet a smaller following than the lowest-rated broadcast network series.
Even so, it remains relevant, poignant and artfully constructed as it launches its fourth season.
The drama inside the reconstituted Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce begins anew, Sunday at 8 p.m. on AMC, with an hour titled “Public Relations,” drawing us into a new chapter of modern American awakening.
Last season, adman Don (Jon Hamm) left his wife and kids, and his professional home, the established Manhattan ad agency Sterling Cooper.
He also shed the secrets of his past by revealing his unhappy childhood and stolen- identity adulthood. What’s ahead? No spoilers here. It’s about redefinition.
“Who is Don Draper?” is the question that opens Season 4. Predictably, and thankfully, there is no short answer. We’re in for a full run of soul-searching and identity- seeking. (The premiere will air with limited commercial interruptions).
In Don’s reframe of what happened last year, he explains to an interviewer that he could have died of boredom but instead chose to “holster up my guns” and split from the established old agency. Like a good rebel colonist, he claimed independence from the British and launched an upstart band of free thinkers.
Here he is — “Tobacco Road” on the soundtrack — living in a bachelor pad, eating dinner in front of “Sky King,” the creative director at the scrappy new agency, confronting Betty over the suburban house he still owns.
He’s still learning to draw a line between ethical and not-so-ethical behavior, between good and bad public relations. He won’t tolerate the PR “shenanigans” of his underlings who create a ham-handed publicity scam around their client’s product. He will spin a glamorous version of his personal story for a classy publication like The Wall Street Journal.
While the characters’ mores and expectations are evolving at the speed of the 1960s space race as the season begins, viewers may miss the show’s brilliant portrayal of 1950s repression, the “Mad Men” touchstone since the series began in 2007.
We’re too quickly delivered into the new age, post-JFK, pre-Vietnam, skipping past the buttoned-down, moving on to turbulence. But isn’t that just like life?
“Mad Men,” it’s worth noting, is the most-nominated drama of the 2010 Emmy Award season. Matt Weiner’s series scored a nomination for best drama series (which it’s won for two years running), and acting nominations for Hamm, January Jones, John Slattery, Christina Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss and Robert Morse.
Starz honors Hopper.
Dennis Hopper, who died May 29, will be remembered by Starz Edge with a marathon in prime time Thursday. The tribute includes interviews with Hopper, remembrances of friends and five episodes of “Crash,” the Starz TV adaptation in which Hopper starred for two seasons as an erratic record producer.
Regional Emmys.
KUSA won the station excellence and news excellence awards in the NATAS Heartland Emmy Awards on Sunday, also picking up the journalistic enterprise nod for Deborah Sherman.
KCNC’s morning newscast, KMGH’s daytime newscast and KUSA’s 10 p.m. newscast shared honors.
Jace Larson of KUSA, and Tony Kovaleski and John Ferrugia of KMGH each won for investigative reporting.
Vic Lombardi of KCNC took top sports anchor.
And The Denver Post won for its online photo essay on childhood poverty in Colorado.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
