The Dark Knight Rises: Hearing is believing!

Forget about the artsy and dramatic camera swings and zooms, Selina Kyle’s clunky dialogue (“There’s a storm coming” — really? Cliché much?) and Anne Hathaway’s shaky delivery… the real highlight of the third trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is the revelation that Bane’s unintelligible dialogue has been rerecorded!

Thank goodness that Nolan and Bane actor Tom Hardy backed off the foolhardy the idea of leaving Bane muffled for the entire movie. They were apparently hoping for some kind of artsy effect by making the villain so ridiculously impossible to understand, but apparently they realized that audiences would not flock to the film for multiple viewings if they couldn’t understand one of the main characters. It would have been cinematic suicide. But I’m sure the damning reviews would have been hilarious.

Now, if only Nolan could digitally replace Bane with a better foe from Batman’s rogues gallery…

MAD MEN 5.7: “At the Codfish Ball”

The Draper women edged into the spotlight a little more this week. This is nothing new for Megan, who has been a lodestone for storylines this season as MAD MEN explores Don’s new marriage. But Sally is also continuing her growth as a character. You will recall several… er, strange incidents last season; I’m expecting a payoff on that material this season.

Apparently as bored by the Heinz beans account as the viewing audience, Megan (Jessica Paré) came up with a brilliant campaign — mothers serving beans since the dawn of time and on into the future! — which Don (Jon Hamm) loved. That night, at a casual dinner with Heinz honcho Raymond, his wife let slip to Megan that Sterling Cooper Draper Price were being fired. Megan passed the news to Don in a whisper and set him up to deliver the beans pitch on the spot — “Heinz beans: Some things never change” — which he did with all the charm of first-season Don. Raymond was instantly sold and the account was saved!