MAD MEN. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC.

I'VE HEARD a few complaints lately that the third season of AMC's "Mad Men" has been a bit slow.

But this being Season 3 of the '60s-centric series - which this week got a pickup for Season 4 - I'd say those complaints are right on time.

There used to be similar griping about HBO's "The Sopranos," which couldn't go more than a few whack-free episodes without leaving certain fans frustrated.

The writers and actors may have thought they were making a show about a man whose mother never loved him, or about the constraints faced even by people who appear to have none, but for some, "The Sopranos" might as well have been a spaghetti Western, set in North Jersey.

But then there have always been people who watch TV to engage with characters and others who watch to see things happen.

In its first two seasons, "Mad Men" offered something for both, presenting melodrama wrapped in a stylish package, while occasionally hinting at something deeper than just the message that the "good old days" weren't always that good.

Now three episodes into Season 3, it has characters we know well enough that it shouldn't be necessary to have something awful happen to one every single hour to keep things interesting.

Sometimes it's enough - for me, at least - to find that Joan (Christina Hendricks) can play the accordion, that Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) is more intriguing when she's stoned or even just that the Drapers' daughter, Sally (Kiernan Shipka), has become quite the reader.

Sally has a terrific little scene at the top of this Sunday's episode that I wouldn't think of spoiling, and there's a larger event - which takes place offscreen - that's bound to have repercussions, but overall, it's another hour of "Mad Men" that I'd recommend not for its showstoppers, but for its subtlety.

As Tony Soprano himself once said, "If you're lucky, you'll remember the little moments, like this, that were good."

Wicked wind

from north

 

Some Canadian imports - NBC's "The Listener," CBS' "Flashpoint," ABC's "Defying Gravity" - seem so generic, it's tempting to think that's the attraction for their U.S. buyers.

That's hardly true, though, of "Durham County" (10 p.m. Monday, Channel 61), a disturbing new series imported by Ion - formerly Pax - with an overwhelming sense of place.

That place, a suburb of Toronto, is where homicide detective Mike Sweeney (Hugh Dillon) moves his family after his partner's killed and his wife's diagnosed with cancer.

But from the first ominous shot of power lines - reminiscent of the Barenaked Ladies' song about a "hydrofield," "Light Up My Room" - it seems an unlikely refuge.

It doesn't help that there's a neighbor, Ray Prager (Justin Louis), who shares a nasty past with Sweeney and is about to be part of a much nastier present.

"Durham County" isn't for the faint of heart, and seems a strange choice for Ion, but it's undeniably riveting TV, well worth the trip across the border. *

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