Agreed; I hope he keeps pushing his character's "at the mouth of madness" schtick. The twitchier and more unhinged he gets the more interesting he becomes and the show could use a real cackling nutbar villain.

That's right. Directed by Jonathan (I am very, very clever) Miller.
Also memorable was Hamlet, with Derek Jacobi in the title role -and Patrick Stewart as Claudius, a role he reprised years later, apparently without aging at all.
My favorite was Twelfth Night; a wonderful production with Felicity Kendell as Viola.

Yeah, I'd have said," Fringe's Jared Harris, who also played Moriarty"
Still, it's better to be remembered than not, especially for an actor.

"…very little canonical material"

Yeah, but it is still entertaining. I mean, it's not True Detective or Hannibal, but it's a relaxing, mildly stimulating way to spend an hour. I gave up on Bones and Castle because they just settled into this comfortable pattern of utter banality and I can see Sherlock moving ineluctably in the same direction, but…

Just seen the episode, so I now understand this activity, apart from being a Learning Experience for over-protective Moms.
It's actually kind of a relief; previously I could only imagine the sort of gross perversity one associates with Welsh hill farmers…

"…peaking through their fingers"

Nope; she should have dressed up as Nurse Chapel and brought him plomeek soup to, "help him through his Pon Farr." Then we'd see some sparks.

I've also heard Patton Oswalt use it as a term of disapprobation in one of his stand up bits.I've also searched online, and got the same results as MBDW. It might be a genuine neologism, or perhaps it's just a bunch of famous types trying to screw with us as some kind of sociology experiment. Like; see how long we all…

If she really was "waiving" the champagne, then she wasn't drinking it, was she?

Leslie Mann is the one on the left, yes? The one who looks like a human and not something built in a lab to work as a "hostess" in military clubs in the Outer Colonies?

I think it would be Fafhrd and the Grey (gray?) Mouser, from Fritz Leiber's wonderful fantasy stories. We could do a pub crawl of Lankhmar's drinking establishments, starting at the Silver Eel.

I like this show, and I always enjoy reading Todd's reviews ; possibly because they imply my own (apparently) simple-minded pleasure at watching the show is actually more thoughtful than it might appear.

Yeah; I don't know much about Irish accents, but that sounded a lot like "generic Northern Irish accent "- like a bad comedian from the 'seventies impersonating the Rev. Ian Paisley, than an actual regional accent.
Mind you, Alistair's "Yorkshire" accent in the "previously" was pretty fucking dire as well. Sounded…

Really? I would have gone with, "It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

I'm with Diane; I like me some dark chocolate. 80% cocoa is best- before that it's too sweet, after it gets all crumbly and bleagh. Plus, I read somewhere that high cacao chocolate has those anti-intoxicant whaddayacallits, so it's like, practically a health food.

Maybe not…
I have a little crush on Saffron Burrows, especially when she's wearing severe glasses and counterpointing that with crimson streaks in her hair, so that could be wishful thinking on my part.

So they figured out how to make ol' Blandly McSquarejaw interesting: you turn him into a villain. Or did they?
They were awfully twisty with the reveals : maybe Agent Hand and her cohorts have been shot with icers so that Blandly can gain the trust of Garrett for, y'know, some as yet undisclosed reason. I think this…

The three women, Lisa, Aunt Tracy and Grandma singing "Jump" become avatars of Hecate ; the eternal woman, the Maternal Principle : Virgin, Mother and Crone, which lends a profound spiritual dimension to the whole thing.

Going to boast a little bit, here: I met her at a screening of Much Ado. She is lovely; friendly, smart, funny and just gorgeous.
I was smitten anyway, but now I'm more smote.(?)