I'm impressed by your optimism. Once Citizens United shredded what little restraint there was on vote selling, I think the score moved out of reach.

It's interesting to watch an underplaying Shatner routinely bring subtlety and quiet to especially the first season of Star Trek ("Balance of Terror" is a particularly good example). I was reading Cushman's book, These Are the Voyages, and apparently Shatner's occasionally desperate overacting in the series' second…

I found the torn up flap the camera moves over to include at the finish much too reassuring. I think the episode would be better if the damage was negligible. Or imagine if he's carried off on a stretcher without either the last shot or the comforting closing narration.

As many as a dozen?

You're very right. I also recall seeing the ep as a kid within a decade after its first run and loving the shock of seeing things frozen while someone walked around in the frame. It quickly became the stock stuff of tv but for a little while the unfamiliarity—which has returned on occasion as fx take another step…

Um. Easily over half the last 30 sf shorts I watched on youtube over the course of a few days had better editing than this. Other than the shot up through the manhole cover there isn't an interesting shot in the clip. What's the excitement about?

Thanks! I'll check out the episode later today. I try to balance my enjoyment of sitcoms with more serious stuff, so I'm working my way through everything I haven't seen on BFI's best all time 100 films polls. Currently at Man With a Movie Camera. Fascinating stuff.

Oh. Didn't realize it was you. How's life?

What season was the musical episode? I'll bet they do it right.

I like Rowdy. I actually looked up Dr. Acula in the cast list on imdb before going ah-HA! (haven't seen anything of the last five seasons).

It's so great the way he only has to come up with half as much material as anyone else.

Isn't Scrubs nothing but running gags?

7 for 7, so far.

Actually dealt with fairly cleverly in the film.

Well said. One of the best summaries I've read of his strengths and weaknesses. I agree especially wrt that last. I recall thinking one splendid summer afternoon long ago—I would have been in my teens and beginning to figure out good writing as opposed to gripping storytelling—as I was wading through the even longer…

Dancing, getting a haircut, having a drink, coming across an actual town, people playing music; there's even joking around about killing, though the lattermost is not what I had in mind. It's far from unrelentingly grim.

On the other hand, they might by accident stumble onto a showrunner who is a coherent storyteller for more than one episode. It could happen. Maybe.

Yeah, that's what this show needs. An already paper thin character as source material.

You don't want to take 'most shows' as your baseline, though. You want to use 'shows that were ratings juggernauts after four years while having zero competition in their genres.'

Wow.