Contrary to popular belief, absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. There have been several instances -- Futurama we're looking at you -- where a show has left the airwaves for a prolonged period of time and, after some initial discontent, we got used to it being gone. Then when it returned, it seemed noticeably diminished; the familiar elements were there, but the magic was missing. (Honestly, we have the same fears about the upcoming Arrested Development reunion. The finale ended the series on a perfect note; to quote the Beatles, let it be, guys.) So we approached the delayed Season 5 premiere of Mad Men -- the first new episode of AMC's flagship series to air in 17 months -- with a fair amount of trepidation. Would it still be the smart, witty show we instantly fell in love with when the pilot hit the airwaves in 2007? Had creator Matt Weiner decided to flex his creative power (and get back at AMC for dithering during the negotiations) by giving some of our favorite Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce characters abrupt Sal Romano-style exits during the hiatus? Could Jon Hamm still pass as the handsomest leading man on TV with Timothy Olyphant rocking that Stetson hat week in and week out on Justified?

I finally got around to reading Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's much buzzed-about recounting of the chaotic 2008 Presidential campaign, well after all the hype surrounding the book had died down. And to be honest, I didn't really get what all the fuss was about. Sure Heilemann and Halperin provided some juicy nuggets about what was going on behind-the-scenes on both the Democratic and Republican sides, but as a work of non-fiction, it was awkwardly structured, poorly sourced (the authors famously relied extensively on anonymous and off-the-record contributors) and didn't offer any profound insights into the contentious, turbulent year that the country had just lived through. At its worst, Game Change resembled an US Weekly version of a political book -- lots of gossip, not much substance.

After last week's holdover from November, Pan Am aired its season -- and likely series -- finale, "1964," on Sunday night. As the title implies, this final chapter in the saga of the crew of the Clipper Majestic took place at the end of a very eventful 1963, which culminated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy that ended the last in-continuity episode, "New Frontiers."

We're sick of everyone saying that Smash reminds them of Glee. The shows have very little in common, so it's just a lazy comparison that's made because both programs happen to feature musical elements. Smash is a layered show about adults in realistic situations, not adults playing teenagers in the most ridiculous high school ever. NBC's series also has serious actors (like Anjelica Huston) and (judging by the upcoming episodes we've been privy to) actually remembers its storylines from week to week and doesn't wildly change itself in order to fit the music of the week. Oh, and its original songs are truly catchy, and the less said about that time Glee went for originality, the better. Here are the other shows Smash actually resembles:

Well, whattaya ya know? With only three installments left, Pan Am manages to pull itself out of its death spiral and comes up with an episode that's not half-bad. It's probably too little too late at this point, but if "New Frontiers" ends up being the last episode to air (ABC has two more in its hanger, but no airdates have been announced), at least it ends the series on a decent note.

Amidst the Sunday night hubbub generated by the Golden Globes and the Giants/Packers game and Episode 2 of Downton Abbey's second season, it's understandable if you forgot that ABC had scheduled another new episode of Pan Am.

Welcome back to the Pan Am death watch. After a month off, the ABC series aired the first of its (likely) final five episodes ever, "Secrets and Lies." It was a strangely muted return, even though some pretty big things happened. For starters, Dean's ex-fiancée (and Kate's predecessor as an undercover CIA courier) Bridget returned, putting the kibosh on his fledgling romance with Colette. And speaking of Kate, the Agency finally agreed to let her go free of their clutches and return to civilian life, but at the last minute she seemed to change her mind (spy games are far more fun -- if also far more dangerous -- than simply serving drinks, after all). Elsewhere, Maggie continued her so-boring-nobody-cares romance with the pro-nukes congressman and Laura... took some pictures. That's right, it's always a thrill-a-minute ride aboard this show. No wonder it's about to get its wings clipped.

Welcome back to what may be the beginning of the end for Pan Am. In case you missed the news, ABC has reduced the show's episode order to 14, which means that after last night's ninth installment, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," (Dean and Colette provided the kisses courtesy of their literal roll in the hay, while Kate took care of the bangs, firing a gun at the jeweler/spy at the very end of the episode) the crew of the Clipper Majestic have only five flights left, which will be burned off in January before the catty cast of the soapy serial GCB (a.k.a. Good Christian Belles a.k.a. Good Christian Bitches) takes over their time slot in March. Although the network has yet to officially ground the series for good, its future hinges on how well or poorly the new crop of mid-season shows perform. And with Mad Men already set to come back in March, we'll soon to be able to remember what a genuinely great '60s-era drama -- as opposed to a decent, but forgettable nostalgia piece like Pan Am -- looks like. Still, based on last night's episode, there are still a few things that this series can teach us about that period. Things like...

After flying all over the globe the past few weeks, Pan Am offered up its version of a bottle episode last night, keeping the action largely limited to the flying tin can that is the Clipper Majestic. "Unscheduled Departure" opened with the crew bound for Caracas, Venezuela when they're forced to make an unexpected pit stop in Port-au-Prince, Haiti when a passenger (Harris "Quentin Travers" Yulin) experiences a heart attack. Once on the ground after a hairy landing, they discover that the airport is abandoned and the only people around are a pair of gun-wielding men. While the menfolk dither, Collette takes charge, because 1.) She's a native French speaker; 2.) She's the only one with a backbone; 3.) She's just that awesome.

With its heavy-handed moralizing and weepy melodrama, last night's Pan Am outing felt more like an afterschool special designed to teach us that Racism Is Bad than a jaunty primetime series about high-flying stewardesses. But we were so happy to see Gaius "Smash" Charles back on our TV screens that we forgave "Truth or Dare" for a lot of its flaws. The former Dillon Panther running back played Joe, a Navy serviceman whose unit gets a free trip home aboard the Clipper Majestic after having spent the past six months patrolling the oceans in those floating sardine cans known as submarines. After landing in New York, Joe scored an invite to a swinging party at Maggie and Laura's hip Village pad and crashed on the couch when Maggie went home with her Village Voice shutterbug beau.