You seem to acknowledge the futility of the process yourself what with your "vomit" comments opening the review. In general, you don't seem to have a very high opinion of your own work, which leads me to believe you are aware of how trying to stay on top of the pagehits game leads to digressive, formless writing.

@paraclete_pizza:disqus http://www.avclub.com/artic…

I'm not saying Mad Men isn't about big themes, or that I'd prefer simple recaps. It's that I think Todd as a writer is not capable of writing about these themes in a way that actually says anything.

Say you were being "snide," and not just backpedaling because someone called you out, say it was a joke. It's not couched or presented as a joke within the context of the review. How are we supposed to know not to take this seriously? What does saying that in jest say about Mad Men, this episode, anything, really?

I'm sad about the state of affairs of the AVClub, seeing as I've been a reader since 2006.

You realize I am mocking his overuse of the phrase "to a very real degree," which opens not one but two paragraphs? These reviews rarely appear to be edited, or edited by anyone competent. Not to mention that it's a lazy, hackneyed phrase often overused by pretentious media critics.

Todd, I hate to say this but you are, to a very real degree, continually disappointing with not just these Mad Men recaps but the whole of your television coverage. The progression towards lazy, nebulous rambling, concerning either the supposed themes of the episode at hand or some personal tangent, has been going on…