What bugs me is that they initially bought the CIA agent in to consult on a specific case but she now just seems to be part of the team, hanging out and generally pitching in on the same kind of stuff as all the other characters.

I just checked out Smith's wikipedia page and apparently he wrote the novelisations of DIsney films. Which is just perfect.

I'd often heard Hutson cited as a model for Marenghi, although not from anyone authoritative. And you're right, Hutson is indeed a metal head, whereas I have the feeling that Marenghis tastes run more towards pretentious prog rock.

I always assumed he was mostly based on Shaun Hutson, a popular 80s and 90s low budget idiot horror writer who was also famous for sporting leather jackets and brooding on his about the author pages, although he had a big white guy Black Sabbath perm rather than Marenghi's mullet.

Fantastic band, one of my all time favourites.

Great nonfiction, too - there was an excellent history of the NZ Gold Rushes published three or four years ago.

As an NZer I look forward to hearing all about how 'The Luminaries' really gets to the heart of our cultural and national identity or some shit.

I agree, if the FBI are shown as so consistently ridiculously incompetent it sort of robs us of any joy of seeing Red get the better of them. It loses any of the fun of trying to guess what it is he'll pull off, because we just know he'll brazenly run rings around them because it's the FBI, what do you expect?

I thought this was a pretty effective episode. The tonal shift was a bit weird, but not inappropriate, Noonan was a good villain, and the bit with the female lead getting captured didn't bother me too much, since she showed agency. (Wouldn't mind seeing Red getting captured later in the show - I feel like his status…

They should really have had him laughing over Cyril's corpse, though.

Very yes

LOL who cares

Speed 3 was awesome.  I loved Pat Mustard's risky portrayal of a milkman on the edge.

People who agree with me are calm and good humoured, people who disagree with me are raving fanatics

A lot of trolls tell themselves they're trying to educate.

I think his real raison d'etre is to try and get more funding for the space program.

That's true, there's a general Anglicisation of all 19th century culture that can be annoying.

La Cure is my personal favourite.

I love Zola, but his stories are universal.  They're not about French people doing French stuff, they're stories about fairly common human dilemmas that are set in France.

His name is Ray Reddington.  "Red" is a nickname.