"ganews"? Do you mean goniffs, by any chance?

Toobin has been writing fabulous in-depth reports and pieces for the New Yorker for a very long time. I doubt that people who don't read the New Yorker or listen to NPR (Fresh Air) would know who he was, though. Not even after his OJ book, probably. This series will make him better known.

This *is* Mike's spinoff.

A coup de gras would be a stroke of fat, and probably understood as a typo for coupe de gras, which would be a cup of fat. You mean a coupe de grace. (And you pronounce the last word like the English "grahss", while the French "gras" has a silent s at the end, so "grah".)

It might have been a transcription for oboe. Hautbois is French for oboe.

Go watch Orphan Black back seasons.

There's a lot of that. I just leave captions on except for shows that are visually stunning and would be marred by them. This is not one of those shows. Captions on.

t stopped them from reporting it to the police, which one of them was just about to do.

The antiquarian for whom Felix took the books on consignment was killed. But, right, did she say something about the owner who died at 96 having no will, so "the bank" wanted to sell them off to "pay taxes". Or am I confusing this with some other show I may have watched? I wonder how the bank would have felt if Felix…

The coins will come back when they're winding up the last season, whenever that is. Not before.

Odenkirk doesn't write the scripts.

He's a freelance, not an employee. They made a big deal of that this episode. As a freelance, it's not inappropriate for Alicia to get together with him, apparently. They both gave a knowing smile when "freelance" came up.

Only when they wrap up the series, at the end.

Well, then there's the "Hexen" part. Other Wesen beasts aren't witches.

That in itself would make it ineligible as the model for Downton Abbey, since Lord Grantham has got to be one of the least influential peers of the realm. Anyway, Castle Howard was used for Brideshead Revisited (BBC series). Fellowes would never want to draw comparisons as to how much more feeble and derivative is his…

That is the most likely explanation: they got the tickets last minute and couldn't manage side-by-side seats. It happens all the time.

Joan of Bark.

Does anyone have any idea what the critic actually means here by "anthology series"? I can't figure it out. Is this like True Detective, where each season is like a separate mini-series? Or what? Like The Wire where a few core characters remained the same but each season had a different story and focus?

Do you mean awards? Or what?

I was really, really waiting for someone to say wryly as Chamberlain was leaving: "peace with honour" but sadly, it was not to be.