AMC has announced that the critically-acclaimed drama Mad Men will return for a second season on July 27, in its new Sunday at 10pm time slot. This moves it away from another hit cable show, Burn Notice, which is staying in its Thursday at 10 time slot, but puts it up against Lifetime's Army Wives (and, for the record, network shows like ABC's Brothers & Sisters)

I don't really see this as a bad thing. People record and watch shows at all different times now, and besides, a lot of hip cable shows have been successful on Sunday nights (The Sopranos, Deadwood, etc). AMC will also have a marathon of the first season's 13 episodes on July 20.

In other news, a soundtrack from the show will be released on June 22, and the first season DVDs will be in stores on July 1.

What do you think of the move?

[via TV Tattle]

I've been trying to get friends of mine to watch Mad Men, but not a lot of them take me up on it. Their responses run from "Oh, I don't need yet another TV show to watch" to "Huh? Mad Men? What's that?" It probably doesn't help that it's on American Movie Classics, a niche network that a lot of people don't even watch (if they even have it on their cable system), but I want to advise anyone who loves good period drama - and by period I don't mean the 1700s, with elaborate costumes, I'm talking 1960 New York City - or anyone who loves good drama, period, to watch this show. Overall, it's the most consistently well written and well-acted (and well cast) show on television right now, and the production design is intoxicating.

After the jump is a preview of tonight's episode, "Indian Summer." It summarizes many of the plots, including Rachel thinking of having an affair with Don, Pete (Vincent Kartheiser from Angel) being a jerk, Peggy's place in the office, and the Sterling Cooper team brainstorming an idea.

(UPDATE: The video is now the correct episode.)