Slums of Beverly Hills?
For the gibberish dialog between Lyonne and Tomei, methinks.

3-D Modeling!
When was the last time they did the 3-D modeling of the inner workings of a PotW's body? Years, I think, right? Used to happen just about every episode during the first couple of seasons. This was a nice callback episode in every which way.

A real comedy writer behind these rants?
["Not all of this is totally serious," Sheen said. "There's a reason I've had mad success in comedy."]

Better than expected
Just saw this episode. and because I' d seen Zack's grade, I was expecting a pretty bad episode. Instead, it was engaging, clever, and maybe the best I've seen this year (which, granted, isn't saying that much). The girl was a really fine actress, and there were nice little plot reveals…

From Gatsby 3-D to Murakami — you gotta love AVC. Actually, my favorite Murakami translator is Philip Gabriel. He hasn't done that much, but if you compare the two versions of the short story "Barn Burning" — which I still consider to be Murakmi's finest work — you'll see the difference between Gabriel (in The New…

The Village
She was the best thing on The Village. She actually made me laugh, and it was intentional.

Chris Whom Everybody Hates?
Wasn't the actor who played the drill sergeant's son Chris from Everybody Hates Chris (Tyler James Williams)? I didn't catch the beginning title, and I'm too lazy to check the episode on Hulu.

And regarding the ending of The Long Walk, I agree with the "goner" crowd — he's gone insane. He does somehow find the strength to run after walking all those miles, but his mind is toast.

For those Apt Pupil fans, I'd urge you to find a copy of Frank Muller's narration of it (from Recorded Books, might be at your library, if you're lucky). Muller, in case you don't know, was one of the finest, if not THE finest, audiobook narrators of our time, and his rendition of Apt Pupil is just wonderful in all…

Figgins and Terri?
Figgins is coming back, right? I mean Glee is like a live-action cartoon, so I figure he'll be back and Terri will be back for the finale, where she'll hold the entire school hostage or some such nonsense.

Giving grades to qualitative works has always been difficult, so I have sympathy for these ABC writers. When I was attending high school, we'd just abandoned the letter grade system for numeric on report cards, which was just crazy. For sciences, yes, it's perfectly doable, but for English? How could a teacher…

Great Film.
My favorite scene is the Mitchell/dinner scene, too, Keith, but not for the singalong. For me, the movie's high point is that part where Bening returns to the table after discovering what we knew she would discover in the bathroom, and the camera pushes into her and the chatter falls away. It's so damn…

A?
Is the grade given for the show only and not in relation to other shows? What I mean is this: if you gave this season an A, what would you give to the latest seasons of Mad Men or Breaking Bad? Because if they both get A's, then that's a slap in the face to both of those superior shows.

The memoir part of Hand to Mouth is okay — some of the stuff comes off as too easy. Like there's a guy Auster attributes for nudging him to find interesting language, and the guy says stuff like, "That guy thinks his shit don't stink." Maybe the cliched phrase wasn't a cliche then, but it sure is one now.

Winger on his Smartphone, Before and After
Wasn't it great how Winger didn't change one bit as he transformed from the smartphone-clicking zombie to regular Winger? So many great, perfect moments from a perfect episode. A is well deserved.

Expectations
Todd, I think you were expecting the worst — from your last week's writeup:

Todd — seeing an "A" here — not an "A-" — made me very, very happy. I'm with you, man — this was one of the best, if not THE best (yes, even better than Modern Warfare), episodes they've done. It had it all — the laughs, the bigger theme, Britta's dancing. My only fear is that the show is getting too smart for its…

House & Cuddy
Zack, you couldn't have hit the nail in the head any better. I, too, was dreading this season, thinking how awful it would be when Cuddy and House are together, but damn, they are somehow making it work. It's a new variable into what's now become a pretty old show, and kudos to the writers for keeping…

Picard's Quiet Speech to Captain Garrett
My favorite moment of this episode is when Picard takes Garrett aside and quietly tells her that the federation is about to lose the war. It was just so messed up to hear those words from Picard. If there was ever a time for an A+, Yesterday's Enterprise is it.

I'm not complaining about the narrow band of competition, but rather, the actual physical tennis. Graf and Seles brought the power to the game, which was nonexistent before them. Moon balls, lobs, slices, these were the mainstays of the game. Here's a bit from the 1985 Women's French Open: http://www.youtube.com/wat…