Let's face it: Internet critics can be mean. Thanks to the ever-expanding blogosphere, all a person needs is a modem and a grudge to critique pop culture. So when a website called Television Without Pity comes along touting the maxim "Spare the Snark, Spoil the Networks," it's easy to assume you're about to read sarcasm without substance. The sarcasm is there, to be sure, but what makes the site remarkable is its ability to back up the attitude with in-depth analysis and critique -- a difficult balance to strike, and one that makes TWoP's Mad Men coverage all the more remarkable.

"Originally the site dealt with guilty pleasure TV," says John Ramos, who covers the series under the pseudonym Couch Baron. "We used sarcastic commentary to point out the flaws of a show in an effort to illustrate specific ways it could be better."

But as the site grew, so did the coverage to include programming that fell outside the "love-to-hate" arena. "I still tell jokes, but they're more often at the expense of certain characters than snarking on the show in general, because Mad Men is too good for that."

Make no mistake, the snark is still there: When Duck shills Kodak's new projector as continuous and non-jamming, Ramos writes, "Given some of the slide presentations I was subjected to in my youth, those aren't necessarily selling points." Such asides constitute a minor aspect of the commentary, to the point that the humor is refreshing. The rest of the Mad Men episode recaps, which typically run eleven pages in length, contain insightful commentary on the series. "There are interrelated themes in the show that keep popping up," Ramos explains. "One is the loss of gender identity -- the idea that men and women found it more and more difficult to fit into the roles defined by the traditional American family. In an era where happy families were the norm on television, men and women were inwardly rebelling against the Father Knows Best attitude."

Television Without Pity's coverage boils down to a matter of how the show approaches its viewership: "Mad Men shows a respect for its audience," Ramos explains. "Many shows overwrite their dialogue because they don't trust the audience to pick up unspoken clues. Mad Men both expects you to follow along, and rewards you for doing so." And in the end, that level of respect is what you expect from pop culture critique as well. The reward is when you actually find it.