That poor mouse puppet has had a stroke.  -WHY IS NO ONE GETTING HIM HELP?-

Turturro has a way of whimpering his dialogue that suggests internalized defeat in a way no other actor I know of can do, or at least nearly as well.  There are scenes in Barton Fink where his voice alone seems to indicate he wants to crawl up inside himself and die.  I love it.

though not at the level of his much stronger debut, Gone Baby Gone

Heh, possibly.  And I'm not sure it's 100% consistent with everything that happens in the episode… for one thing Merle's insistence to Michonne that he needed to turn her over would be more than overkill when he could have just told her the plan.  Maybe it has to do with his always wanting to seem like the bad guy… I…

I’m not sure I buy or even understand Merle’s change of heart, given how inconsistent the character has been.

Midnight Sun is one of my top five, probably… I wonder if I can rescue that ending for you a bit.  I know it seems cheap, but I think Serling was trying to do something difficult here, which is to both provide you the requisite TZ twist, but also fuck with the genre a bit.  The first twist ("It's a fever!") is the…

The one that makes me cringe most:

Ah, I'm so happy to see that comment.  I totally understand the Bush-hate, and I think Sixteen Stone is a dumb but fun album to sing along to on road trips, but "Letting the Cables Sleep" I completely, unironically enjoy.

Well, I didn't say France was "judged": I said they weren't let off the hook for the implications.  Pontecorvo makes this clear when Mathieu turns the tables on his countrymen for wanting it both ways (i.e. continued occupation, but a humanitarian one):

Much like similar scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, the torture in The Battle Of Algiers rattled a nation that didn’t care to grapple with the atrocities committed in its name.

Not only did I enjoy Northfork (with a few caveats), but I think it's one of Nick Nolte's best performances: the depth of sadness he manages to register on his face is damned impressive.

Well, that didn't stop Dexter from being a success of sorts… I think a lot depends on how they handle the show once they've exhausted all the "Here's how it ties into the movie!" gags and have to settle into the haul of long-form storytelling.

It sounds like 'oven', man. And that's just… it doesn't work.

@avclub-5fdbaa11bd42c308322756f60f43785f:disqus : Yep

I have no problem with any of this, at all.  Television can be a cynical medium, and I like having my weekly dose of generally nice, funny characters interacting in generally nice, funny ways.   If the biggest problems Leslie ever came up against were public meetings with the mildly deranged citizens of Pawnee, I'd…

Ah, good point.  I can see the M connection, too.  They should have given Andrea a balloon (always a good idea).

Also, when it's absolutely essential to be quiet, Andrea will find a way to knock over every single loud, clangy object in an abandoned factory.

This has been a constant annoyance this season - I know it's happened in past, but over the last few episodes the behind the black zombie attacks have been ridiculous.

And what the hell is up with that whistling?

But it may have been Bixby's.  I think some of Serling's changes dull the more theistic elements of the short story and draw it closer to a totalitarian critique.