I love the noir genre.  It’s probably my favorite just ahead of westerns.  I love the stark cinematography, the world-weary cynicism and lost causes of the protagonists, and the pulpy accessibility of the stories with the thoughtful subtext simmering underneath.   While we’re bound to get one or two westerns a year, film noir—at least in its classic sense—seems to have disappeared.  I’ve always been puzzled by its absence because great noir doesn’t just transport us to another time, but another world.  Rockstar and Team Bondi’s L.A. Noire not only gives a modern audience a return to the genre, but actually sets them inside the world and lets them traverse a stunning recreation of 1940s Los Angeles.  However, while the aesthetic and the individual crimes scream “noir”, your rigid protagonist Cole Phelps lacks complexity, and the game leaves you wondering why another character wasn’t the lead instead.  The game also employs a questionable interrogation mode, which tries to make use of groundbreaking facial capture technology, but remains stuck in roundabout logic and a little too much guesswork.  But no game is going to let you live noir like L.A. Noire and it’s a case worth working.

While Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner likes to keep everything secret until the night the show airs, with season 4 set to begin July 25th, AMC has released a number of images from the first episode.  So if you need a Mad Men fix without spoilers, hit the jump.  And if you haven’t yet seen this brilliant show, you’re missing out on something special.

AMC has announced Mad Men will be returning with its fourth season on Sunday, July 25, at 10 p.m.  Since last year, fans have been wondering what the future holds for the workers of Sterling Cooper, as the third season finale really shook things up.  But while everyone is looking forward to the critically acclaimed show returning, the end of Mad Men might be in sight.  That’s because at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, Mad Men creator and writer, Matt Weiner announced he would not go past 6 seasons – should the series continue to be renewed.   More after the jump:

After a very long hiatus, one of the best shows on television returns with its third season tomorrow night. The show I’m talking about is AMC’s “Mad Men”. So to help promote the new season, AMC recently held a special “premiere” event at the DGA in Hollywood and most of the cast walked the red carpet. While the cast was instructed not to reveal any spoilers about the upcoming season, I did manage to get their opinions on how this season compares to the first two and a lot more. So after the jump are my red carpet interviews with Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell), Bryan Batt (Salvatore Romano), Aaron Staton (Ken Cosgrove), and Rich Sommer (Harry Crane). Take a look: