I have to admit the "Afternoon Delight" prank/torture scene is a comedic moment that I've remembered fondly for years and years. Despite a friend actually doing something like that to me with "Party Man."

And then, something miraculous happened: The executives at Fox hired Tim Minear to salvage the project. Minear worked his way up the TV ladder as a writer on various shows until he made his mark on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Angel. From there he executive produced the critically-lauded Firefly in 2002 before creating Wonderfalls last year. How good is Minear? It would not be rash to consider him one of the five best minds in television.

Aww man. They got that he didn't work on Buffy, but he wasn't a creator of Wonderfalls. They brought him in as showrunner after it was already together.

He still wrote one of the, for my money, best episodes of that entire series.

Awesome performance aside, my favorite part about that guy is that he directed PCU.

heh. i love that movie. "this penis party's got to go. hey hey! ho ho!"

One of my all time favorites!

"We will not pro-test!" "We Will not pro-test!"

"Gutter is a tool" "Gutter is a tool"

he made his mark on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Angel.

This is why people think that he worked on Buffy, it should be "made his mark on Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off."

Maybe Strong kept the hair to remind himself that he was heterosexual. His hatred of Brandt became twisted up with sex, He wanted to rape Brandt, but it was about the power, not the sex.

I very much disagree. I think Strong was gay, self-hating, and hated his attraction to Brandt so much that he became obsessed with him. Blamed Brandt for that attraction. I think the rapes were a sick way of fucking Brandt, being inside the place he was just inside. These rapes weren't about power at all, I don't think. Not in the sense of the typical rape mentality of exerting power over women and treating them like holes to be used.

This was about being close to Brandt. I don't know why he kept the hair aside from it being useful to the plot. Cutting it was to make the victims more Brandt-like. Spraying cologne on them to make them smell like him.

I think these rapes were really about the sex, about him using these women as a surrogate for Brandt.

I very much disagree. I think Strong was gay, self-hating, and hated his attraction to Brandt so much that he became obsessed with him. Blamed Brandt for that attraction. I think the rapes were a sick way of fucking Brandt, being inside the place he was just inside. These rapes weren't about power at all, I don't think. Not in the sense of the typical rape mentality of exerting power over women and treating them like holes to be used.

I agree that it was not at all about the women and all about Brandt, but I don't agree that it was homosexual attraction turned to obsession.

Strong believed that a smug asshole (which Brandt was) got away with rape. In Strong's mind this guy could get away with anything, probably if he believed that Brandt had talked the victim into recanting, because of his money, charm and looks. Much like he probably believed his father got away with rape because of money, charm and good looks.

So, he's revolted that this guy could get away with such a crime, but probably also drawn to the power he associated with the money, charm and good looks.

He rapes a few women and gets off on the power, begins to think he's worthy to take on Brandt. Obsesses over it. Rapes and murders the women Brandt has been with. I'll grant that he was cutting their hair and putting his cologne on them to turn them into him, but not because of an initial attraction, but because it was his warm-up to taking power from Brandt. But more on cutting the hair in a moment.

This was about being close to Brandt. I don't know why he kept the hair aside from it being useful to the plot. Cutting it was to make the victims more Brandt-like. Spraying cologne on them to make them smell like him.

I actually have a slightly different take on the hair cutting. Yes, he was using these women as a Brandt surrogate, but cutting the hair was not only about making them man-like. It was also about taking power, a sort of castration. Think Samson and Delilah. In that context, keeping it makes perfect sense.

I think these rapes were really about the sex, about him using these women as a surrogate for Brandt.

I think it was initially about the power Brandt had that Strong saw manifested in sex.

Hafta say Allyson's take is mine as well, all the way down the line.

Harrington says he also read Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia," based on a famous Los Angeles murder case.

Beg to report: anybody who read that book got a much better idea of James Ellroy's fetish for pairing off L.A. cops* ** than of anything to do with deranged crime.

I mean, unless you consider James Ellroy to be committing deranged crime every time he puts fingers to keyboard, a theory I can get behind.

* All cops have a dark twin, if only they could find each other, preferably in the boxing ring, with attendant contrasting nicknames.

** Ellroy can't quite bring himself to pair these cops off in the explicit sense, and usually punishes one of the twain with death or dismemberment in the denouement. Still and all, I am regularly shocked that he is not slashed on the internet like a Zorro emblem.