Milburn Stone

Thanks for the tip, @EtheltoTillie. I fell out of the habit of DVR'ing Noir Alley; hope this movie is on the Watch TCM app.

She was really good, wasn't she? She reminded me of a funny TikTok content creator who goes by the name of Stasi. (No idea what Stasi's real name is.) Of the many deliberately Columbo-like elements of this show, one that I enjoy is how the perps always make the mistake of offering up alternate theories. Nothing is more of a "tell" in these two shows than offering up alternate theories! The innocent characters never do that, they just say "Huh, that's a real puzzler" and leave it at that. They don't try to "help." One thing this episode made me realize is how much I enjoy the speed at which this show moves. It's over before I know it. For some reason I don't even mind the implausibilities (e.g. oblivious cart woman) and loose ends. The characters are well-drawn and the show is light breezy fun. I hope it's doing well in the ratings and will keep going.

This is terrible news! Because Mrs. Stone likes the show, and that means I'll have to watch it. 😂

It was also the only thing I knew about the movie, so when I watched the beginning of it on a previous airing, I couldn't make sense of it. I needed a movie that matched that magnificent, melancholy, morose music!

My opinion based on the first two is that trying to connect it to Endeavour will be in vain. (Except for the Oxford scenery.) I enjoyed these episodes on their own terms, though.

Believe it or not, just starting Morse now! As a result of seeing Endeavour, which was incredible. Not quite as character-driven as its prequel, but the mysteries are pretty interesting, based on the first two of Series 1 that I've seen. And I love how smart Morse is. (Which is consistent with the prequel.)

Thought this episode was a big improvement over the previous one. The villain was better-written, with quite a bit of wit, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson gave a great comedic performance. The satire on "reality" TV was good (even though not the first time that's ever been done, I'm sure), and the murderer was sufficiently heinous (and the murderee sufficiently undeserving of getting killed) that I actually gave a damn that he get caught. And Elsbeth was sufficiently un-ridiculous.

After giving up on the show in Episode 5, we watched Episode 6 anyway, and actually liked it. Some things were funny, and like you said, @Cineaste, the scenes between Linda and Skeet were moving, absorbing, and (surprising for this show) believable. Felt the same to some extent in the scene between Evelyn and Skeet. And every scene Evelyn was in. And the scene where Maxine confesses all to Ann. Douglas continues to be too stupid to live, and I find the whole performance by the actor annoying. (There's a fine line between me understanding the character is supposed to be annoying and me just not wanting to see the character on my screen and almost feeling insulted as a viewer by him.) As for Ann not being impressed by Maxine's lies, my guess is that's because she knows everybody in Palm Springs is a phony. (Except Skeet.) (BTW, I had to consult Google to know the names of the characters while typing this. With most shows I can retain that information! For some reason not with this show.)

Indeed. There's a fine line between doing an "homage" and shamelessly riding the coattails of another show's popularity. I got more vibes of the latter in this case. Elsbeth seemed less extreme to me in this episode but the murder mystery, and the villain, were far less interesting than in the pilot.

In an essay by the 19th Century English novelist Anthony Trollope, he posits that fiction is the most moral of literary categories, and that in fact every novel is driven at its core by morality. The novelist wants his/her readers to feel something, and that something is invariably driven, at least implicitly, by "who Is behaving badly, who is not behaving badly, what circumstances are awful, what circumstances are less awful," etc. Even "amoral" novels with amoral protagonists--which Trollope couldn't imagine--are moral, in that they suggest a common morality that the protagonist doesn't live by.

I loved this episode!! And what's more, I loved Kristen Wiig more than I ever have. in my entire life! She really is a treasure, when not being used and re-used in done-to-death character sketches.

We just couldn't with this episode. Pretty sure we're done.

Aha. So this falls into the category of "words that are too small and on the screen too short a time to read even on a 43-inch high-def TV."

No, but you may soon be. Wait, what? I missed that. What told us that?

The movie is not doing well. (Per Box Office Mojo.)

I expected to like the movie, and instead loved it. Far more substantial and innovative than I expected it to be. And the comedy parts made me laugh out loud, which I practically never do from movies or tv shows, even when I find them amusing. I haven't seen Oppenheimer, but I highly doubt Cillian Murphy's performance could have been more Oscar-worthy than Jeffrey Wright's.

I love that Sinatra opening, with its wide wide lens putting him so far away at the start--don't think there's an analog for it anywhere else in filmdom. Had to be a Charles Walter inspiration. (But maybe you have to be a Sinatraphile to love it as much as I do.) Finally finished Forever Amber last night. I continued to find it fascinating, and I really can't separate my feeling from the David Raksin score. (I wish autocorrect would stop auto"correcting" the spelling of his name.) That is, if you took the score away and replaced it with some journeyman effort by someone, I might find the same movie ridiculous instead of liking it a lot. But all I can react to is the movie as produced, and with that score, it works for me. The only thing that truly bothered me was the abruptness of the ending. I won't make this post longer by describing it, but it doesn't feel like an ending. It made me almost positive there must have been something that ended up on the cutting room floor, or got excised by the Production Code, or something.

I agree. I don't blame her (although I hate her). NBC asked for this.

I missed this announcement! Is a U.S. airdate known?

I thought from the scene with Gabrielle in the woods that Eddie and Susie now jointly recognize Johnston as the big bad guy. So why, after that, does Susie think Eddie is in bed with Johnston?

Especially as Eddie's aristocratic girlfriend literally warns him that Johnston is a really bad person, or however she put it.

My new reason for watching this show is Allison Janney. I love her subtle facial expressions that say everything. If there's any reason to classify this show as a comedy, it's her. (And only her.)

I've had to readjust my expectations of the show, which doesn't mean I've given up on it. Meaning, I've had to decide the show isn't a comedy! (Because it's not funny.) If I look at the show as a drama with the occasional mildly amusing moment, I like it better.

Has anyone else had trouble streaming this? We get a dialog box from Apple (when viewing on our Apple TV) saying that it's not possible to stream at the current moment. Like, what I'd expect if Apple's server were completely overloaded because everybody in the known universe was trying to access the show at the same time.

I've been making my way through Forever Amber, a half hour at a time between other stuff. Of course I've always loved David Raksin's score, but "received wisdom" (received by me at least) is that the movie is not that good. I don't know, I think it is! Holding me pretty enthralled at least. And I know they had to sanitize the novel for the movie, but it astonishes me that one thing the movie does not whitewash is Amber's unwed pregnancy by Bruce, and the happy couple's unabashed, public elation over the now-born little bastard! Of course there must be terrible consequences in the end, but I'm taken aback that Amber and Bruce are allowed even short-lived joy and freedom from shame about a child born out of wedlock in a 1947 Hollywood film.