Belgand

I really wish they wouldn't put the extra money into making it a backlit, learning remote. A basic remote (ok, backlighting is nice, but not always that necessary) is more than sufficient and the first TiVo remote was really excellent in this respect. Anyone like myself that isn't served by that and really wants to get more control over their system will spend the extra money and get a proper programmable learning remote instead. Any remote that comes with it is going to get a few minutes being used to program my universal and then go on to live in a drawer forever.

Frankly I'd rather save the extra money.

Really disliked it to the point that I didn't even bother to watch the whole thing. Personally the Clarence bits are the lowest point of the entire show. I typically fast forward past them because... well... being a dick by harassing people on the street and then snicking about it just isn't funny, it's petty and juvenile.

Glad to see her go. I really, really disliked her. In fact, aside from the (intentional) focus of having almost every first-series episode set on Earth (or a space station orbiting Earth) Billie was the thing I liked least about the current series. She too stupid, too whiny, too boring, and definitely too chav.

A good episode, but too easily predictable. I never once believed that Stacie was serious about going back with her ex and when she pulled out the wad of fake money it was obvious that this was just going to be a standard bait-and-switch with him somehow trading the real money for fake.

It only runs over an hour because it's a BBC series and AMC, unlike the BBC, has ads. I can see a movie working out rather well, but I'm also a bit doubtful.

An essential part of every con movie ever made is that there is always a twist in the end. If you don't have that twist there isn't any clash and the viewer is left cold. I mean, where's the fun in seeing a scheme come off perfectly? The person being conned is always really the viewer. Thus the best con films or shows always have a clever, logical twist that isn't predictable, but is something you could have reasonably figured out.

The problem with this is that I tend to be really good at figuring out the twists. The Sixth Sense gave itself away in the first few minutes (well, and the trailers that basically nullify the first half of the film), The Village I didn't even need to see since it was obvious from watching the trailers (and confirmed on release via the internet), The Sting was likewise very predictable and I found it very boring as a result. Other times it's a great twist. Fight Club was just about perfect in this respect and Memento (despite not really having a traditional twist) holds up to repeated viewings (and a brief freeze-frame that seals the deal) to finally figure out what really happened.

Hustle falls into the middle. Some of the episodes are easily figured out while others go off rather cunningly in plain sight. With a TV show though it's generally easier to spot the twist because there's less time for legitimate throwaways. Thus almost everything that seems inconsequential is likely to be relevant in the future. In a movie you have more time to stretch out and lay down some false leads thus giving you a way to fool the audience into accepting the con.

With a larger budget and more time it sounds like a sure winner.

Glad to see that My Name is Earl is staying on Thursdays. When it launched on Tuesday nights opposite House I wanted to see it, but I decided to stick with a known (if incredibly formulaic) thing rather than be stuck in a battle between two shows I wanted to watch. Since finding out it moved to Thursdays at some point I've been able to reap the bounty of re-runs and know I won't miss out next season. Normally a dead night for me (I only got into CSI last year and since the episodes have so little continuity I rarely care whether I'm watching a rerun or a new episode) Studio 60 would have been welcome on Thursdays. I have an interest in it, but if it goes against Prison Break I now I won't be making a switch. Hopefully it'll be against the incredibly terrible 24 (my girlfriend and I could barely finish season one) instead.

Right now those are the only two shows on the network that I have any interest in watching.

I find it a bit odd to find out that there was an uproar about this, but looking back I can understand it.

Personally I found it to be unexpected and there was definitely a moment where (more than usual even) I thought that these people are seriously fucked-up, but neither I nor my girlfriend were upset by it.

My take is that it started out as rape. She was trying to fight him off pretty seriously, but admittedly, it looked like she probably could have tried a bit harder. I basically put this down to it being a TV show and the fact that she's not going to risk hurting someone just to get the scene down. So she fought back, clearly didn't want it, he forces himself on her, she changes over to enjoying it, and in the end it becomes something new. Either a sign of the end of their relationship or a sign that there might still be a future (a disturbed, dysfunctional one, but that's to be expected). The fact that she never actuallly said "no" didn't even occur to me and seems completely unnecessary and extraneous. When she's kicking and screaming and has to be held down... well... that's pretty damn obviously a "no". Consider it a state of mind rather than solely a verbalization.

Personally I love it. The animated style is incredibly original and the humor is wonderfully dry and absurd.

I could be wrong on this one, but I'm willing to bet that the sort of person who likes this is the kind of person who doesn't like Robot Chicken (which I detest) and vice versa. One show relies on fast, random, puerile gags while the other tends to focus more on comedy that comes from the characters and the absurdity of their situations.

The more recent seasons of the Simpsons have unfortunately tended to focus far more heavily on plots that tend to be based on current events, and thus, likely to be heavily dated in a very short period of time. Sometihng I always liked about earlier seasons is that by and large they deal with timeless issues and while they might have some dated elements the themes hold up better long term.

Patience wasn't just the first half replayed. At the end of the rewind there was a fast-speed mini-episode to reward those patient enough to keep watching until the end. Thankfully due to TiVo I just fast-forwarded my way through slowing it down occasionally for the animated and other segments that were designed to work both forwards and backwards.

If you just didn't watch the second half, well, you proved them right.