Welcome back, good sir.  Any good eats while you were there?  Any further insights on rewatching Swimming to Cambodia?

That was just fucking awesome. We can all agree that this is the best time in the entire history of the earth to be alive.

Most of the first episode just feels sloppy, like they're throwing a bunch of half-assed ideas and cliches together with no concern for plausibility or continuity (and they are), but it's the last five minutes that rocket it into true craziness.  It's not like it becomes more coherent, but that's when you see that…

I gotta go with Zero Hour; there was a recap on io9 (EDIT: got it! http://io9.com/5986173/zero… , and look in the comments for M. Scott Veach) where the reviewer asked the rhetorical question "didn't anybody in the writer's room realize how batshit this all is?" and one of the writers answered in the comments:  yes…

Justin Timberlake killed in this.  The Lady Wallflower described him perfectly as "arrogant, but not mean about it."  The movie belongs in the same category as Soderbergh's Traffic, Michael Mann's The Insider, George Miller's Lorenzo's Oil:  films that are potential Movie of the Week material that strong directors…

I suspect it's just that every statement from people in the entertainment business gets taken with a full salt shaker.  Soderbergh, though, strikes me as a) thoughtful, b) sincere, and c) a workaholic.  We'll see which one wins.

Especially since the only McXXXXs I can think of are McGeorge Bundy and Aaron Sorkin characters, and how well did they work out for the rest of us?

The reveal in that episode that WKRP had gone into sixth place and Dr. Johnny Fever was #1 in his time slot got an absolute, unironic cheer from the young me.  It was the first time I understood that characters could have a real presence in your life.

The problem is that he's completely forgettable.  Monica Rawling would be a better choice.

Thanks.  The focus on character and action is one of the reasons I have a hard time with the question "what is The Shield trying to say?"  It's a question that comes up a lot with The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, etc. (and it should, because those are shows that are clearly engaging in a conversation about issues),…

Oh hells yeah.  May death come quickly to his enemies.

(blackness)

Other game shows reward knowledge!  We punish ignorance!

We can hope.  I would be thrilled if this turns out well.  I would be even more thrilled if Ms. Alexander got to make another theatrical movie.  (Ideally a Bond movie with Gina Carano as the villain.)

We really do need to start a recovery group to help people ease themselves through the transition from The Shield and back into real life.  Just remember not to do it all at once.

Seriously.  She and Lexi Alexander have both wound up directing Lifetime movies, which is about as miserable a commentary on women directors in the film industry as I can imagine.

It's all great.  Take some time off and work your way through V. if you've been meaning to read it.  Keep cool but care.

I, for one, remain cautiously optimistic.

My Dark Places is the perfect Ellroy Gateway.  His tone is fully developed at that point, and it's a great story of his search for his mother's killer.  (Also, he hadn't developed his annoying "ooo I'm so fucking edgy" tendencies of his journalism and shorter fiction.)

Which again makes me wonder if this was a demanded episode and the writers (as we say on MST3K) just didn't care.