San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

The writing is a real thing of beauty - from the aforementioned nuance to searing workplace witticisms and pitch-perfect tone from a multitude of characters.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

Terrifically acted and gorgeously produced, this is a show that's both funny and frightening, that can simultaneously make you miss the '60s and feel blessed that they're gone.

Entertainment WeeklyGillian Flynn

The premiere jumps the series from 1960 to 1962, but it plays coy with most of last season's cliff-hangers, including the whereabouts of Peggy's son with married exec Pete Campbell (played with oily brilliance by Vincent Kartheiser). It's quite a tease, but the debut proves Mad Men is as smart as ever

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

Far from devolving into soapy Madison Avenue pablum, Mad Men is painstakingly building its way to genuine greatness.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

Mad Men returns for season 2 in excellent form: There's a rich and active subtext in this series, you just have to discover it.

NewsdayVerne Gay

Besides the fine acting, writing and an attention to period detail that borders on the obsessive, what makes this show so ambiguous and pleasantly iridescent is narrative tension

SalonHeather Havrilesky

There's a sense of gathering gloom as this exceptional drama gains steam in its second season, a feeling that the individual and his or her high-minded goals and values will be dragged under by the wheels of industry and the restrictive norms of the culture, all in the name of modernity and progress.

VarietyBrian Lowry

As with any great series, Mad Men is becoming richer as these plot strands grow, establishing an engrossing serialized life beyond the hip, reverberating cultural references that demonstrate the smoking-drinking-closeted '60s aren't necessarily "good ol' days" to be mourned, despite the cheery Norman Rockwell image that cultural conservatives proffer.

Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik

As hard as it might be to imagine after last year's dazzling debut, this period piece about life in a mid-sized Madison Avenue ad agency during the early 1960s returns tonight looking and feeling even stronger, smarter and more focused than it was.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

Mad Men beguiles like a Christmas catalog of all the forbidden vices, especially smoking, drinking and social inequity. Yet the series is more than a period piece. It’s a sleek, hard-boiled drama with a soft, satirical core.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

The vintage look carries a potent, contemporary kick. Here's the rare series that lives up to the advertising hype.

Slant MagazineAmelia Sims

This season holds promise, not lacking in the detail that makes the series so enjoyable.

Chicago Sun-TimesMisha Davenport

Based on the first episode of the second season, "Mad Men" is still one of the best series currently on television, if not the best.

New York PostAdam Buckman

While this Sunday's premiere gets the season started a bit slowly, Episode Two is the rarest kind of TV show there is - one that you hope will never end.

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

There is little in the way of "action"--it is possibly the slowest, most deliberative show on television, which is one of the things that makes it so lovely and mysterious.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

It plays at its own pace, a little more deliberate than other TV dramas, and its strongest moments are often understated.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

Mad Men relies on its talented cast to communicate the unspoken, to get across the emotions and thoughts that roil just beneath the surface. I'll admit, there are times when I know I'm supposed to intuit something but I'm not completely sure what it is. And that's OK.

TimeJames Poniewozik

It's true that Mad Men is deliciously curated, from the omnipresent cigarettes to the rocket-cone brassieres (and casual sexism) to the cool modernist sets. But the subtle, deliberately paced drama has a wider sense of history.

TV GuideMatt Roush

If the season premiere is heavier on atmosphere than plot, by the second week, stories begin to kick into full gear, and you’re caught up again in the turbulent marriages, personal secrets and caustic office politics that make Mad Men so madly, marvelously mesmerizing.

SlateTroy Patterson

The tempo, thus far, is notably deliberate; the show's got mortality on its mind.