The Week in Entertainment

DVD: Some of The Murdoch Mysteries. It's still cute how Murdoch almost invents things, and George almost names them (a "simile machine", or "paint by numerical values") and you have to laugh when things like this happen: Brackinread: "I still can't believe such a detailed model was built by an imbecile." George (gasps): "Oo, sir, I believe people such as Lydia are no longer referred to as 'imbecile'. It's felt to be demeaning. The correct term nowadays is 'moron.'"

TV: Watched what was on my DVR of the new season of Perception. I'm not crazy about how the FBI agent sneaks around on people's civil rights - it's the whole "we're putting a bad guy away" rationale that's used to justify warrantless wiretaps and (what she does) threatening to "pin it on" a woman's son to make her agree not to get a lawyer (and since both woman and son were innocent and proved so, we're supposed to just laugh it off). I do like Eric McCormack's performance, though, though he can annoy me (fat people should just eat less!). And I'm glad his ex-shrink called off the romance because it wasn't good for either of them. My biggest quibble with the premise remains, though: he too often gets one of his psych(o) visions/episodes before he should (the biker telling him that people don't change was the clue to why the brother acted the way he did - but why was the biker there before Daniel even knew the biker was dead?) Futurama - these were better - especially "Assie Come Home". The last Endeavour, maintaining the level. I loved the way Shaun Evans delivered the line "Hast seen the white whale?", and even more the way he handled Thursday's obviously never having heard it. Also, the first episode of Broadchurch, which opens very strong. David Tennant, of course, but also Arthur Darville!

Read: The Hen of the Baskervilles, which (except for the strained set-up for the title) was another solid, very entertaining entry. Aberystwyth, Mon Amour and the sequel Last Tango in Aberystwyth, which are funny noir-take-offs that have me waiting for the next ones to arrive from the UK with eager anticipation. Their close-but-not-quite alternate Wales is great; I particularly like the Patagonian War and the way the druids run things; also, that our hero's main enemy is his old gym (games) teacher is priceless. Codex Born, in the Magic ex Libris series, which is pretty good - I like the exploration of Lina's nature.