Mad Men Return Slow but Satisfying

Critics eager for the return of Mad Men weren't blown away by the first episode of the fifth season—but that doesn't mean the show has lost its magic. What they're saying:

• "I'm glad to have Mad Men back, but 'A Little Kiss' was not a great episode," writes James Poniewozik in Time. "There were moments that seemed tonally off" and "almost sitcom-like," but it's forgivable: With this show, return episodes "take their time and do a lot of table-setting."

• In Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker notes that the episode is "slow" to start. Still, it contains "magnificent set-piece scenes that remind you not just how good the series can be, but also how different it is from anything else TV has seen."
• Don Draper was very different, writes Chuck Klosterman in Grantland. This guy "is not the man we are supposed to know," he notes. "He is uninterested in the life he created; the job that once defined his ethos is now an empty, unsatisfying nuisance."
• Sure, it was "rather mundane in its outlines," but that's no problem, observes John Swansburg in Slate. "After 18 months, we Mad Men fanatics were desperate just to spend some quality time with the gang again."

If you're going bananas over "Zou Bisou Bisou," the song featured on the episode, click here. (More Mad Men stories.)