Pyralis

Insert obligatory whine about PBS cuts. The thing I'm most ticked off about is that they ruined the Bright backstory that started in last season's ICARUS when Morse finds out about Dulcie Bright who died as a child in India. The revelation of that circumstance throws a different light on the whole Bright marriage as glimpsed from his comments, One of the cut scenes occurs when he's home after the collapse - he's pouring himself a drink and Mrs. Bright calls out "Dulcie". He lets her know that he's the one there and she asks why he wasn't there when she died. "I was upcountry. I came as soon as word reached me." It's an entire tragic relationship in a one minute scene.

this is why I hate the PBS cuts - yes it is explained why Paige was killed. When I watch tonight (in parallel with my saved ITV version) I'll be cursing at what was left out.

Short version - in the Bright-Mrs. Bright scene (the cut bits) she mentions that she saw Julian Fitzalan while she was in London. The follow-on is him dialing the phone. Then the scene with DeBryn where Bright asks about getting a second opinion and DeBryn suggesting Fitzalan "no better man in England" - upon which you have Anton Lesser acting the hell out of how devastating this is- and saying that this is who his wife is seeing. DeBryn offers that "he's not infallible" and asks about the diagnosis - which is terminal and rapid. Bright asks what he should do now and then response is make the most of the time they have left. It's two people playing it perfectly without the need for excessive dialogue. and I won't even go into how they butchered the Morse-Strange scene when the latter comes looking for his about the latest heroin death.

It's made harder to follow by PBS cutting at least 15 min. from each episode. Usually connecting and character scenes.

It's the third part of the scene where Max tells Morse about the child's injuries - where Morse starts to put together the actual events- and it end with the HEAVY FORESHADOWING of futureMorse Morse And what do you think happened to her. Max I think if I spent my days in contemplation of such questions, I would drink rather more than I do. edit - no the three part scene was completely cut. I hate that PBS does that as it makes understanding certain events more difficult. If they had left those cut scenes in - including the Strange ones - certain actions by the characters are more comprehensible.

Oh PBS, why must you cut? Bright's PSA from the beginning, a couple of Strange scenes and the whole "garden" scene.

Apollo While I found the case serious enough, I couldn't help cracking up at the Gerry & Sylvia Anderson "homage/rip off" and when the reference was made to the one puppet character who couldn't speak - clearly Marina from Stingray - I nearly died. I'm old enough to have watched Stingray, Fireball XL5 and the original Thunderbirds. Yes, Morse has a room where a lot of the single men live - for Peter Grant fans, it's how Peter was living until he was seconded to The Folly.

Paging Diana Mitford. And Roger Allam in the white tie &.., mmmmm

I loved Morse and Strange flatsharing and does Morse seem to be spending some of his increased salary on clothes. Drive-by Lewis ref - the kid Alec Pickman. His father explains a lot more about him.

Wow, I'm three hours west down the 401 and we're not getting that.

In a skipping between channels double-bill, I'm watching this on TCM and the Muppet Christmas Carol on Spark - my two favourite versions.

I have no clue what was going on tonight, but it wasn't "teenage-angst". Can anyone diagram the whole Penguin-Sofia-3 Amigas thing, cause I've got nothing.

Joe said - Yes, a thousand times. But I will also probably watch at least a couple of episodes.

All I could think when I saw both uniforms was "It's the battle of the poison tree frogs". I know I've seen those identical colours and markings in NatGeo pictures.

I practically slept through the Jim scenes. And spent too much thought on trying to figure out whether the guy who saved Ra's was using stirrups (I can't help it, it's my pedantry when it comes to tack in historical scenes). Watching DM go from Bruce's normal serious mien to embracing Alfred's suggestion of "Masks" and then back again with bonus looks at Alfred "am I doing this right?" was delightful to watch.