I don't really think the simpsons were so much interested in voice range, but the ability to do one voice well. Of course as the seasons wore on, very few of the cast have actually been able to keep their voices consistent (Mrs. Krabappel in "The Ned-liest Catch" vs. her in classic seasons is a great example of this)…

I always thought Carmela was a really well-developed character in The Sopranos in a way that Anna Gunn's characters haven't been (haven't seen Mad Men, so don't have an opinion on that).

I agree. Moffat is a brilliant writer, but the people he chooses to write the other episodes (Gaiman excepted as he isn't a staff writer) tend to be average at best. This episode truly pissed me off until the final twist, which was so cool that it almost made the episode good.

I second The Critic and The Thick of It.

The Cane
it's a very good episode of NewsRadio, but personally I would have to go with the complaint box or Super-Karate-Monkey-Death Car. In seasons 2,3, and 4 NewsRadio was ridiculously consistent outside of the special episodes.

I thought that it was quite clever as well that the background characters essentially don't like the group that are the focus of the show. In many ways it feels like a potential setup to what Scrubs did with the "His Story" and "Their story" episodes by having an episode that focuses around these characters…

Was it just me
or did the silence seem a lot like the gentlemen from Buffy? not in a bad way, but still kind of made me think of them.

Was it just me, or did Woodhouse sound different in this episode?

It made me think of "So it's come to this, a Simpsons Clip Show" from Season 4 of the Simpsons, in terms of how strong it was as a clip-show. I would say the "137th episode spectacular" but that wasn't grounded in the world of the show.

Noel
So does to be continued mean you are going straight on with S4 of Angel? or are you having a Double Buffy week so that you end up with both seasons finished, then going on?

I would also rank Angel higher than Buffy on the Whedon shows list. My list would go Firefly/Serenity,Dr. Horrible, Angel, Buffy, Dollhouse. Frankly they are all pretty great TV/Web series, but I despised Angel S4 when I watched it the first time and have never been able to bring myself to re-watch it. I might…

A Nice Episode
While I agree with Todd that the show has been on a hot streak lately, I found this episode more than pleasant enough. It's good that the show isn't ditching the spy spoof elements, as they are key to the premise regardless of the direction the show moves in. Also interesting, Pete Serafinowicz was in…

A Nice Episode
I agree with Todd that the show has been on a massive hot streak lately, but I definitely found this episode more than pleasant enough. It was nice to see that they haven't just completely ditched the spy spoof elements, as it is still a key element of the show regardless of the direction it moves in.…

Ok, memorise these funny place names
Walla Walla, Keokuk, Cucamonga, Seattle.

I also think this was an A+ episode, another case of the season just topping itself with every new episode (except for last week's, which wasn't quite as good as Stage Two).

I would definitely agree with Rowan that "For All Debts Public and Private" and "Lessons" are better episodes than people tend to give them credit for, but then I am also a sucker for a strong season opening, particularly after something as frustrating as S6 of Buffy or as awesome as S3 of the Sopranos.

While I firmly believe that the show did seem directionless in terms of tight, serialised plotting over the entire run, I also think that Chase did actually have a lot of thematic ideas in mind to tie together his series.

@ Prankster
Greenwalt would have been running S3 of Angel, as he was an executive producer for those first three seasons, but left at the end of S3. S4, Minear was busy running Firefly, so I think it was actually Jeffrey Bell who was running the show for S4 of Angel. I'm not so sure about the Buffy timeline, but I…

How active do you think Dan Harmon is as a showrunner?
I don't really know much about how specifically a TV show is run, but I have heard that a lot of showrunners will do heavy re-writing on scripts from other people, to try to get a level of consistency in the show. Harmon isn't credited with many of the scripts,…

I think that you seem to be forgetting about the Danger!50,000 volts/Incoming Attack series that Nick Frost did, which was essentially an excuse for him to be goofy while interviewing people for half-an-hour. It was often hilarious, as he asked ridiculous questions about survival.