But you have to love the interplay between Varys, who loves no one, and Oberyn, who'll fuck anything with a pulse. They'd make for a fun buddy comedy.

*shrugs* I read the scene the same way Erik did. Tyrion's own words - chosen specifically for their cruelty - came back to haunt him. Just deserts. That's not the same as giving one's blessing to perjury and judicially-sanctioned murder, but Erik didn't say any of those things: you did. Others of us might have…

If you know you're likely to get a guilty verdict, "usually not a good choice" is better than "likely to be not a good choice", right?

This would make some sense. I like this interpretation.

Seriously, fuck anyone who thinks that.

If defendants can choose Trial By Combat, wouldn't every likely-to-be-found-guilty party always insist on it? Is there any disincentive, in cases you know you're going to lose otherwise? It seems hard to build a justice system with such an easy out (heck, why didn't Ned pick that, too? Couldn't have turned out any…

It's also my favorite adaptation of Dracula: more dream-like and disturbing even than Stoker's novel, and the few changes he makes (like the "tainted blood" obsession and more openly expressed sexual neuroses) work to its favor.

Saddest Music is also the only Maddin film that my husband and I quote regularly - much to the confusion of people around us - but it's so damned quotable.

Okay, y'all have convinced me to find it. Thanks!

"Heart of the World" is fine (and a great gateway), but I don't like it nearly as much as "My Dad is 100 Years Old", which I think is his best short by a considerable margin (although it's every bit as much Isabella Rossellini's short as his own).

Gawd, that rippling sheet effect is so great - who needs CGI when a sheet and a fan pack such a great visual punch?

I got to them in the most roundabout way possible: through Darnielle's collaboration with Aesop Rock, the exceptional "Coffee". (First time I heard it I thought, "Damn, that woman has a great voice!"

Yeah, it's a joke, but I thought it'd make for a funny bit of character backstory.

Ooh, what if the twist is that Malvo really is a small-town preacher who just happens to moonlight as a hit man?

Lessons from Barton Fink that would be relevant here: Some people just. don't. listen!

Pros: the acting is solid as ever, and I love the way Malvo is working both at the small scale (getting out of a tight spot) and on the grand scale (the plagues). That little hallway scene, that grin he gives when Grimley names him correctly, is just awesome (and chilling).

I love that they're using a deaf actor for that role, too, instead of just casting another abled actor. Harvard's a really good actor, too - he was great in his brief scene in There Will Be Blood.

Oh man, is there a more withering thing you can say about someone's career than "she wasn't even Justin Guarini"?

Lena Headey's eye-roll during that scene is Liz Lemon-levels of awesome.

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