The Week in Entertainment

Film: Kawasaki Rose - a lovely Czech film exploring the uneasy relationship of the new present with the authoritarian past, in the microcosm of one family, that of a prominent dissident who may have cooperated with the regime. The actors are brilliant, the cinematography gorgeous, the writing wonderful. Also You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which was quite entertaining.

DVD: Some episodes of an old TV series of Sherlock Holmes with Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford. It's interesting in that sometimes they take little bits from Doyle, but apparently all but 2 of the 39 episodes are original. Those 2 are "The Red-Headed League", very faithful - and "The Greek Interpreter", which became "The French Interpreter" (much easier to find French speakers, I'd have thought!) and acquired a happy ending!

TV: Yikes... my DVR didn't get The Mentalist last week! How annoying! Modern Family (Barn folk!) and The Middle, very good. House - I'm having my doubts about this season. Seriously. A third-year med student? That's ... just ridiculous. The third episode of Sherlock was fantastic - lots of wonderful allusions, a good tight plot, excellent character stuff, and aaiiieeeeee that ending. Damn, there'd better be a second series! Also, happy happy joy joy: Psych is back! Shawn: "This guy is loaded! What do you pay your Crown Prosecutors?" Macintosh: "Oh no, it's his wife. Her family are the waffle people." Shawn: "Gus, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Gus: "You know it. We have to try those waffles."

Read: Charles deLint's The Painted Boy, lovely. Also Detective Inspector Huss, by Helene Turlen. Hilda Wade by Grant Allen and The Malcolm Sage Mysteries by Herbert Jenkins.