No One Loves Dick Whitman...except I love Mad Men

Mad Men is back.

Now that I've had some time to process the premier, I'm ready to say that I liked it. I didn't know how I felt about it at first, but let's face it, ambiguity is kind of the point with Mad Men, so I've decided that I liked it.

I loved the way things lined up. I love Megan and Don's marriage. I love that she knows about Dick Whitman and vehemently doesn't give a shit. I love that Peggy is still pissed about Megan. I love that Joan loves being a mother to her and Roger's son Kevin, but she still wants to get back to work, and doesn't feel guilty or torn about it at all. (This is why Joan kicks ass, by the way.) I love that Roger and Jane's marriage continues to deteriorate. Because that's what happens Roger, when you leave awesome Mona for someone who isn't Joan! I love that Don hated the stupid surprise party Megan threw him as much as the stupid dinner parties that Betty would throw.

I really love that just about everyone's situation has changed except Pete. Because Pete is just a douchebag. Also, I love that we saw Trudy and not Betty. A lot of people didn't like that. But I thought it was awesome. Because Betty is terrible. I don't just mean that she's a bitch (she is) or that she's crazy (also, yes) I mean that she's a terribly boring character. Now that she's not married to Don, really, who cares? I don't care about her life with Henry except Sally's there. And Sally Draper is my favorite kid on TV (Sorry Luke Dunphy and Arya Stark, you guys are good too, just not Sally good.)

Anyway, I'm psyched Mad Men is back, and I've spend the past few night staring at 60's dresses on eBay for that reason.

It's the Beat of Her Heart: The Promise of Smash and The Failure of Glee

It started out small. A breath, a tiny little line that struck a chord with a few hundred people in this world:

"Being a part of something special makes you special, right?"

When nearly four years ago, Rachel Berry earnestly said those words to Will Schuester, we all exhaled. It was here. It had been threatening for so long, the re-mainstreaming of musicals. We'd been hoping since Chicago, living through Camp, and High School Musical, and Dreamgirls and You're the One That I Want, and a dozen other misfires. But this, this little show, about a glee club in Ohio, this was the one we were waiting for.

How quickly we were proved wrong. Yes, Glee was plenty mainstream. And yes, some of it's elements do musicals proud, but it lost focus somewhere along the line and became instead of telling a coherent story aided by song and dance (and sometimes told through them) a convoluted mess of unresolved plots, inconsistent characters and uninspired pop covers.

Three seasons later I'm still watching, but I don't know why. I rarely enjoy it anymore, and end each Tuesday night at 9, frustrated that this promising baby, born of two genres I love, musicals and teen dramadey never delivered on it's promises.

Glee was a false savior. But I think it did a more important job, which was to provide television a platform for Smash.

If you haven't been watching, Smash is a brilliant new show on NBC about putting on a Broadway musical, starring among others, Debra Messing, Angelica Houston, the guy that played the Commodore in The Pirates of The Caribbean, and a stable of Broadway actors (Will Chase & Christian Borle to name two of them.)

But that's not the main event. The main event is the two female leads, played by American Idol runner up Katherine McPhee and Broadway vet Megan Hilty. They play two girls vying for the coveted role of Marilyn Monroe in Marilyn: The Musical. The two couldn't be more different. Hilty is a veteran chorus girl named Ivy Lynne, who has been working Broadway for ten years, and McPhee plays Karen Cartright, a fresh face new comer from Iowa who is seriously talented. You probably saw the endless promos featuring her singing Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful." That was a great moment but there have been endless amazing musical moments since then. I even don't hate Nick Jonas anymore because he was totally endearing singing "I Just Haven't Met You Yet" in episode 3.

All of the characters are compelling, the plot lines a wonderful and soapy, and apparently the logistics are absurdly realistic (if slightly heightened for dramatic effect.) Smash is doing amazing things, and I can't wait to see where it goes. Of course, six episodes in, there was still a lot of hope for Glee too.

But Glee didn't open their sixth episode with Bernadette Peters singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses." So point, Smash.