'Mad Men': Gone 17 months, still flawless

The world has changed and so has theirs. The Civil Rights movement has asserted itself. The war in Vietnam is accelerating. Last question: Will these characters change with the times, or is character writ in stone?

Problem is, pop culture tends to be about the immediate future ("The Hunger Games") and not the distant, receding past. The assumption on the part of warring parties is that we would still care. The assumption's a good one -- we will -- but what showrunners Matthew Weiner and his key creative partner Scott Hornbacher have done is pretend those 17 months never even happened. Just assume this was a normal break, friends.

There's no attempt at "catching up"; no expository dialogue that attempts to fill in the gap, however slightly. It's all sink or swim time -- get on board immediately with these characters' private lives . . . or don't. That's wise because real fans (of course) demand that. It's a bit presumptuous too, and there are a couple moments when the two-hour opener feels more like work or a memory test (what was that beef between Pete and Roger again?) than pleasure.

But those moments are rare. "Mad Men" is back and back in all the right ways -- the humor, the writing, the period details, and best of all, the flawless attention to these characters and their cluttered interior worlds.