I'd forgotten about that one.  In my defense, I guess that, despite having his name in the title, I tend think of it as more of a Blandings story as it largely takes place there.  Otherwise though, I usually can take the character or leave him.

Oh, definitely.  It's probably my favorite Hitchcock as well, pretty much for the reasons you describe:  the characters on paper should be loathesome (especially Grant, who's a total shit to Bergman for most of the picture), yet somehow through some weird Hollywood alchemy, the actors' star power makes them completely…

More likely it's an homage to the 1965 Italian sf film The 10th Victim, in which Ursula Andress uses one.

Much of P.G. Wodehouse would qualify, I think (except perhaps for the Ukridge and Psmith stories), but if I had to pick two examples of absolute perfection, I'd go with The Code of the Woosters and Joy in the Morning.  Farce is a deceptively tricky thing to get right:  considering how insubstantial it is, it…

Simply assuming Morrissey is pissed about something or other at all times seems like a reasonable default assumption.

There's already a scene very similar to that in Abel Gance's Napoleon.

Has it ever been established just what sort of "federal agent" Philip actually is?  I mean, is he a poultry inspector or something?  His demeanor suggests to me "low-level desk jockey daydreaming of being James Bond" and I find it hard to believe that the government would give someone as delusional as him a gun and…

FWIW, the original show was basically what Life on Mars was riffing off.

I think that was the same actress who played Travis' grad-school girlfriend on S2 of Cougar Town (Collette Wolfe), although since imdb doesn't have the full episode cast list up yet, I'm not 100% positive.

Fair enough.  Whitney's pretty bad, but it's not appreciably worse than, say, Rules of Engagement or Last Man Standing or any number of other by-the-numbers sitcoms that linger on for years despite seemingly no one actually ever seeming to like them.

Having REVENGE as a lead-in for BITCH 23 (we're going with that abbreviation, are we?  okay, then) only made me wish for some sort of crossover.  I realize what with one being a sitcom and the other a melodrama would be some kind of violation of the TV Genre Space-Time Coninuum or something, but it would have made…

Well, the UK version WAS better, for the first couple of seasons, at least.  But it eventually fell prey to exactly the sort of thing this review accuses the US version of:  devolving into a ponderous, self-serious, mythology-laden bore (it didn't help that the original cast bailed on it one by one and were replaced…

I saw the whole first season last summer and rather liked it.  On a strictly episode-by-episode basis it's not all that special:  most of the time it just it hits all the usual action/procedural beats with a rote competence, with the sci-fi stuff serving to keep things from becoming overfamiliar.  That said, I did…

I've always liked him, but he was especially affecting here.  And like Noel, I also kinda hope we get a song-and-dance number from him next week; I had the good fortune to see him playing the lead in the recent Broadway revival of Sweeny Todd a couple of years back and if anyone could pull off one in this context it…

I can't hear "Rancho Cucamonga" without also hearing in my head that old Jack Benny/Bugs Bunny running gag about "ALL ABOARD FOR ANAHEIM … AZUZA .. AND CU … CAMONGA!"

I can't hear "Rancho Cucamonga" without also hearing in my head that old Jack Benny/Bugs Bunny running gag about "ALL ABOARD FOR ANAHEIM … AZUZA .. AND CU … CAMONGA!"

I think the thing that struck me the most about THE NEW WORLD is just how alien it managed to make its culture clash seem.  I grew up in New England in a town that had been founded in 1638.  High school field trips to Plymouth led us to imagine the early English colonists to be not all that different from ourselves. …

I think the thing that struck me the most about THE NEW WORLD is just how alien it managed to make its culture clash seem.  I grew up in New England in a town that had been founded in 1638.  High school field trips to Plymouth led us to imagine the early English colonists to be not all that different from ourselves. …

Maybe Will can kill an intern in Season 2.

Maybe Will can kill an intern in Season 2.