The Week in Entertainment

Film: The Darjeeling Limited- I have yet to be disappointed by Wes Anderson, and this movie is no different. His stylized, melancholy but funny road trip is metaphoric and real and beyond real. The cast is excellent (look for the great Irfan Khan in a virtually lineless but important role) and the writing brilliant. But it's fair to say that if you haven't liked Anderson before, this film is probably not going to be the one to change your mind.

DVD: 9 Рота (9 Rota, Company 9), a Russian film about their Afghan war. I read an appreciation of it in a Ukrainian paper last year and finally found the movie. Fyodor Bondarchuk follows in his father's footsteps, and rather impressively; there's nothing particularly new or unpredictable here - particularly if you've seen the post-war Vietnam moves like Full Metal Jacket or Platoon, but somehow that predictability itself lifts the film to a new level. The war is different, the lecture on Islam and Afghanistan startlingly clear-eyed (and relevant to today's debacles), and the film is beautifully crafted and shot.

TV: House:Well, the reality-show competition isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm curious as to why Chase came back to PPTH to work (maybe he never did have a job at the Mayo Clinic - Wilson has been a bundle of deception so far), but I honestly could have done without Cameron. I like #69. I also like #26, but that's the actor more than the character, I think (Carmen Argenziano, a talented guy). Heroes: Interesting developments. I still don't care about Matt. Dr Who: What a satisfying end to the season. The Doctor alone again, so alone ... the Master's funeral was a powerful scene. Torchwood: Sucks to be Jack sometimes and this week showcased that. Good, strong episode. Pushing Daisies: This is a very promising beginning; stylized (yes, I like that if it's well done) and amusing (in the mystery-romp fashion; the stylizing helps), and setting up a nice premise.

Read: Got derailed from Ibragimbekov by the arrival of Terry Pratchett's newest, Making Money. It's no Night Watch, Jingo, Lords and Ladies, or even Thud, but weak Pterry is still well worth reading. And then I found I'd left Ibragimbekov at the office, so ... Glass on the Stairs, another comic mystery, and Last Rituals, a much-hyped - and deservedly so - debut mystery by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir; it's set in Iceland (duh) and is very culture-bound. Also I'm reading Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf (thoughtfully the publisher has given it to us in a pony, which is so much more convenient than two volumes at once).