Maybe Barry Levinson?  You have Diner,  The Natural, an Oscar for Rain Man, then….Toys?  Disclosure?  I know that Wag the Dog gets a lot of respect, but he has a lot of unmemorable films in there.  The good news for him is his involvement in Homicide: Life on the Street during that period.

Same here.  My mom was a huge fan and so was I by extension.  Steve and Edie were a delight.

Phil seems to insult about 5 people in those 2 lines, including the subject of the obit, so, um well done, Phil?

This was my first year watching this show, and it really never found it's voice.  They seemed really inconsistent about why people were eliminated, keeping bad cooks over bad performers for the camera on week, then sending the bad cook home the next. That's why Nikki's elimination riled me so much - she consistently…

But, but, Russell's a culinary revolutionist, man! 

apparently she was also on a model edition of Fear Factor.  She was atrocious on Chopped - why on earth bring her back? 

There are only a couple of Chopped judges I'm not crazy about, but I particularly like Frietag and Marc Murphy. They both won me over particularly with the "lunch lady" episode and the Chopped:Grilling episodes.

The weirdest thing about Damaris' pilot was that Andres got booted in week 2 for making the exact same suggestion that men needed help cooking!  It also seemed really derivative of Ted Allen's segments on Queer Eye, which just made me want to watch stuff with Ted Allen in it.

I agree that Rodney was way too much schtick with no "food authority" as NIkki was booted for, but damn that meat pie he made in his pilot looked good!  But I doubt I would want to watch 22 episodes of that a year.

Oh, you're right!  I just saw #5 listed on Goodreads with 77 reviews and didn't notice that it hasn't actually been released yet.

I think Ian Holm might be too old now, so I'd be willing to go with Tom Wilkinson as Norrell.  I like the rest of your casting as well!  I suspect that this miniseries will go with "handsome" for Jonathan Strange, but I think someone like Lee Ingelby might be good for it.  I would accept Daniel Radcliffe if they need…

I would like to see a mini-series of Alive!  The book  spends a lot of time examining how social roles were established in this extreme environment, and reads a lot like a real-life Lord of the Flies, only with actual organization instead of reversion to savagery. 

I was literally thinking this on the way to work this morning.  Every time I re-read it I revise my casting list, but the constants are Ian Holm as Norrell and Stephen Fry reprising his BlackAdder role as Wellington.

Maybe by Carlton Cuse - someone that wouldn't shy away from the Christian angle of it.

The book is so much darker than the movie and I think that could work as an HBO miniseries. 

Agreed!  Except now I realize that I only just finished Faithful Place and am further behind than I realized.  Don't greenlight it until I catch up!

My neighbor once asked me if I had a pitchfork.  When I said yes, he asked if it was the kind you could kill someone with.

Re The Dissolve and its commenters: it's true that we can't all be Craig  or The Narrator.  Some of us just want to talk about the movie without long discussions of which actress took her top off.  The Dissolve doesn't have entire comment sections devoted  to people yelling at Lady Gaga to put her clothes back on. But…

I do!  Feel free to borrow it whenever you like.

We definitely have been informed of that again, and again, and again.  Who are we to argue?