Darlings, the universe released new Mad Men pictures for all of us to spend time over-analyzing. Let’s get to it.

It seems that people might be on or near … planes this season. Hmmmm. Let’s all stroke our chins. Obviously, this means some or all of the cast die in a plane crash, of course. And some of those (fabulously old school) suitcases are blue and green and that equals ADULTERY! DUN DUN DUN!!!!

Look, we will state up front that we were guilty of it ourselves last season, but we sincerely hope people dial back on the feverish over-analyzing of this show for the upcoming season. We of course don’t mean people shouldn’t analyze it (we sure as hell spend an unhealthy amount of time doing so), but if they find themselves spinning out highly unlikely scenarios of Manson family murders and rogue CIA agents infiltrating Sterling Cooper (which, if we may remind you, were actual theories that got a lot of traction last season), then it might be time to, in the immortal words of Carla to Betty after she had one of her meltdowns, “splash a little cold water on your face and go outside.” Nothing wrong with theorizing for fun, but fan theorizing has taken a decidedly less fun turn as of late.

The reason this is on our minds is because of the True Detective finale, which, if you go by the online reaction is The Worst Thing Ever (until the internet decides on the next W.T.E.) and that reaction seems to be largely born out of several weeks of extreme over-analyzing and theorizing, none of which came true because none of it was ever the point of the story. This isn’t to say the True Detective finale – and the series as a whole – is above criticism. There were plenty of flaws. But most of the complaining has centered around how it didn’t pay off the dozens of fan theories that sprouted up in online commentary. We’re reaching a point where we can’t let the shows we love breathe and tell their story anymore. Hundreds of thousands of online commenters want to finish the story before the writers do. Then they criticize the writers for not telling the story they imagined was going to be told.

And we reiterate: we are guilty of this ourselves. We’re going to try to do better.

Anyway, they’re all on or near planes because Matt Weiner always said the series was pretty much oriented toward California as its endpoint and after last season’s finale, everyone has reason to be jetting back and forth. We guess this means Don got his job back and he’s still with Megan.

Love the stewardess uniforms.

[Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC]