Inquisitionist

As I noted above, it got better, and you might want to watch the rest of it at some point. Courtney Vance enters as Johnny Cochrane in Ep. 4, and the next two episodes, The Race Card and Marcia, Marcia, Marcia are outstanding. But overall, I think the quality was not as consistent as Fargo's.

Thinking about this some more: IMO, The People v. OJ had some serious flaws, starting with the serious miscasting of Cuba Gooding, Jr. as OJ. The first couple of episodes, with their Kardashian pandering, had me worried that the schlock factor was going to take over. The series recovered well and had some excellent scripts afterwards, but for me, S2 of Fargo was perfection from start to finish. It's a real shame that Patrick Wilson and Ted Danson did not receive nominations, and I'm sorry Fargo was so completely overshadowed by the OJ juggernaut.

I think I was always OK with crab, but I've curbed my urge to look in other people's kitchen cabinets. ;-)

I associate him with L.A. Confidential -- Hanson won an Oscar for the screenplay, and it's a doozy. RIP, Curtis.

I've watched it at least 5 times and I'm sure I'll watch it again.

I enjoyed The People v. OJ quite a bit, but S2 of Fargo is what I'll rewatch.

Bring it on! This certainly sounds plausible. :-)

Hurt's "fallow period" preceded Damages, didn't it? I've seen almost all his movies from the 1980s, but the only 1990s film I've seen was One True Thing, and that wasn't because of him. He seems to have made some odd choices, as this 1994 article documents.

What does it mean to be a "big movie star" these days? Who in Kline's age bracket (late 60s males) do you think currently qualifies?

Apparently, Crabapple Cove is a fictional town with a fictional accent. ;-)

The Long, Long Trailer was released in late 1953/early 1954, more than two years into I Love Lucy's TV run. Wasn't it just capitalizing on the kookie redhead persona she'd already established on TV? As to why she didn't become a bigger movie star in the 1930s and '40s, well, lots of talented beautiful young actresses didn't. What's different about Lucille Ball, IMO, is that she managed to parlay her talents into a long-running TV series, which her husband had the prescience to record, so we know more about her story than about those who simply melted into obscurity.

Good for Margo, but sheesh, seriously?

Saw it about 10 days ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. As others have noted, all three principal actors (Streep, Grant, Helberg) are very good and affecting, but so are many actors in smaller roles. (A bit of trivia: the actor playing FFJ's vocal coach, David Haig, has been in at least two other movies with Hugh Grant. He played Bernard, the groom at the 2nd wedding in FWaaF and he played the brother of Hugh's character in Two Weeks Notice. He was a minor hoot in FFJ.) I thought the film's tempo meandered a bit at times, but the balance between humor and affection was quite lovely. I'll watch again on the small screen, I'm sure. I haven't seen all of Grant's roles, but in none of those that I have seen (FWaaF, Notting Hill, Two Weeks Notice, Music and Lyrics, The Rewrite, Nine Months, About a Boy, American Dreamz, Bridget Jones, and a few others) has his character seemed inebriated.

Just watched The Place Beyond the Pines this weekend. Ben Mendelson has a sizeable supporting role, which is also a rather low-life character.

I only lasted for two or three episodes. Just found I wasn't laughing all that much. It quickly became more annoying than funny for me.

Kirstie Alley always looks like she's sneering.

That could be it. The photo Hugh Grant was shown (from the nose up only) certainly did not look like her, so I'm not surprised he didn't recognize her (or perhaps he feigned that for effect). But the HuffPo piece she allegedly wrote (maybe her publicist did) is a confused jumble. Notice that she doesn't ever deny plastic surgery. She writes: What would have been so hard about making a statement that she had medically necessary surgery on her eyelids? It may not be anybody's business, technically, but when you're a public figure who trades at least in part on appearance, stop being so outraged when people notice that appearance has changed in a way that's consistent with surgery.

Well, thanks, ChlcGirl. I can't unsee that now! Was she supposed to be a hooker who worked out of a tepee? Yeesh!

I've liked it all along. ;-)

There doesn't seem to be a media/news thread, so I'll post this here: SJP wishes Kim Catrall a happy 60th birthday.

No FFJ thread yet? I'm hoping to see this film in the next few weeks. It would be the first thing to get me into a movie theater this year. I remember Hugh Grant presenting an award to Meryl Streep at some program (maybe Golden Globes) years ago and how awestruck he looked meeting her. Since then I've hoped he would have a chance to work with her. From the clips I've seen, this seems to be a nuanced role for him and one that probably stretched him as an actor. The two of them seemed to be having a ball on Graham Norton's show a few months ago.

Ha-ha, first thing I did was Google "SNL McLaughlin Group." Followed, of course, by "The Sinatra Group."

Good thing this series wasn't a documentary. ;-)

For that BS finale, End. Gag me.

From what I recall, Romano and Rosenthal made Ray Barone a sports writer because they didn't want to make him a stand-up comic. But I doubt they were ever shooting for realism on the career front. Everything was more or less an excuse for the dynamic of being an adult with intrusive parents.