Digital Sextant

We finished watching “Death at the Bar” last night. A good installment, but without much that really stands out as excellent. This punnily-named episode tells the story of a lawyer murdered at a pub (double-play on bar. Get it? GET IT?), perhaps with a poisoned dart. A few thoughts: CID Alleyn’s assistant, Inspector Fox, scowls [… Read More]

Jenny and I watched disc one of this series a while ago, and just finished the second. Hustle follows a crew of con-men as they steal and lie their way across London. Cut from the same cloth as Ocean’s Eleven by the guy who wrote Spooks (called MI-5 in the U.S.), it’s a show with [… Read More]

To further cement my place in your heart as a big ol’ nerd, I’ve started watching another BBC mystery adaptation series. This time it’s Campion, starring Peter Davison. Look to the Lady is the first in the series, and was made in 1989. Davison and Brian Glover are a winning combination as the dashing, jaunty, [… Read More]

More of the same. I enjoyed it still, but didn’t get much sense of the troupe having evolved or moved forward. The series continues to revolve around the ideas of strange situations made surreal by their ordinary environs. If anything, the biggest difference this time around was in their willingness to push the joke past [… Read More]

I know most of you assume that I go in for costume dramas, but I’m not usually the first one on the couch when somebody says “6-hour Jane Austen adaptation.” But a couple things lured me into the beloved 1990s BBC adaptation: 1) I just read the Austen book and the Graham-Smith/Austen “adaptation,” 2) I [… Read More]

I happened upon this early Graham Lineman show after I Netflixed The IT Crowd, and was doubly persuaded when I saw that it featured Simon Pegg. Big Train continues the British tradition of sketch comedy, building on the Python tradition but feeling a bit more like Kids in the Hall, but without the returning characters. [… Read More]

By Douglas Adams; Narrated by a cast at the BBC I’ve heard that among fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, there has been a longstanding argument about whether the novel or the original BBC radio drama is the definitive version of the book. Frankly, I don’t care. That said, I enjoyed the BBC drama very much. [… Read More]

Why haven’t you watched this show yet? It’s amazing. Well, maybe not amazing, but really funny. It’s your standard Britcom, with a set location, a couple wacky characters, and hijinks galore. It reminds me a lot of Black Books, though I thought this show was more immediately funny (whereas Black Books is a slow-burn show). [… Read More]

I like the new doctor a lot.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first doctor on the new series, who seemed like a bit of a football hooligan, but the new doctor appeals to the nerd in me.  Jenny and I just finished watching the first disc of season two, and I enjoyed it [… Read More]