I always thought Pete Holmes had a ridiculously punchable face. Your anecdote confirmed it.

Maybe his agent/manager said, "If you EVER want to work again, apologize again and better." Which makes this new apology feel, at best, disingenuous and cynical.

Nice!

Agree with this.

I thought this episode was shrill and disappointingly sitcom-y, after last week's gem. The whole Christmas-land thing - which I think we've all seen before - didn't work for me, nor did the Rent-a-Car lady who couldn't spell, or the discount Kristen Schaal elf lady. I still love this show, but this ep was probably the…

Barry's line that "only the cool kids get hazed" might have evoked a better reaction from me if the show didn't seem to want Adam to buy it. It was a nice moment, sure, but it didn't really ring true. That said, I enjoyed the heck out of the episode.

Thanks for doing such a great job with these each week, Will. It's always a pleasure to read your reviews, not least because they enrich the pleasure of the shows themselves.

Was MadTV "edgy"? Are you kidding me? Only if "edgy" is a synonym for consistently awful.

It's almost like she took that role in Magnolia because she wanted to out-crazy her role in Short Cuts, when she walks around naked from the waist down for ten minutes while ironing a shirt and conversing with the world's worst actor (Matthew Modine). As Seth Rogen quipped in Knocked Up, "Short Cuts was the wrong name…

He's a great young actor. His facial expressions are golden, and his delivery is just as good. The girl is fantastic too but for different reasons - she plays it mostly straight (the rational, smart, non-goofy child) and as a result their dynamic (like an old-school comedy team) is a lot of fun.

"Over the top Julianne Moore is the best Julianne Moore." I tend to agree, which is why I find her scenes in Magnolia simultaneously hilarious and weirdly brazen.

Best episode since the second one, and by a long shot. Pretty terrific, actually, even though I could have lived without Vanessa's sneaky finger, but that's just me. I like how the show tries to push the envelope, and you're right, these characters do feel like we've known them for years. That's no small achievement…

I tried to watch Cop Out once on a long-distance flight. Beyond awful. I lasted ten minutes.

I loved that movie when I was 18. I have a feeling, though, that if I rewatched it now, at 36, I would find it intolerably sophomoric.

Okay, well I can suggest two ways around that.

My bad.

No, the joke's not on you. Baranski is awesome - one of my all-time favorite actresses (Allison Janney is another). Any ethnic or religious group would be to happy to claim her as their own. And I just read this morning that she may get her own spin-off show from The Good Wife:

Is that really such a problem? "This is my dad, Doug." "Hi, Doug." "You have a lovely daughter, Doug."

Honestly, I could do without an episode featuring Sheldon's brother. The episode featuring Sheldon's sister was one of the least memorable of the (otherwise fantastic) second season.

And who will play her mom?