PROBABLY GOING TO BE PLENTY OF SPOILERS HERE

While we're doing random trivia, a quick note that one of Harmony's minions was played by Tom Lenk, who will be reappearing in S6 as Tucker's brother.

My guess: It is the Doctor she was put in jail for killing, but she didn't actually kill him, they just needed people to believe he had been killed.

And Maggie Makes Three, if only for "Do it for her". Now if you'll excuse me I have something in my eye.

Re. Lehane: He also wrote for The Wire, and is thus (as we all know) perfect.

natty: If that were true you'd have to wonder which of the episodes 3 writers wrote it - the one who played Kilo, her husband, or the 3rd guy (who as far as I'm aware has no vested interest in who Kilo makes love to on screen)

She was also in Southland Tales, which suggests she was at least trying to work with interesting directors.

This riff is getting a little

We saw an oscilloscope trace of the sound waves as the words were being said. I believe that is TV shorthand for "recorded or reconstructed on a computer"

@Balls: She's Jessica Alba with a better imdb page, a modicum of talent, and a better rack.

"And if it doesn't work? We just take it down with no repercussions."

The absence of a central group of characters we could care about certainly hurt the show. I think proof of that lies in the fact that everyone seems to agree that the show has improved over time, which I think is strongly related to the relationships between Topher and Adele or Whisky, and the one between Victor and…

equally pedantic comment about meaning being shaped by usage

Episode suggestions:

My pick
Heroes. The one and only season of that show is just terrific. Shame it never got a second season.

Plus it's hard to think he's being bitchy about Idle writing Spamalot while he's writing a musical based on A Fish Called Wanda. That would create some extraordinary cognitive dissonance.

Then it's really weird.

Joss often writes stand-alone (ish) episodes to start seasons, before becoming heavily involved with the master plot later. I think that fits most of the seasons of Buffy, certainly. What varies is the quality of the stand-alones - e.g. S4 Buffy had some really bad ones (Beer Bad, Living Conditions…), S3 had some…

@Denny: I agree that generally a football/rugby/cricket team doesn't generally work on the principle that you have one star and many also rans. I suppose that's because there are clearly defined different jobs, and no one (not even Botham or Sobers in cricket) can do all of them to the absolute highest standards.

But the Aussie captain doesn't generally stand head and shoulders above those around him like Gretzky (or Pele) did. Shane Warne was surely the best player in that side for virtually his entire career.