Don’t you love that Matthew Weiner is now teasing us — on Mad Men, of course, what else — with period decor? What was last night’s episode, for design types, but a long, slow journey toward what promised to be the big reveal: Acapulco, New Year’s Eve, 1964. I was practically decorating it in my head, Mexican beauties in yellow and turquoise and bouffants, Don on a deck chair looking out over similarly turquoise waters. Would he sample the latest tropical cocktail? Would he wear a high-waisted bathing suit? Would he ask one of the far-too-compliant lovelies from north of the border to accompany him?
Instead, we got a California bungalow and an iffy paint job. Don Draper does have a soul. Weiner seemed to be telling us that we too should be a little less interested in surfaces, and more interested in character.
