SO MUCH television, so little time:

_ I'm still thinking about the season finale of AMC's "Mad Men," which defied my expectations, at least, by turning out to be much more than the anticlimax to last week's Kennedy assassination episode.

(If you haven't seen it yet, but plan to, please beware: Spoilers ahead.)

Betty Draper (January Jones) may have been on her way to Reno, Nev., with her intended when last we saw her, but it was back to business - finally - for her almost ex, Don (Jon Hamm), whose discovery that Sterling Cooper was to be sold yet again triggered the show's most exciting episode since some guy lost his foot in an office tractor accident.

I loved the way Don and Roger (John Slattery) and Bert (Robert Morse) flattered and cajoled Lane (Jared Harris), their British lackey of a boss, into first firing and then joining them.

I loved how Joan (Christina Hendricks) came in and organized the looting of the old firm and the launch of the new one as if this - and maybe invading Normandy after lunch - were just part of any good secretary's job description.

I even loved seeing Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) in his bathrobe, which looked eerily like the one my father wore in 1963 (and for years after that).

But most of all, I loved the scene in which Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Don's dissatisfied protege, tells him that if she were to turn down a place in the new firm, he'd never speak to her again and he replies, "No. I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you."

Possibly the most romantic line ever uttered on "Mad Men," and it's delivered to the one woman in Don's life who wants something from him he might actually be capable of giving.

Can't wait for Season 4.

_ Non-"Mad Men" quote of the weekend: "We have a great show. Kanye West is not here."

_ "Saturday Night Live" host (and musical guest) Taylor Swift, who really did have a great show.

_ Am I the only one who wonders why Brooke Shields - surely one of the most beautiful women on the planet - can't make do with the eyelashes she came with?

As the spokeswoman for a drug originally developed to treat glaucoma but now being marketed under a different name as an eyelash lengthener, the former "Lipstick Jungle" star pops up pretty regularly on my TV lately. But she seems an odd choice.

For one thing, she's nearly as well-known for her baby blues as she once was for her brand of blue jeans, and the drug's potential side effects include a browning of the iris that could be permanent.

I never dreamed I'd long for those more innocent days, when nothing came between Shields and her Calvins.

_ "Must-see TV" has taken on a whole new meaning on Thursdays, when my embattled DVR is whirring all night long.

Last week, with a few days off (and the World Series over), I attempted to watch everything I wanted to see on the Thursday schedule in one sitting, my eyes fixed to the screen from 8 p.m. till nearly 1 a.m.

Watched live: ABC's "FlashForward," Fox's "Fringe," Lifetime's "Project Runway."

On delay: ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and NBC's "The Office" and "30 Rock."

When I got up the next morning, I still had to see NBC's "Community" and CBS' "The Mentalist." And I'd missed Fox's "Bones" altogether.

Maybe instead of a drug that lengthens our lashes, we could use one that extends our evenings. Or grows an extra pair of eyes. *

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