I know exactly what you mean. It's insidious that Danny is our point of entry for the Rayburns (since he's effectively an outsider, so he sees them from the outside as we do). Because I have never, ever been able to shake the sense that he's just a poor. misunderstood little boy who was let down very badly by everyone…

I just began watching this show and have burned through four episodes. I really, really liked this one (it also helped that it was low on the obnoxious voiceover).

Honestly, I'd prefer a proper, sweeping, epic telling of the Mahabharata. I like the Song of Ice and Fire books very much, but come on- there's richer material to be mined closer to hand. I have fond memories of the (gloriously cheesy) B.R.Chopra version but I actually prefer Peter Brooks's version. Purposely stagey…

Oscillates, thankyouverymuch.

I know, it's gorgeous how beautifully the bottom half of the internet rose to the challenge.

(Notes everyone who upvoted this comment with a wince)

There's also ponniyin selvan, by kalki. I haven't read it all but what I could find was a rattling good yarn.

Reading Yuganta gave me a breathless feeling. I love that book.

Not really what you're after, but if anyone can recommend a decent English translation of Bairappa's Parva (a deconstruction of the Mahabharata, originally in Kannada), I'd be enormously grateful.

You think so? Yes, the gods play a role (Kunti's explanation for the birth of her sons), and of course there's the Bhagavad Gita, but that leaves plenty of room for fratricicidal jockeying for power and meditations on dharma.

oo, I like this! Gilgun would nail that mixture of contemptible/likeable/vulnerable beautifully.

Re: twat, I think the Brits retain the sense of the cognomen for female pudenda. The difference is that in America terms for female genitalia (and related) can be used as terms of violent abuse, whereas in Britain they're terms of contempt (cf: cunt). I leave it to the gentle commentariat to decide which is more…

'your experiences are not universal!'
(shoves Logan)
'Oh, so it's pushy-shovesies time, is it?'

Crap, you're right, that was shitty syntax. I meant the latter.

Lots of people are going to say Night Watch (which is wonderful), but I'll always have a soft spot for Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat. Witches Abroad was the first Weatherwax et al. novel I read, and I remember the breathless feeling of

Bugrit.
BUGRIT.

I loathed Cache. I wanted to like it so much, but it felt, to me, like being trapped at a dinner party with an overeager Masters student who's just handed in his dissertation.

Surely someone else is a little amused that Titus's nemesis is named after the hero of another Shakespearian tragedy set in the Roman Empire.

Or Cate Blanchett. Remember 'I'm Not There'?

Heh. I do actually think Peter O'Toole circa Lawrence of Arabia would be an interesting choice for Lucifer. Charisma, narcissism and a very specific sort of beauty.