I think there are certain personality types that just can't do anything halfway.  (Like people who used to be substance addicts and once they reform they become full-on  Religion addicts.)  Amy still has all the same instincts she had before, she's just channeling it in a more positive direction - which can still be…

Dern's performance tonight (and all through the series) was flat out-brilliant.

A neat thing about this episode was Amy finally waking out of her delusion that her former co-workers would ever respect her.  All through the first half of the episode she kept telling everyone she had been "asked" make a presentation, which she may have even talked herself into believing.  Finally though, after…

Wasn't the limbo "No.1 Detective Agency" ended up in, more a result of Anthony Minghella's death?  I always got the impression that without him to champion it, there was no real urgency on the part of HBO to bring it back.

In Britain, isn't Christmas the time of year when the networks haul out made-to-order specials of their hit series with all new content?

I just watched "Holiday Inn" two days ago.  In terms of charming musical content, you can't beat having an original Irving Berlin song for each holiday. And for that, it wipes the floor with "White Christmas".

I thought the credits were lacking as well.

Now that Owen has seen Nucky gun down the guy who used to have his job, I wonder if he will think twice before he tries to put his polio-brace-fixin'-flirtation moves on Margaret again?

I don't know if Margaret is being superstitious (at least not so much in this episode as the one where she was completely freaking out and handing over cash and jewelry to the priest to cure her daughter's polio).  It seems like the Church for her is her only refuge, surrogate parent/professor/counselor, etc.  And…

No Dr. Tobias Funke? Or were fictional analrapists not eligible for the list?

I've always enjoyed The Washington Post's tv columnist Lisa de Moraes' coverage of Patinkin as she refers to him as "Mandy 'Voice of an Angel' Patinkin" and then notes that the guy gets stir crazy on any show he's on after two seasons and either tries to quit or enrages his fellow castmates off camera until they wish…

I give the writers credit for finding a clever way to give us a close-up view of the Chicago dealings via Van Alden now that Jimmy is gone. Well done sirs!

If the end of episode 11 last week was any indication, the poor guy seemed to be on a death mission ever since he woke up the morning after his incest-encounter with Gillian: he was out of Princeton (thus disappointing his surrogate father Nucky), he wasn't sure about Angela, he wasn't ready to be a father, and oh…

If he hadn't been killed, he would have taken himself out.  But I am surprised he left his boy in Gillian's care.

I get that Manny and Eli don't respect a man like Nucky who doesn't actually get his hands dirty.  But it seems like a pretty spectacularly bad idea to leave either of these guys alive after they've both witnessed Nucky shoot/kill Jimmy.

It is weird that an industry known for chewing people up and spitting them out continues to give chance after chance to this woman.  I wonder if executives see her possessing all the basic minimums for stardom (able to sing, dance, wear 5 inch heels, and a size 2 outfit, etc.) and their extreme hubris compels them to…

Wasn't Erin the one who broke it off the first time? (She found out Andy had been engaged to Angela and felt humiliated that the whole office knew except her.)

Agreed.  The real Nicki Potnik has to be the waitress.

That song was brilliant.  The rest of us are going to have to listen to the Boomer generation brag about Woodstock and re-litigate the Vietnam War until the last one finally keels over.

Between that and his insight a couple of episodes ago about the self-absorption of Elmo on Sesame Street ("each generation gets the muppets it deserves"), Robert California has emerged as quite the cultural critic.