Is this article the same as his reflections on working with Williamson in Don't Get Too Comfortable?  Worth reading for the Williamson story alone, by the way.  Dude was nuts.

Easy.  Both of them are both possessive and plural.  Teachers' strike, farmers' market.  Hence my excitement at seeing a sign for the "farmers' market" in the otherwise shitty town of Middletown, Connecticut.

I saw two great productions of The Winter's Tale in New York: one with Simon Russell Beale at BAM and one during Shakespeare in the Park.  When they get it right, they really get it right.

But what about the United 93 people?

Yeah, that's not at all what happened.  Prideaux, the guy shot in Budapest, admitted to giving up information on his team under torture.  Bill Haydon got him repatriated (in either the movie or the miniseries, when Smiley's questioning him, he says something along the lines of "I got him back, didn't I?").  He wasn't…

No love for John Hurt in Tinker Tailor?  I thought he was both hilarious and heartbreaking in a role that I've only seen played as very dour.

@avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus I completely agree about the lack of insight into the different potential moles.  In particular, I thought they really shortchanged Roy Bland, who in the books and miniseries is the only one with a working-class background and abandons Smiley to further his own career. …

Apropos of nothing: I could not for the life of me figure out why they insisted on pronouncing Toby Esterhase's name as "Esterhouse," when in the miniseries of both Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People it was consistently pronounced "Esterhazey."  It was infuriating.  Le Carre was involved with both productions—why…

I think @avclub-50cdf52b4612bd5b419e775ddfc08314:disqus's point is that it's not exactly OK to insult both Beyonce and the developmentally disabled purely for your own amusement.

The problem is that singling out one particular sect seems gratuitously insulting to its members and simultaneously implies that the problem is just that one sect rather than hyperreligiosity in and of itself.

I'm the most areligious person alive but even I think it's stupid to characterize Twilight as something Mormon.  It's a product of conservative American religiosity.  There's nothing explicitly Mormon about it.  If the author were a Methodist, we wouldn't be referring specifically to any balkanized ecclesiastical…

I think it's underrated.  It's much darker than people give it credit for and a lot of directors unfortunately don't pick up on that.

I never thought it was that creepy.  She refers to him as "my ex-stepbrother."

Are we talking about Edith or Sybil?  Edith's the middle daughter and the one who was attached to the burn-man (and the one I thought was most underused).  Sybil's the younger political one who hangs out with the chauffeur.

I think it was much weaker but no less enjoyable.  And I want to reiterate that the Christmas special completely makes up for any (admittedly justified) complaints about the second season.

Wait.  Edith's not coming back?  Seriously?  I actually sort of like her!

But the plot is just so…ridiculous.  The wheelchair leap, the con artist who claimed that he developed an amnesia-induced Canadian accent, the incessant relationship exposition…

Actually, though.  This must happen.  There must be somebody out there who is cleverer than I am and can make this happen.

I keep meaning to get into the more recent Doctor Who and got an hour into the first David Tennant Christmas special—does it get better?  The robot/aliens were a little…much for me.

Serious question: Why is Thatcher to blame for Bobby Sands?  All I know about him is a cursory glance at his Wikipedia page after reading reviews of Shame, but if he was imprisoned as a member of the IRA, which was a very nasty group, and decided to kill himself, what does that have to do with Thatcher?  I don't like…