I don't watch and  Mr Teti's reviews are always cogent and enjoyable nonetheless.

I think this: "the oddly inert, suspense-free 13 is
strangely lacking in urgency" is a pretty good way to describe the
original. Sure, the scenario comes loaded (har har) with inherent suspense but
it's all squandered by the way they have it play out along the same lines as
every other underdog sports drama. And there's…

Just to clarify: The links go to an ad instead of the review, not as well as the review.

My old table tennis coach? Kim Ki-duk?

"And while that’s a novel direction for a movie to take, it’s a stunted
one so far as audience engagement and identification go."

@Bruiser Brody While I agree that female characters often seem to be a problem for, or outside the interest of, male screenwriters I think that it's more than a touch hyperbolic to argue that the situation is so dire that Allen and Tarantino are the only ones even trying to do differently - even if I give you the…

By which I mean a bi-weekly column about animated features.

It'd be great if she could find the time to write a bi-weekly feature animation column…

Let the goat eat the hay and the lion eat the goat and then take the lion across before it shits.

"Tobias seems to get all the slow-building films with ambiguous meanings. "

I thought it was about sinking large amounts of money in a cool sounding concept that is complete failure when actually executed.

Definitely agree with this. It doesn't help that the guy he bumps into is also dressed exactly the same way. When I first saw it I initially assumed that Spike was actually in on the whole deal.

Hi Mike,

It's propulsive and fun but not quite funny or playful enough to rate above a B. Considering where the show does go later, both in terms of emotion and silly humour I think it's probably about a B-.

I think it is the same universe and that it is pre-Byzantium because the Head Cleric pulled the doctor aside in the angels episodes and indicated that he knew exactly who she was. Doesn't make a lot of sense given the whole universe reboot stuff but I'm assuming Moffat dropped the ball a little there continuity-wise.

*you're

Guess I wasn't wrong on the sill part. Oh well.

If your keen to get at it in order to understand later episodes this one isn't necessary at all. (Of course it's still a pretty fun episode on its own. Although not nearly as funny as "Toys in the Attic".)

My Silly Theory
Anyone else think that the headless monks are the Silence? They have the same stature and skin colour and in previous stories involving the church soldiers they weren't present. Also their involvement with the young, regenerating child (presumably Song) in the season opener suggests they're at least…

I think this makes you some kind of hero actually because somewhere around book 4 or 5 I just couldn't slog through any more of it.