This Weekend, It's a Mad Mad "Mad Men" World

It's a great weekend for Mad Men fans. First, Jon Hamm, the talented star of that show, is the guest host of this week's new edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live. Then, on Sunday, AMC presents the second-season Mad Men finale.

That's a terrific one-two punch, and it couldn't happen to a better show.

One unique element of Mad Men is its pace -- and the more the show delves into the deep secrets of its characters, the more that distinctiveness becomes obvious, and delicious. The series not only dramatizes another time, but takes its time.

Scenes are not rushed. Moments are not juggled at lightning speed. Viewers are allowed to feel what the characters feel, even when those emotions include awkward silences and pregnant pauses. Hamm is wonderful with dialogue -- but even better shading the quiet between the lines.

Mad Men isn't the only quality Sunday drama on TV right now -- after Sunday's finale, we'll still have a few more episodes of this year's Dexter on Showtime and True Blood on HBO. But it's not a show to take for granted, and it's nice to see it acknowledged not only by Emmys, but by SNL.

SNL, Emmys, quality, buzz -- the same things in play for Mad Men also are in play with Tina Fey and 30 Rock, which returns next week on NBC. All three episodes of SNL's Weekend Update Thursday are being repeated by NBC Saturday night at 9:30 ET, as a springboard into the new edition of SNL. Fey, as Sarah Palin, is featured prominently in those shows.

And if she shows up again on Saturday Night Live, on the same show as Jon Hamm, it'll be an intersection of two soaring trajectories, featuring two of this season's hottest TV talents. Definitely TV Worth Watching...