The second season of this has just finished airing here on BBC4, and no question whatsoever I'd rank it along with the 'best of the best' TV shows of recent times. The first series is excellent - a compelling, pacy thriller held together by the fascinating relationship that forms between the two main characters, It's…

Thanks Todd for the introduction to the show. I roughly managed to follow a week by week viewing schedule, although with the first two seasons ended up watching the last two episodes in one go. But I confess with the second half of season three it was a one night deal, as much as I tried to reign myself in and keep…

In season one I thought Nichols was too broad a stereotype. Everytime he shows up know I find myself smiling. That scene in the office was perfectly delivered.

Two episodes ago I thought Anna and Jerry were relatively disposable sub-characters. This episode made me do a 180 on that presumptuous call. What wonderful, beautiful television. Jerry's one night of glory and morning after may be one of television's single grandest mini-arcs, full of delightfully bittersweet…

Indeed I haven't seen the entire series, I'm trying to watch it at the same speed as these articles, so I can only comment on how I'm perceiving it with no knowledge of where it goes. Anna to me has thus far come across as mere comic relief for the most part, and I think the intern plot has given her more room to…

One of the things I'm loving about this show is how much it rewards viewer patience with worthwhile character payoffs, but at the same time I think it is frequently in danger of transforming into something too broad, as with the absolutely ridiculous Sanjay stuff this week. But that sort of content, with a handful of…

I found myself unreasonably disturbed by the parents' jovial reactions to the horrifically violent elementary school production of Macbeth.

They should use their seemingly infinite resources to persuade some of the fabled 'good' Simpsons writers to come back for a season.

How about Sion Sono's Himizu? Compared to Hollywood attempts to remove references to an event, Sono actually re-purposed his film (which was about to go into production) to directly reflect the aftermath of the March 2011 tsunami and earthquake, including scenes of characters walking through wreckage. It adds an extra…

A genuinely important director. His provocative, liberal approach to cinema makes his work stand out from a country's whose film industry was often quite conservative and traditional. There's a passion and anger to his early films particularly that I'm not sure many classic or contemporary directors can match, while…

Wait: why does that guy have an RPG?

Wait: why does that guy have an RPG?

I'd heard so much about Visitor Q, but when I watched it I found a surprisingly intelligent and satirical film that just happened to have bits that broke more or less every cinematic taboo. One of his better films, actually: certainly better than Happiness… or Western Django. Miike is a great director because he…

It's sort of like Festen meets Roland Emmerich, and is only occasionally as interesting as that sounds. Probably worth it for the opening and closing shots alone.

It's been out over here in Ireland for a few weeks, and I'm around halfway through book three (published in two separate volumes here - 1 & 2 together and then a smaller volume for 3).