"You're acting extra nuts. And I'm not talking about mistaking-teaspoon-with-tablespoon kind of nuts, I'm talking about Mel-Gibson-downing-a-five-hour-energy-drink-and-showing-up-at-a-Bar-Mitzvah kind of nuts."

Oh, just you wait. You're only hitting the point where Alex truly blooms.

Too bad the writers didn't also think of Dudley Moore.

"He'd never felt more like a king." Man, did I feel punched in the gut when I set that book down.

Fwiw, Grossman says he outlined the idea of a magic school in the mid-90s before there was that other annoying kid with the lightning bolt.

They are. They're also smart, weak, flawed, nice, strong, selfish, shortsighted, angry and at least capable of changing any of those things. Just all at different times.

He deserves points for Code War's hairdo alone.

This is also the reason I've complained loudly about the lack of gay Madonna cover bands at every wedding I've been to in the last four years.

I can't decide whether to take this as a pick-me-up on a shitty day, or a rub-it-in reminder of our loss on a shitty day. I think I'll go with option 1. Goddammit, do I love this show.

Don't worry. She'll get there.

"Oh, so that's what happened to my My Morning Jacket jacket."

And not just happy, but genuinely sweet and lovable without becoming twee.

Holy shit. I responded thinking it was Jean-Ralphio. Seriously, anyone else (even Craig at his angriest) is an absolute delight compared to him.

You're not the only one. I was always wishing to see more of Claire since she spent so much time at the back of the bench, and wondering why they insisted on keeping that other non-entity out front instead just because she and Jack had a thing.

No, maybe you misunderstood me. The comparison to the older characters was mainly in relative terms. I said the new show explores them more than the classic show did in general. Ace and Romana were arguably the only ones to change over their tenures as much as all the new-era companions did. The others either got a…

Thanks. That's left me pretty optimistic for the season when I get to it.

Hopefully that'll be enough. If not, there's always Big Finish.

Interesting. I've always loved their chemistry together. Maybe it'll be worth keeping an eye on Peter now that Jenna's gone.

Well said. I can definitely agree with that… though I'll say it has been a refreshing change to have an older crusty incarnation without any crush angle. If we don't have a cool lovable uncle, I'll still take a cranky unpleasant uncle over a mysterious boyish crush object.

Counterpoint: April brings a lot of laughs to balance out the meanness (plus we can see she has a warmer side sometimes, and the snark is usually ridiculous enough to be harmless). It helps for any character to be at least interesting and/or funny, if not both, but with Ann the writers don't really manage either.