The Week in Entertainment

Film: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I: well, I'll reserve final judgement till I see part 2. But it's pretty faithful, meaning there are a lot of characters who get one scene, and also the whole Harry-and-Hermione-wander-the-country is there. (I read a reviewer, maybe in the Post?, who complained that the movies could have been made into one long movie, especially if all that "filler" was cut; made me wonder had he read the book, since it's much longer and "fillery" there!) I didn't care for the darkness - not tone but actual lighting - nor the jumpy strobe-light editing of so many scenes. It will probably play better as part of the whole thing, though. On the other hand Tangled was a total delight - well-written and -acted, good songs, engaging and humorous story, emotional highs and lows, and jaw-droppingly, astonishingly beautiful. Do yourself a favor: don't miss this one.

TV: Modern Family's Thanksgiving episode had me laughing out loud, especially at the end when Jay's being wheeled into surgery. The Middle was (as usual) more uneven, but had its moments ("I don't want to be a bother"). The Great Performances broadcast of the Steven Sondheim birthday concert was brilliant, even chopped up with pledge breaks (can't wait to see the whole thing on DVR when I can skip them). Elaine Stritch brought down the house, but all the performers were terrific - and the material of course was wonderful. Also The Mentalist - nicely done - and Psych, quite funny. (Ummm, yes, I do now have several eps of No Ordinary Family and House on DVR waiting for me to feel like watching them...)

Read: Chernyy Spisok (Black List) by Aleksandra Marinina, a well-written (of course) detektiv. I love that kniga.com sells books in Russian for the Kindle! The Machine of Death (Matthew Bernardo, David Malki, Ryan North et al's collaboration) - some of the stories were weaker than others, but overall a wonderful collection and some of them were brilliant (my favorites are "Almond", "Nothing", "While Trying to Save Another", and "Flaming Marshmallow".)