MSU

The moment where the massive jobby comes out and pushes Randy into the air ... it's just perfect. I love the idea that someone said, "No ... it'd be better if we make him rotate." The attention to detail is what makes it, like in the Mr Hankey episode where Kyle picks a shit out of the bowl, holds it for a sec, and then the top half of it just flops over. These guys really know their shit, Literally.

Loved Boris Johnson in this week's episode and his pronunciation of "mem'bries." I know these long arc stories aren't everyone's sup of tea, but the way they've pieced this one together really is a bit of genius. It's like they knew the outcome of the election ahead of time. Kudos, Parker & Stone. Mostly Parker.

I've been listening to some podcasts that have planted the seed of it for me, but I didn't really believe it until he said he couldn't see the door. Then my missus piped up with, "Well, maybe he really couldn't see it. It's dark after all." She twigged at the same point you did. All of which reminded me of watching The Sixth Sense with my old mum. I'd already seen it, she hadn't. And so she sat through it all and didn't react at all at the end and then announced, "What, were we supposed to not know Bruce Willis was dead?"

I had the same fear -- the show asking two questions for every one question it answers -- but I think this week's revelation has made me less nervous, that the show isn't keeping all of its cards close to its chest. If this had been Lost, it probably wouldn't have been revealed until halfway through season three.

I feel the same way about the wee English p***k. The acting really is first rate throughout. Sidse Babett Knudsen in that last episode there was immense.

Episode 7 ... Holy shit!

Yeah, it wasn't great. Sheldon's dance and Amy's secret (if a little predictable) reaction raised a smile, and I guess it's nice that the writers are even trying to acknowledge that Raj is meant to be a more prominent character. I'm not sure how much I believe the relationship with the janny, but it's probably better than the time they tried to convince us he'd go out with a cute barmaid.

Saw Arrival tonight. There's one utterly honking line in it, right at the end, literally with seconds to go, that almost ruined it for me, but despite that I loved it. Amy Adams for the Oscar, likes.

Aye, that was the best bit for me. Quite clever and then Victor calls him chief right after it. I've smiled my way through most of the series. Not a huge amount of laughter but more than I had for that live show debacle from a couple of years back.

Yep -- loved that line too. Didn't spot Yul, but I noticed that the two techies are called Felix and Sylvester, ie cartoon cats, and one was obsessed with a bird.

I live in Michigan, which helps enormously. When I lived in Scotland I used to bit torrent it the day after transmission. It was a little uncomfortable watching it with my kids. My wee boy looked like he understood enough of what was going on to blush. Thankfully, he didn't have any questions. Not quite ready for the sex dungeon conversation just yet.

I'm loving the show. The atmosphere is incredible and it seems like there's hardly a single line of dialog that doesn't carry real weight. But with only 4 episodes left in the season, it's still more interested in asking questions than answering them, which is a little worrying. I hope it doesn't go the way of Lost (which I also enjoyed despite it being infuriating), where it was perfectly acceptable to spend a season going, what's in the hatch? what's in the hatch? what's in the hatch only for it turn out to be a Scottish bloke and then spend the next season going, well, how did he get there? and why is he punching in those numbers? Answering one question with two new questions gets a little boring after a while.

Coupla nice bits of Radiohead (Fake Plastic Trees and Motion Picture Soundtrack) in this week's episode. Plus, Thandie Newton is awesome. On the downside, Annoying English p***k is back.

A much better episode this week. The scene with the Klingon and Amy's made up language was great. Plus, Penny's tits.

How very fucking hell!

Agreed, but I also got goosebumps at the Hopkins scene with Dolores when she asked if they were very old friends, and he said no, he wouldn't describe like that at all. Bloody hell, that was good.

If anything, I'm left more convinced of the dual timeline theory.

Anthony Hopkins acts the f**k out of episode five. Ooft, sers.

Yeah, you're right. Good point.

I agree with an awful lot of this. I watched this last week's episode and when the missus asked what it was about a couple of days later, the best way I could describe it was "Raj and Stuart sneak into Howard's hot tub because they think he's out of town." Doesn't exactly sound like a sit-com firing on all cylinders. I'm all for character development but the ways in which the characters have developed has basically strangled out the type of comedy it used to be. Sheldon's quirks are dialed down, Leonard's more accepting of the remaining quirks and now has Penny so DGAF anyway, the writers haven't had a clue what to do with Raj for about five seasons, Howard's unrelenting skeeviness is a distant memory now that he's bagged Bernadette and is going to be a father, and Amy -- rather than being a female Sheldon -- is just one of the gals. Everything's become settled and there are no questions left now that Sheldon has pegged Amy. I mean, I guess they'll get married on the final episode or something, but all the little trials and desires these characters used to have are gone. There was an episode way back when the gang dress up as the Justice League of America and Penny's ex, Zack, joins them and it felt to me at that point that they needed Zack to be a recurring character to give the other guys someone to bounce off and cause a bit of friction with the ladies. And that was season four, FFS! Judging by the way CBS is fucking about with its day of the week -- used to be a Thursday, moved to Monday for the start of this season, now moved back to Thursday -- it looks like its days might be numbered anyway. Probably for the best, especially as <controversy>Silicon Valley is doing comedy about this type of people far funnier than BBT ever did.</controversy>

My thoughts on your hidden comments: Anyone given any thought to this theory doing the rounds?

Alan's new book -- Nomad -- came out yesterday. Listening to the audiobook just now at work and it's just as funny as We Need To Talk About Alan. Brilliant-coffee-down-the-nose stuff.

I just came a little bit.

Yeah, I remember that mission too.

I've been back on forth on this pretty much every time Ed Harris is on the screen. I'm not sure what the makers want us to think about him but because visually he's so like the Yul Brynner character, it's easy to assume that he's the baddie and although we're probably meant to think he's human. I wonder if he's actually the hero of the piece and a self-aware robot who has learned to become invincible and who thinks that finding the heart of the maze is how he escapes into the real world.